Afternoon lighting project

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Oaxaca, Mexico
My mother-in-law's car has RHD drive headlights. I don't know if this is due to negligence on Nissan Mexicana's part (importing it to Mexico with the wrong headlights), or if OEM English replacement headlights have been installed on it at some point. It is a Nissan Almera, basically a Sentra sportwagon made in England, sold new in Mexico for about 6 years. Driving at night was a pain because the low beam's up sweep went to the left, blinding oncoming traffic and causing everyone to flash their high beams.

My mother-in-law is approaching 80 and is starting to have difficulty driving at night. She was driving with the high beams on all the time, compounding the problems with oncoming traffic. The car is equipped with a headlight aiming knob (required on cars that are sold in Germany) which is located right next to (and turns the same way) as the mirror adjustment knob. This knob often got twisted inadvertently, lowering or raising the headlights and making it more difficult for her to see.

So this afternoon I removed the headlights to see what could be done. I switched the low beam basket shields from side to side which is apparently how you convert them for LHD use. The up sweep is on the right now, so it worked. I was able to order some white Hella H7 70 watt low beams from my parts supplier (stock is 55 watt). I disabled the remote aiming knob so that it can't be accidentally adjusted. Using my tire alignment rack, a laser level and a sharpie I adjusted them height wise to 1.2° as best I could. Unfortunately I couldn't dial them in side to side as the hypoid adjusters are stripped on both headlights. When I had them out they appeared to work, but it turned out that they don't. The lenses are glass and quite nice, I don't want to wreck them prying them apart in order to try and fix the adjusters.

Now I'm waiting for nightfall to see if I improved it or made it worse.
 
Good job bro!

Funny that an NA CAR Would be equipped right RHD lights and electronic aim, probably not an NA spec vehicle?

I strongly dislike DOT spec cars, they've ruined good cars for so many years with the polycarbonate 9004 headlight lenses and extra knobby tack-on bumpers...
 
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