Pop up lateral(left/right) adjustment is it possible

[leftfootbrake]

Nissan says it is and it should be adjusted left right / forward back but I can only adjust it forward / back.

Both of my headlights are away from the bumper and too close to the fender. How can I adjust them inwards?

I am stuck here and can not find any info. The headlight assembly itself does not seem to offer adjustment seeing how it's mounted to the headlight bracjet.

[AKADriver]

The lamp itself can be adjusted but I'm not aware of that much adjustment in the popup assembly. Are you sure the core support isn't bent?

[burnsauto]

How far off are the gaps, just a few mm, or more substantial? Would you be able to post a photo?

[dorkidori_s13]

the headlight assembly offers marginal adjustment if you loosen everything up on the mounts... however its maybe 1/8" at most in terms of slack.

the bulk of adjustment you need to make is your hood alignment, the headlight cover itself, bumper and your fenders. i dont remember the exact numbers off the top of my head, but i believe hood to fenders should be 1/8". hood around headlights should be 1/4". hood to bumper is 1/8" to 1/4" (this is done via adjusting hood AND adjusting upper mounting bracket for bumper, the holes are oblonged for a reason). the actual actuation of the headlight can be adjusted via the actuation arm AND the rubber bump stops inside the headlight housing (these will most likely break due to age... i think i used a nut, bolt and washers on mine).

took me about two hours of fiddling with all my body panels to get everything to spec via factory service manual. i still need to mess with tips of my fenders a bit... but yeah, if your headlights are too close to your fenders, its most likely because you need to adjust the fenders as the headlight brackets and mounts only allow for a marginal amount of adjustment.

[leftfootbrake]

Thank you all of your advice. Here is a picture.
The angle is not good and it looks better than it actually sits irl.


I would still say they are too far apart from the bumper, which adjusting the hood or bumper can't help it since I would need to stretch the hood and bumper. They protrude ever so slightly past the fenders but you can't tell in the picture.

The headlight covers actually touch the bumper if I try to get the bumper to sit right. My car has two accidents on the front, both sides so I'm considering taking it to a professional shop to get measured and possibly pulled.

Nissan FSM says 6mm on each side of the cover in relation to hood bumper and fender. It also implies that they are adjustable.

Originally Posted by AKADriver

The lamp itself can be adjusted but I'm not aware of that much adjustment in the popup assembly. Are you sure the core support isn't bent?

Only this is bent on both sides


Also the fenders should only have forward and backward support since there's that thingy welded to the core support which the fender bolts to right under the headlight which would not allow for lateral adjustment if you're not using washers.

I also have 3 5mm washers under the bumper bracket to core since it's the only way I could close the gap... Maybe I should accept the harsh reality that my car is just not straight and not do mental gymnastics to convince myself otherwise. Automotive pain.

[dorkidori_s13]

you can try loosing the bolts up all around the assembly and shifting them over a bit. it looks like all you need is roughly the 1/8" of shift i mentioned earlier.

its NOT an easy job and will require removing the front bumper completely, taking the physical headlights out of the buckets, removing said buckets and reassembling everything.

like i said, my body panel alignment took me the better part of 2 hours, the way my car is set up, my bumper can be taken off within 2 minutes. its a very tedious process.

also, one thing i noticed... i looks like your bumper exceeds passed the fender on the passenger side of the car at the 90 degree turn in the metal.

you may need to just loosen the fenders up and move the fronts of them away a bit... this still requires removal of the bumper, but it prevents you from having to take apart the headlight assembly.

your passenger side headlight cover needs to be adjusted as well as its not sitting flush with the hood height wise.

[burnsauto]

without being there in person to really get a close look at everything, its a bit hard to give advice on this. When cars come into my shop with poor gaps, and knowing its been in two accidents, you have to be a bit of a detective. It looks like it's few things going on between your fenders and your hood.

When I'm gaping a front end, assuming that the doors line up correctly to the quarter panel, I usually go by this method..(this method assumes you have the front bumper off the car)

1. Losen the bolts that hold the fender on (you don't need to take them out, just let the fender move around)

2. Align the fenders to the doors, get that gap to match the same distance that the quarter and the door has.

3. Remove the hood latch. You don't want the latch to pull the hood one way or another when you close it, plus you won't have to keep popping the hood every time you need to adjust it.

4. Adjust your hood to get a good, consistent, gap on both headlights, moving it left/right/forward/back, do what you need to do. If you don't have enough movement from the hinge to the hood, then move the hinge where it bolts to the body. If something isn't going right at this point, you may have a bigger issue at hand (the car may be out of square, or damage not correctly repaired may be the issue). Keep in mind that the headlight covers are bolted onto the headlight assemblies, so there may be a little movement in them, or you can bend them slightly in one direction to achieve a gap.

4. Once the hood looks good to the headlights, then gap your fenders, keeping that same consistent gap that you had around the headlights. Adjust the rubber bumpers on the body to get your hood level with the fenders.

5. Put your latch back in. Set it as high as it will go, latch the hood, and then loosen the bolts for the latch, letting the hood drop to it's natural spot. You may have to readjust the rubber bumpers for the hood, but at this point you can tighten down the hood latch again.

6. Front bumper install.

It may take some time, just remember that these cars aren't Lego sets. It may not naturally fall into place. Fenders may be rolled in/out on the top, brackets may need a small tweak here or there to make it all fit. It's just metal, make it do what you need. If a hole is a few millimeters too small, make it bigger. I'd rather see a car with good gaps and a slotted hole, than a car with poor gaps and nothing done.