Whether you experience you can’t see as well at night, or you experience you’re lighting too low, or too high, in all these situations, there’s only one component of your vehicle guilty – your headlights, also named high beams. Nevertheless this adjustment might seem easy thanks to the thumbwheel on your dashboard, a whole adjustment is much more complex than this basic manipulation, and in this article, we are going to find out how to adjust the headlights of your BMW X3? To achieve this, first we will find out why you need to adjust your high beams, and secondly how to adjust the headlights of your BMW X3.
Why adjust the headlights of your BMW X3?
So let’s start our content page with the interest of adjusting the headlights of your BMW X3. For most of us, our headlights are adjusted good enough, and they appear to light up enough at night. Sadly this is not always the circumstance and checking this setting, either because the headlights on your BMW X3 are not bright enough, or because you have the sensation that they are too weak is a great idea .
Adjusting the high beams of your BMW X3 for safety
First of all, the headlight adjustment of a BMW X3 must be made for a simple safety reason. Regardless it’s for you, or for the other users you come across during your night trips. In actual fact, if you don’t see enough, the risk is to ignore an obstacle while traveling, or to predict a curve badly. Alternatively, if your headlights are too strong, even if you are meant to switch to low beam lights when you cross a vehicle, the time needed to make this change will generally expose the driver in front of you to the headlight beam of your BMW X3 . It is consequently essential for others as well as for you to have an ideal adjustment of your headlights.
Adjusting the headlights of a BMW X3 for legal reasons
In addition to safety, there is a law that supervises the power, the adjustment of motor vehicle headlights (articles R313-2 of the Highway Code), here is what it specifies: have between 2 and 4 headlights that illuminate at minimum 100 meters. Another legislation supervises their use, the European one (directive 76/756/EEC), which stipulates that there is no maximum height for the adjustment of the headlights, but that the maximum width of the beam must be identical to that of the dipped headlights and that the maximum luminosity must be 225, 000 cd.
How to adjust the headlights of a BMW X3?
We will now proceed to the section that concerns you the most in this article, how to adjust the headlights of his BMW X3? This setting might seem a bit complex, but by following the instructions you should be able to do it without too much problem.
Preparations to adjust the headlights of a BMW X3
First of all, you’ll need to prepare your vehicle to adjust your high beams in good conditions, here are the preparations to set up:
- Place your vehicle on a surface in front of a white wall for example, about 4 or 5 meters from the wall.
- Check your tire pressure attentively.
- Check that the height adjustment knob for the lights is set to 0
- Try doing that with half a full tank.
- Take out all needless weight from the automobile, just one person should be in the driver’s seat.
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The headlight adjustment of his BMW X3
Once your car is in place, 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. Check with a level that both parts of the cross are straight. Then back your vehicle up to a distance of between 7 and 10 metres. For the rest of the procedure here are the steps to follow:
- Open your hood, identify the screws for horizontal and vertical modification of the headlights of your BMW X3 (they are usually marked, and those on top must adjust the verticality and the one on the side manages the horizontality of the adjustment).
- Use a cloth or different things to hide the projector on which you are not making the modification.
- Using the screws to make the horizontal modification, you should have the most intense component of the beam which should be a little to the right of the vertical line noted on the wall
- With regard to vertical modification, 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, verify that the headlights setting of your BMW X3 is logical, do not think twice to verify it after you have driven it, oftentimes it may move.
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If you want to adjust the fog lights on your BMW X3, please read our content page on this subject.
If you need more tutorials on the BMW X3, go to our BMW X3 category.
