It doesn’t matter if you feel you can’t see properly through the night, regardless whether you feel you’re lighting too low or too high, in all of these circumstances, there’s only one part of your automobile to blame – your low beams. Although this correction may appear simple thanks to the thumbwheel on your dashboard, a full correction is much more complex than this ordinary manipulation, and in this content page, we will discover how to adjust the low beam lights of your BMW 3 Series? For this, first we will discover why you should adjust your lights, and, secondly, how to adjust the low beam lights of your BMW 3 Series.

set-low-beam-headlights-bmw-3-series

Why adjust the low beam lights of your BMW 3 Series?

So let’s begin our content page with the benefit of adjusting the low beam lights of your BMW 3 Series. For most of us these lights are good enough adjusted, and it looks like that they light up enough at night. Unfortunately this is not automatically the case and verifying this setting, either because the low beams of your BMW 3 Series are not illuminating well, or because you have the sense that they are too low or too strong is a good option .

Adjusting the low beam of your BMW 3 Series for safety is a good option.

To start, the adjusting of the dipped headlights of an BMW 3 Series must be done for a simple safety reason. It doesn’t matter if it’s for you, or for the other drivers you encounter during your night journeys. In reality, if you don’t see enough, the real danger is to miss an obstacle on the road, or to predict a curve badly. On the contrary, if your lights are too strong, you risk dazzling the drivers in front of you, and thus putting yourself at risk. It is consequently fundamental for others as well as for you to have an ideal setting of your parking lights.

Setting the low beam headlights of an BMW 3 Series for legal reasons

Additionally to safety, there is a law that supervises the power, the adjustment of low beams of cars, here is what it specifies: have between 2 and 4 headlights that light up at least 30 meters. Another legislation supervises their use, the European one (directive 76/756/EEC), which stipulates that the height of the beam must be between 500 mm and 1200 mm from the floor, and that they must be at least 600 mm apart.

How to adjust the low-beam headlamps of a BMW 3 Series?

We will now go forward to the part that interests you the most in this content page, how to adjust the low beams of his BMW 3 Series? This setting may sound a bit complicated, but if you stick to the instructions you should be able to do it without too much difficulty.

Preparations to set the low beam of a BMW 3 Series

Firstly, you will need to prepare your automobile to adjust your low beam lights in good conditions, here are the preparations to do:

  • Place your automobile on a area in front of a white wall for example, about 4 or 5 meters from the wall.
  • Examine your tire pressure carefully.
  • Examine that the height adjustment knob for the lights is set to 0
  • .

  • Try doing that with half a full tank.
  • Remove all unnecessary weight from the automobile, only one person should be in the driver’s seat.

The setting of the low beam headlights of his BMW 3 Series

Once your automobile is into position, you will turn on your dipped beam and make a cross-shaped mark (one horizontal and one vertical section) in the middle of the beam that will be projected on the wall. Make sure with a level that both parts of the cross are straight. Then move back your automobile up to a distance of between 7 and 10 metres. For the rest of the task here are the simple steps to stick to:

  • Open your bonnet, identify the screws for horizontal and vertical adjustment of the lights of your BMW 3 Series (they are in most cases marked, and those above must adjust the verticality and those on the side controls the horizontality of the adjustment).
  • Use a cloth or something else to hide the light on which you are not making the modification.
  • Using the screws to make the horizontal modification, you should have the most strong part of the beam which should be a little to the right of the vertical line marked on the wall
  • .

  • With regard to vertical manipulation, you will have to use the screw to try to position the upper end of the beam at the level of the horizontal marking on the wall, or slightly below.
  • Once finished, examine that the low beam setting of your BMW 3 Series is consistent on the road, do not hesitate to examine that it has been driven, in some cases it may move.

If you want to adjust the fog lights on your BMW 3 Series, please browse our content page on this subject.

If you have any further questions about the BMW 3 Series, do not hesitate to consult our BMW 3 Series category.