Headlight Adjuster (NOT!) obs.
Headlight Adjuster (NOT!) obs.
After perusing all the posts on the headlight adjustment system on this Forum, let me add my feelings. While I like a car's systems all to work as OEM, this area is wrought with problems no worth putting it back to original. The cable with the plastic gear from the HB side to the philips head drive on the LB side gets full of grit, binds, and has that nice 180 degree turn while the plastic gear failure is universally known. Even after I REMOVED THE CABLE FROM BOTH SIDES AND CLEANED THE STINK OUT OF IT SO IT WOULD TURN EVER SO SMOOTHLY and PB blasted the drive side at the rear of the LB assembly so I could turn that 5mm hex extrusion with a wrench easily, the plastic gear still managed to get chewed up after several turns or would slip...holding it firm with a screwdriver allowed a few more minutes of life before it was completely shredded,.
As much as I hate not having everything work as engineered, this piece of Mitsu design was crappola. My solution, FWIW, was to disconnect the drive cable from the HB to LB so I could adjust the two lights independently which is needed anyway...If you get the LB where you want it at position 2 or 3 of the auto adjust, you have the high beam too high and need to disconnect the cable anyway to readjust. . Using a 5mm wrench takes care of the LB, turning clockwise if you are looking at lamp from rear or turning wrench to left if standing in front for elevation. The HB is the simple 10mm socket, easier now w/o the plastic gear in the way. To remove the drive cable on the pass. side from the LB you need a 90 degree Philips screwdriver, small size , like you see at Sears or any el Cheapo tool supply store, since the clearance from the screw heads (2) to the fender metal is only about 1". Spray some nice Liquid Wrench or equiv. in the orifices that surround the LB 5mm hex adjuster (which also ( the openings) serve to allow moisture, sand, and general junk to get into that gear drive area and corrode things up nicely) and turn the 5 mm back and forth gently several times to get the juices flowing smoothing again.
Since the plastic gear pops out of the cable housing, I called Mitsu to see if you could just get that gear...yeah, right...gotta buy the whole damn cable..didn't bother to enquire what the price was. My car is still under warranty so I imagine I could have asked Mitsu to put in new parts but I personally find that my local (18 miles away) Dealer should be kept as far away my this EVO as possible on any and all occasions.
For those of you who have a headlight adjuster system that works as it should, I congratulate your luck. Let us know how many miles on your car. Mine has 31K and the adjuster crapped out a year ago.
Cheers,
Cheers,
As much as I hate not having everything work as engineered, this piece of Mitsu design was crappola. My solution, FWIW, was to disconnect the drive cable from the HB to LB so I could adjust the two lights independently which is needed anyway...If you get the LB where you want it at position 2 or 3 of the auto adjust, you have the high beam too high and need to disconnect the cable anyway to readjust. . Using a 5mm wrench takes care of the LB, turning clockwise if you are looking at lamp from rear or turning wrench to left if standing in front for elevation. The HB is the simple 10mm socket, easier now w/o the plastic gear in the way. To remove the drive cable on the pass. side from the LB you need a 90 degree Philips screwdriver, small size , like you see at Sears or any el Cheapo tool supply store, since the clearance from the screw heads (2) to the fender metal is only about 1". Spray some nice Liquid Wrench or equiv. in the orifices that surround the LB 5mm hex adjuster (which also ( the openings) serve to allow moisture, sand, and general junk to get into that gear drive area and corrode things up nicely) and turn the 5 mm back and forth gently several times to get the juices flowing smoothing again.
Since the plastic gear pops out of the cable housing, I called Mitsu to see if you could just get that gear...yeah, right...gotta buy the whole damn cable..didn't bother to enquire what the price was. My car is still under warranty so I imagine I could have asked Mitsu to put in new parts but I personally find that my local (18 miles away) Dealer should be kept as far away my this EVO as possible on any and all occasions.
For those of you who have a headlight adjuster system that works as it should, I congratulate your luck. Let us know how many miles on your car. Mine has 31K and the adjuster crapped out a year ago.
Cheers,
Cheers,
