Paging AmericanZ28.....

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

I was thinking about headlights today and something you said brought me to remember a problem I had had before. You said that the auto optics lights were having problems lighting up the road, but no problem with the street signs.

Is it possible you installed the housing upside down? It is possible to do. I did this once and it took me a month of adjusting my GE light before I noticed the symbol was upside down! Turned it over and what a difference! Is there anything on the housing's you recieved that might indicate which way is up?

[AmericanZ28]

Well, if you look at the top and bottom reflectors of the autooptiks housing, ones much shinier than the other. I placed the more reflective side facing up, which is how the OEM lights were installed. I took the lights out to take some comparison pics. I was able to pry out the old bulb from the housing of the OEM units, so I tried placing the new bulbs in there for some comparison. The new lights need to sit a little deeper into the OEM housing to match the beam pattern of the OEM lights. Here are the pics.......

This is the OEM Low Beam.....

[AmericanZ28]

This ones of the Xenon lamps in the OEM Housing. Putting the bulb deeper in the housing will bring together those two bright spots in the middle, but cant be done unless you shave off part of the neck of the housing or bulb base (Will Probably Try this Tommorow).....

[AmericanZ28]

Finally, this is the pic of the Autooptiks Housing and the same xenon Bulb as the previous pic. Note how the beam is spread out vertically instead of horizontaly....

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

I see what you mean. Right now I have Guide and GE sealed beam units for headlights. I had noticed the lenses were different and I decided to try both to compare.

The Guide unit has a more focused pattern where as the GE pattern is more spread out (mostly in a vertical fasion). I found I preffered the GE light. The guide unit lit up a small section of the road very well, but the GE presented a much wider pattern.....Once I installed it right side up that is!

I'll have to do some experimenting myself this weekend.