So I finally got the car back after getting some front passenger side damage fixed. This morning was the first time I have had the car to drive at night. When I turned on the HID's I noticed the NEW passenger side HID had a horrible glare and not a nice cut off line like it should have. I am wondering if this is normal or did the body shop possibly install a Halogen Projector instead of the HID Projector and it's missing the shield.

Any help would be great...

Here's a pic...

 

maybe they replaced the headlight with a halogen one?

Prior to adjusting my HIDs they were all out of wack but you can still see the cut off.

If theres no cut off shield in the projector then possibly they installed the wrong one.

 

Yeah, it seems I might have to take it all apart and look inside....

 

There is no difference between an HID projector and a halogen projector. If it's a Valeo projector (OEM), you can't pull out the lens from the opening at the back of the headlight (it won't fit), but you can still look in there and verify the presence (or not) of a cut-off shield. That beam pattern is bizarre...do the headlights look the same? Since the cut-off shield is built onto the projector lens, I don't know how you could have ended up with one without the shield. I don't remember if the Valeos are like this, but a Depo's cut-off can be adjusted with a lever on the side of the lens to adjust the output depending upon which side of the car it's on...if the Valeo's lens is the same, it may be that the lever is in neither to left or right headlight position. I hope that makes sense, but basically the lever needs to be all the way up or all the way down (the opposite position of the lever on the passenger side) and locked into place.

 

Make sure the metal on the bulb is at the bottom(6 o'clock).

 

Yeah, it may just be oriented wrong and not sitting flush to the housing. That definitely looks like an HID light though - the colors are the same. You can tell a definite difference in color between HID and halogen (look at my avatar - HID low beams and halogen fogs). It's hard to mistake one for the other.

 

I had the same problem in my B5. mine looked exactly like that. Youre auto leveling probably doesnt work either? the shop that fixed my car, installed a defective housing, and it looked exactly like yours. I would go back to the shop and get a new housing. thats what I had to do.

 

The problem with going back is the car was just driven to me in Fl and the shop that did repairs was in AZ. The accident happened 2 weeks before I had to move so the car was left there to be repaired.

I pulled the bulb and put it back in just now and the bulb was the problem. The bulb is now sitting correct and I have the correct cut off. The only problem now is the two cut off lines aren't even with each other.

Like the driver side is lower than the passanger side. It's like two independnt lights now shining in there own place rather than meeting in middle to make a continuos light. (Hope that makes sense)

I will browse around the DIY pages and see what I can find. Is there a place to level before the auto level kicks in (if it's even working like 01a4t suggested)?