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Car Forum / Hyundai Cars / January 2006Headlight Alignment Problems on '06 Sonata
I took my week old Sonata GLX on a trip between Wilmington NC, and Fayetteville NC last Saturday. On the trip home, I constantly had people flashing me to turn down my headlights. They were. this past week, I had my wife drive it, and I approached here on a similar type of road. Blinding! My trip to the dealer today resulted in them telling me that "they looked a little high" according to the marks they have on the wall in their shop (somehow, I think that there's amore precise method of checking headlights)... Anyway, they adjusted them down - WAY DOWN! Now I can't see for s**t! See pix here http://n2qew.dyndns.org/Hyundai%20Headlight%20Pix/ that I took tonight. I put a standard 3 foot traffic cone at 35 and 70 feet on a dark road (the local cops were way down the road, and came flying up it to see what I was up to - what an explanation I had - taking pictures of crappy headlights! They probably thought it was too dumb sounding to be made up) As you can see, the choices with the headlights on an '06 Sonata are as follows: Blind oncoming traffic (yourself in the process 'cause of all the oncoming traffic flashing their high beams), or set them so you can't see 70 feet in front of the vehicle. > I took my week old Sonata GLX on a trip between Wilmington NC, and > Fayetteville NC last Saturday. On the trip home, I constantly had people [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > oncoming traffic flashing their high beams), or set them so you can't see 70 > feet in front of the vehicle. I had a couple of people flash me also the night I brought my 06 Sonata home. Since, I try to not dim the lights until the other driver can see me dim them. I thought mine were too high also, but on low beam I can't see all that far down the road. And with the sharp cut-off that modern headlights have, it is hard to see well when driving down a hill and then up another hill. At the bottom, you can't see more than a 100 feet ahead, if that. I don't like these sharp cut-off headlights. I also didn't realize that the Sonata had the push and pull dim lever like my old Accord had. I much prefer the ratchet switch my Chryslers and Chevys have. It is easy to remember to always pull the lever to change the state of the lights from hi to low or back again. With the bidirectional lever, you have to consciously remember which way to move the lever based on the current state of the lights. Simply a dumb design from a human factors perspective. I'm sure it makes for a simple and cheaper to make switch however... Matt > I took my week old Sonata GLX on a trip between Wilmington NC, and > Fayetteville NC last Saturday. On the trip home, I constantly had people [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > oncoming traffic flashing their high beams), or set them so you can't see 70 > feet in front of the vehicle. So Bob - why don't you simply adjust each headlight up one turn and try it, until you reach a point where they throw far enough for you and still don't blind on-coming traffic.  Signature-Mike- mmarlowREMOVE@alltel.net >> I took my week old Sonata GLX on a trip between Wilmington NC, and >> Fayetteville NC last Saturday. On the trip home, I constantly had people [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > don't > blind on-coming traffic. It may well come to that. Being the vehicle is brand new, I figured the best course of action would be to let the "experts" fix the problem. Turns out she - the tech. - had no clue. I brought it back this morning (saturday), and the lights were way low of the line on the wall. Their alighnment technique consists of parking the vehicle about 15 feet from a concrete block wall. The top of the hot spot is adjusted to the line between the third and fourth block from the floor. It remains to be seen if I'm blinding oncoming traffic again. > >> I took my week old Sonata GLX on a trip between Wilmington NC, and > >> Fayetteville NC last Saturday. On the trip home, I constantly had people [quoted text clipped - 36 lines] > third and fourth block from the floor. It remains to be seen if I'm blinding > oncoming traffic again. This is actually the time honored way of aiming headlights. Before the days of the device that attaches to the lens, this is how everyone did it. Some things can't really be improved upon. This is still the best way to align plow lights on trucks with snow plows. It's a simple as you can imagine and it's really a sad statement that the tech bungled the job the first time. Signature-Mike- mmarlowREMOVE@alltel.net I don't know where you're from Bob, but inspection stations in Maryland and Virginia are required to have headlight alignment machines. Most dealers in Maryland are also inspection stations. I don't know about Virginia, but I'd think that'd be the case to save expense and trouble. They even have to do inspections on brand new cars in Virginia. >I don't know where you're from Bob, but inspection stations in Maryland and > Virginia are required to have headlight alignment machines. Most dealers > in Maryland are also inspection stations. I don't know about Virginia, > but I'd think that'd be the case to save expense and trouble. They even > have to do inspections on brand new cars in Virginia. I'm in Wilmington, NC NC's procedures are here: http://www.ncdot.org/dmv/vehicle_services/emissioninspection/regulationsmanual/d ownload/CR435NCDOTEnforcement.pdf They don't appear to actually require the use of an aimer, but they need to use one, or a wall chart in order to fail a vehicle. |
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