What should I expect to pay to get headlights aimed

Last time I had mine done (on my '82 Mazda 626) I "took it out in trade"

- A large Pizza Hut Supreme and a large Hawaiian. :)

But cash-wise, I'd expect fairly cheap - $20-30 would be pushing the limits as far as I'm concerned.

If all the parts are good, not broken, not corroded, then it should not run more than 30 minutes. OTOH, you could do it yourself if you had a flat area, wall, masking tape, darkness, and adjustment tool (usually phillips, torx screwdriver, or nut driver).

About $10.00 a light max assuming the adjusting screws are not corroded in place.

about 1/2 hour labor, whatever the going rate is in your area.

Odd that this should be asked today... was just hooking the lights back up on my Stude and somehow, ALL but one of the little brackets that were riveted to the passenger side headlight bucket had come loose. I'm amazed that the headlight didn't just fall out of the fender; not only was the bracket that held the chrome trim on completely loose from the housing, but also two of the three metal tabs that hold the headlight retaining ring on and also hold the little floating bucket to the housing were floating loose. One good panic stop and I would have been very embarrassed indeed. A handful of pop rivets made it all right again, but I guess a mechanic would have charged me more than the usual on that job :/

No, nothing was corroded; but all of the little aluminum rivets that held everything together were neatly sheared off. Weird.

nate

Nate, Just looked at a Stude Hawk this afternoon. It was at a body shop in W. Springfield MA. Was complete and body was in decent shape. Needed an interior makeover and a coat of paint. Had a for sale sign but number. They also had a real nice Jag XJ for sale.

Exactly right.. You can do a rather good job of it with just those items. (Last time I did it, I had a cheap laser pointer which helped me mark off the wall.)

Everybody ought to try this once in his (or her) life. Helps understanding the process .

I ran into a problem with this DIY once when I was moving to Illinois from New York. The weight of the *stuff* in the trunk forced the low beams higher than normal, and I was getting a lot of negative feedback from people coming from the other direction on the highway.

It's a real problem if you don't have adjustable shocks. My Renault R8 didn't. My *solution* was to park in a rest area with concrete rather than asphalt, and lower the beams by sighting where on the slab the headlights *hit.* No tape, levels, lasers needed. I just lowered the beams out to where I thought they should be, by going back and forth between the driver's seat and the headlamp adjustment brackets.

Right lamp goes straight out and down, or a cunair to the right so you can see the curb/edge of shoulder, driver's side lamp goes toward =middle= of vehicle ( that is, inward ) and out to the same range. Range being determined by what *looked right* to me from the driver's seat.

All of this took a maximum of 20 minutes. Of course, when I unloaded my trunk at Illinois, I had to readjust them again, but once you do it, it doesn't take long and is pretty easy.

Lg

Lawrence brings up a very valid and often overlooked point, if the rear of the ride is "squatting down", naturally the lights aim high. Poor rear suspension system, heavy weight in the rear posibble reasons.

But, generally, like the others said, having someone do it shouldn't be more than $30 max. Most manuals describe the procedure for DIY aiming, it not a big deal. And, it'll keep some weight in YOUR wallet, lol.