996 headlight alignment / Euro mode

[mikeyr]

Anyone know which of the 996.1 cars had the euro alignment switch (if any)?

Despite swapping over to some better bulbs my standard lights seem to be set at a very low level and don't illuminate anything over shin level it seems!

Was going to tinker with the alignment (don't have an internal cabin switch so believe it'll need to be done with a long allen key or such like) but have heard rumours of a continental switch which can swap the alignment over...anyone have this/used it?

I know I could wait until I get home and look in the manual but you guys are always so darn knowledgeable.

[Moosh]

I may be wrong as my 996 is a later model, but to align the headlights

turn on the lights and then turn on the ignition. This auto aligns the lights.

you will need the tool to get in to the light section from the bonnet. Then you can remove light cluster to get to the switch on the head lamp to change over to Europe.

Edited by Moosh on Monday 7th July 15:25

[Shewie]

I don't think you can change the lights on an early 996 (fried egg lights) as I don't think I could adjust on my 986 Boxster for continental driving. However the facelift 996 lights I have on my C4S (2002MY onwards) have an adjustment on the headlight at the back. (You have to remove the unit first using the tool in the toolkit). The settings are marked O for original market and T for touring. If the headlight is set to T you need to switch it back to O for the UK (assuming you have RHD headlights). It's all pretty straightforward and should be obvious when you remove the headlight. Hope that helps...

[mikeyr]

Cheers Shewie - I never had chance to look last night but sounds as if manual adjustment might be the way forward.

[IknowJoseph]

According to my instruction book, the 996.1 does indeed have the switches on the back of the lamps to fiddle them into European mode. Have never tried it, however.

Do you have Litronic lights? If so they'll also have automatic up/down adjustment, that could be broken.