Headlight Aimer, Thinking of Purchasing One Again.

[jzchen]

Happy New Year!!!

With recent strong rains here in Southern California both my wife and I had a difficult time seeing in the dark, rainy conditions. Started looking at buying a headlight aimer vs having the headlights aimed. (Worried as whether one can trust the dealer to do a decent job). Ran across this one:

https://www.mile-x.com/lujan-sniper-5405-optical-headlight-aimer-fixed-gunsight-style/?gclid=CjwKCAiA8bqOBhANEiwA-sIlNxiwygg8efjxMKciqndInZTh_BugtZiibyR5psZaZBlrc8UgZcQFeBoCEfUQAvD_BwE

Any specific brands/models recommended? Vehicle is a '13 Porsche Panamera GTS. Headlamp lenses are very clear/visually look good. The Snap-On Porsche tool catalog lists an aimer in the $3k price range and at that price I guess a dealer visit would make more sense financially...

Thank you, and stay safe!

 

[ameli0rate]

Oooh. I like it. My local Volvo dealer admitted they just aim the car at the wall and tweak the lights until they "look right".

 

[Mr. Merk]

I'm a Porsche guy and manage a Porsche-specific shop. I've followed these directions to the letter with success.

 

[hamhanded]

I asked all the dealers near me if they had a headlight aimer. Their responses suggested they thought I was talking about a full time hire dedicated to shining headlights on walls.

 

[jzchen]

Thank you very much for the input. I ended up trying my best to measure headlight height, going to our wall, then again carefully measuring, then marking with painters tape. Adjusted the headlights to that. Then I drove around some looking carefully if I ever shined into the passenger compartments of vehicles, adjusted slightly downwards to compensate until I felt it reasonably not happening anymore...

 

[ABTOMAT]

Never heard of a headlight aimer before. Every shop I've seen has a target pained on the wall they use as the starting point. I've just taped off a mark on a wall like the instructions above.

 

[alpg88]

Honestly i do not think it will help you see any better. When we bought our shop over 20 years ago, we had special equipment for aiming lights, including such device. we noticed aiming lights by shining on a wall, vs using proper equipment had little to no difference to the eye of the driver. In your case i would worry why you need to re aim the light that often, in my experience it maybe due to cracked header panel that holds the lights, or faulty aiming screws that would not hold up to vibration. It should not go out of alignment that often so you see the need to buy such device.

Actually the guy who we bought the shop from was kinda crook, he would tell a customer he needs new headlights, cuz he was not able to aim properly, and he would not pass the inspection otherwise. Now if a shop removes your inspection sticker before he printed a new one, be aware, without that sticker he would tell you he cant let you out of the shop, and you have to pay whatever he says to fix the issues, to pass the inspection, and be sure they will find issues even where there are none.

 

[EJR]

Never heard of a headlight aimer before. Every shop I've seen has a target pained on the wall they use as the starting point. I've just taped off a mark on a wall like the instructions above.

A digital optical aimer is far more precise than eyeballing aim on a wall. These machines use a camera and onboard computer which can accurately detect the beams cutoff. This is especially useful for beams with tall gradients which can make it very difficult to identify the actual cutoff point with the naked eye.

The mechanical optical aimers (no camera) do a slightly better job than the wall method but they too rely on subjective impressions of the operator.

In either case, its just too bad that more shops don't use them.