Are symtech aimers good?

There's one for sale that's a few hours away from me. It's a Symtech 5010000. The price is favorable versus how much it sells for online. Is this a good model?

Sure, it's a fine one. Are you going to be aiming enough headlamps to make the purchase worthwhile? What is the asking price?

Are all Symtech aimers good? I see some for sale online, brand new, that say something about not being approved for state inspection use, like this one:


Symtech (04010000 Headlight Aimer https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000XW2YJK/?tag=cpf0b6-20

The one sold locally is 1800 on Amazon but the seller only wants 500 for it. The one above is a little more than 500 but also brand new and presumably comes with a warranty. I have at least 4 cars to aim: myself and everyone else in the family. Should be a good investment given that if I ever do find a place that'll aim my lights, they'll probably charge me 80 to 100 for it anyway.

Ls400 said:

Are all Symtech aimers good? I see some for sale online, brand new, that say something about not being approved for state inspection use, like this one:

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You won't be running a State Inspection Station, will you?

I'd almost liken it to buying a high-quality Toledo produce scale that says "Not legal for trade". It doesn't necessarily mean the scale won't be accurate, it's just that you can't use it to ring up sales.

Occasionally, you can find old headlamp aimers at antique stores, but you may wish to inspect them carefully for missing optics and for calibration.

Well the reason I asked is partly that Hella's site on beamsetters gave an example of how a floor that is out of tolerance by 5mm can make a massive difference in aim.

Also, are there ease of use features present in the more expensive one that wouldn't be present in the lesser models? I'm a complete idiot that's going to be futzing with the machines and I only have a roughly level garage floor, so anything that'll make the task harder to screw up would be great.

Ls400 said:

Well the reason I asked is partly that Hella's site on beamsetters gave an example of how a floor that is out of tolerance by 5mm can make a massive difference in aim.

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And that would be true of other aimers, not just Hella's Optical Beamsetter. Think of it like computers: "Garbage in, garbage out."

I only have a roughly level garage floor, so anything that'll make the task harder to screw up would be great.

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Build, or get someone to build for you, a platform for the car to sit on and the aimer to be able to sit on, so that you start with a level surface and have room to place the aimer correctly (and it should rest on that same surface so it's all perfectly aligned and level.

Alaric Darconville said:

And that would be true of other aimers, not just Hella's Optical Beamsetter. Think of it like computers: "Garbage in, garbage out."

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From reading the Amazon descriptions, it seems that some aimers can compensate for uneven floors. Is this true?

Ls400 said:

Are all Symtech aimers good?

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Are you looking to buy all Symtech aimers? Let's keep eyes on the ball...that is, on the one for sale near you.

I see some for sale online, brand new, that say something about not being approved for state inspection use

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Usually because they don't meet SAE J600.

The one sold locally is 1800 on Amazon but the seller only wants 500 for it.

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Well, geeze, go and get it, if you want a headlight aimer. That's a nice discount. Take a look at it, obviously; make sure all the parts and pieces are present and undamaged, make sure everything works, but headlight aimers aren't usually subject to the kind of hard physical wear that you might expect to see on screwdrivers, air wrenches, hydraulic lifts, and those kinds of tools.

Hella's site on beamsetters gave an example of how a floor that is out of tolerance by 5mm can make a massive difference in aim

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That's correct. It applies to all aim machines. You need either a dead-flat floor or an aimer that makes it easy to compensate for out-of-level flooring. Go online and find the instructions for the machine you're thinking of buying, and see what it has to say about floor level compensation.

Also, are there ease of use features present in the more expensive one that wouldn't be present in the lesser models?

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Yes.

I ended up getting a Symtech BCA-4. The setup was easy, although compensating for the uneven floor was difficult. It appears that my garage floor is rather uneven and no matter how much or how little I rotated the eccentric wheel, I simply could not get the aimer perfectly level. I proceeded to aim the lamps with the aimer as close to level as possible. Adjusting the vertical aim screw on my lamps causes the horizontal aim to change in tandem, so I spent a good little while playing around with both the vertical and horizontal aiming screws. I say "playing" around because the aimer requires you to visually center a white dot to aim the lights. You have to discern the area of highest intensity and then center the dot on the aiming screen in that area.

I tried my best but to be honest, discerning the exact boundaries of the area of highest intensity was somewhat difficult, and it seemed that I could rotate the aiming screws a turn or so in either direction and still perceive the dot as "centered." I suspect that the more expensive models with actual electronics that measure the intensity of the beam would result in a better aiming job.

You're still doing better than probably something like 95% of the cars in America.

The other thing is that none of the Symtech aimers say anything about aligning left and right lamps differently. As far as they are concerned, both the left and right should be aligned to the same height. That's a little unfortunate. Does anyone have any advice about aligning the passenger side lamp? Symtech says to center the dot in the area of highest intensity. Maybe I should put the dot on the bottom of the area of highest intensity? The lower third? ??

Left and right headlamps do get set the same, what made you think otherwise? It is never correct to set the left light at a different height than the right light.

Thanks for clarifying a misconception I had. I thought that the left/right asymmetry of a headlamp beam was created through different aiming of the left and right lamps. Whoops!

Anyway, I had the chance to use the aimer some more. Annoyingly, it appears that my garage floor isn't a simple slope. It is wavy. Compensating for the slope at one point with the aimer doesn't apply even if the aimer is moved forward just a few inches. I found out the hard way because when I went on a test drive, I could barely see anything.

I've looked at the available aiming machines. This looks like a challenging one to use. Sigh...

It's not difficult to use per se. I managed to aim my lights with acceptable results, and the left/right consistency seems to be okay--I don't have one headlamp pointed way up or down relative to the other despite having the eyeball the entire aiming job (center the dot in the zone of highest intensity). The two sides appear to be level horizontally at least. The better ones will tell you whether to adjust up/down/left/right. This one you just have to eyeball things. I think the most difficult part was compensating for floor slope.