[dr adequate]

Hey guys,
I've had my lights installed for about 8 months now and love the better output of the projectors and morimoto elite hid kit, but still not completely satisfied with the beam pattern.
Does anyone else have pictures of what your beam patterns look like?
Here are mine from about 20 ft away and 3 feet away.
Any ideas/suggestions are appreciated

[Billfitz]

That doesn't look bad, but the right side should be aimed higher than the left, so that the side of the road is illuminated at a longer distance without bothering oncoming traffic.

[ooshnoo]

Originally Posted by Billfitz

That doesn't look bad, but the right side should be aimed higher than the left, so that the side of the road is illuminated at a longer distance without bothering oncoming traffic.

So that's by design? I've got the adaptive LEDs and noticed that the right side always has a slighly longer / higher beam then the driver side.

Good to know, thanks.

[atam1980]

Originally Posted by ooshnoo

So that's by design? I've got the adaptive LEDs and noticed that the right side always has a slighly longer / higher beam then the driver side.

Good to know, thanks.

There should only be one step and not that valley shown in the photo. Either the left side needs to be lowered or the right side needs to be higher.

That's not a normal HID projector beam pattern. The projectors were likely made for halogen bulbs. Hard to see from the photo, but it doesn't look like there's a good hotspot, the light is dispersed everywhere as opposed to along the center of the cutoff. This throws too much light at the foreground, constricting your pupils and your ability to see further down the road.

OP, you might want to try shimming the bulb in your passenger side headlight. The bright spot should be centered with the step, but in the top photo it looks like it's too far left. You might be losing some beam width.

Measure the distance from the ground to the center of your projector. Mark the same height on your wall with some tape. At 20 ft, the lower step of the driver side headlight should be about 1.68" to 2" beneath the tape.

[BunkerJ]

I haven't made the conversion to HID/LED yet, and my halogen bulbs produce that same beam pattern. I believe it's standard for them.

[ChubbyWilly]

I have the same headlights and have the same issue. The problem is that there's a step in the cutoff shield itself inside the headlights. If someone was able to open up the housing and sand down that step you would get a nice even line all across.

[mhdelarosa]

Hmmm. Seems like we've all got similar issues with the beam pattern. My beam looks almost identical to yours. It's kind of distracting because those "dead zones" grow and shrink depending on the distance the lights traveling. I notice it a lot when making a turn, and the pattern shining against a wall transforms as the distance to the wall changes.

Is the consensus to just live with it? I was considering to reorient the bulbs a bit this weekend, but now thinking twice about it.

[bmwchue]

i think mine is F up. headlight adjustment is on point but when start driving on the road you see the left side has a dark spot. using stock h7 bulbs but hid comes in today. well see if that helps or not

[BunkerJ]

Originally Posted by bmwchue

i think mine is F up. headlight adjustment is on point but when start driving on the road you see the left side has a dark spot. using stock h7 bulbs but hid comes in today. well see if that helps or not

They won't get rid of the spot, but the brightness helps. Unfortunately that's just the beam pattern.

[mhdelarosa]

Originally Posted by bmwchue

i think mine is F up. headlight adjustment is on point but when start driving on the road you see the left side has a dark spot. using stock h7 bulbs but hid comes in today. well see if that helps or not

For future Depo owners, I'd recommend that you test the bulb pattern by energizing the headlight against a wall before you've installed the headlight. That way, you can experiment with bulb position to get the proper beam pattern. Some people have suggested shimming the bulb, which is essentially using a material such as cardboard as a spacer between the base of the bulb and the headlight. This can force the bulb to move up/down or left/right very slightly until you get the proper beam pattern - trial and error. But that's much easier to do with he headlight on a table vs. installed in the car. That's my advice.

It may just be that there's not much you can do... the design of the cutoff shield may be the issue inside the projector. And you're using halogen bulbs, which is what the headlight was designed for.