Stop in for a cup of coffee
It's one of the faults of that particular lamp. On a vehicle with higher lamp placement it wouldn't be as noticible, but I'd still not use it in preference to a Hella "vision plus", or any number of other options. I'm not the only one who has observed that split in the light pattern as some of those links showed. It's not just people's subjective perception, its showing up on the test equipment. Is it better than most lamps sold at parts stores and on the internet? Yea, probably. Would I use them over the GE Nighthawk sealedbeam. No!
Twenty-five feet is what was specified in the service manual for visual aiming
if a headlight aimer was not available. Then aim as follows, using the first part for hi/low lamps and the second part for dedicated high beam lights.
View attachment 1715392635
That's what the Virg. regs illustrate.
View attachment 1715392634
NJ and some other states would check the aim using a machine at the annual state inspection.
As far as I know ECE lamps have use a similar distance, although surely its not in US or Imperial measure. LOL. Headlamps positioned higher on vehicles need to be pointed slightly down. On the Hella H4's that don't meet US automobile standards, this is what I followed. Same for ECE Cibies on my Grand Wagoneer.
http://www.saab9000.com/procedures/electrical/headlampadj.php
For the Visionplus Hellas I've also visually aimed them, but back when I started using them, the car was still registered in NJ. So the aim was checked and corrected if needed by machine. Too long ago to remember if they had to be readjusted.
Well, let us take that US or Imperial measure. No, you are right, for the ECE lamps, or E-marked lamps as they are called in Europe, they use metric measurements.
I have looked online about descriptions of how to adjust the lights, but it is half bogus what they write, half vehicle model based. If you want to write an instruction of how to adjust the headlights, it is two ways of doing it. One way is to do it for a certain car, brand new. Let us say a 1977 Dodge Aspen. You know the ride height, and you can say how far from the wall it is supposed to be, and how high up the lights are supposed to shine. Then the car sags in front and rear, and the instruction is just bogus again.
Then there is the way for example the road authorities in Norway used to write it, which is car model independent, and age independent, but the authorities in Norway as well in other European countries had set a distance for how far from the car the low beams were supposed to shine. This was set to 40 - 50 meters on low beam, and at least 100 meters on high beams. That is what the headlights of any kind in Europe were designed for. 40 meters is 131 feet, (more or less 3.28 feet in a meter) (1 inch equals 25.4 mm) 50 meters is 164 feet, and 100 meters is 328 feet.
So, then, an average between 40 and 50 meters, is 45 meters, which is 147,6 feet. So, in my example, I used 150 feet, to get a round figure.
If you place the car 1/10 of that 150 feet distance from a wall, in other words, 15 feet from the wall, and measure the height of the center of the lamp from the floor or ground, and measure on the wall, 9/10 of that height, your light beam will drop 10% or 1/10 for every 15 feet you go in front of the car, so, when you come to 150 feet, the beam is on the ground and does not light up more than that. Except for stray light.
This is the only correct way of explaining it so it becomes independent of what kind of car you have, or load, or age, or whatever. All other measurements are vehicle specific.
If you want to stay 1/5 of the 150 feet distance from the wall, you have to change the height to where you measure to 4/5th of the height of the center of the headlamp, and you will get the same result.
This way, everyone can adjust the headlights on their vehicle, no matter what brand, model or year it is. Only one procedure to remember for all kind of vehicles. And it gets right every time.
I do realize that here in the US, the 40 - 50 meter distance to the end of the low beam might be wrong, might not be what the US road authorities say. I just mean that with an ECE lamp, this is how they are supposed to be designed, and to make them work right, they have to be adjusted that way.
I also realize that Hella might have lost their mind and done something stupid to the lamps that they should not have done. But, at least the ones I have dealth with in Norway have not had this issue.
I can not believe I can not find anywhere in Europe this way is described anymore. Have they lost their marbles over there ?
Bill