I hit a bale of hay with the passenger side of my HHR a few months ago. The fog light was pushed through the fender liner and the light's mounting points were destroyed. Both parts have been replaced by a body shop. However, the passenger headlight is almost worthless on low beam. The light shines low and toward the center of the car, and has a somewhat broken pattern.

How do you aim the HHR's headlights? I checked the owners manual which has somewhat convoluted directions about using a 6mm wrench to adjust vertical angle when compared to fixed objects on a wall. Since my driver's side light works fine, I figure I can probably simplify that by matching the height of the passenger side.

I am told that there is a horizontal adjustment as well. Furthermore, one dealer suggested that the aftermarket shop might have screwed things up because the aim screws can be mistaken for mounting screws. Can anyone tell me how to do the horizontal adjustment for aiming the headlights? To put it another way, since it's not in the owner's manual, IS THERE A HORIZONTAL AIM ADJUSTMENT possible on an HHR? If not, then I need to replace my headlight with an undamaged OEM unit (or just replace them both with depo's, HID retrofits, or magic).

 

Take it back to the body shop. They should have aimed the lamps. Check to see if 'aim headlamps' was included on the estimate......about 0.3 hr.

 

The shop that did the work just threw up its hands and said for me to take it somewhere else and give them the bill! I bet I will get stiffed when I try.

The body shop at the better local Chevrolet dealer confirms there is no horizontal aim adjustment on the HHR. Therefore, either the headlight assembly is damaged or it's mounted crooked. The will look at it at 8:30 AM tomorrow, while I wait, and tell me which. If its a light assembly, then I can get a replacement elsewhere (and they seem to be willing to work with it). Of course, if I'm replacing one, I could replace both, but I'm thinking I don't want to mess with the driver's side one since it seems to be working just fine.

Edit - Thanks, goetylsd, but I bought an owners' manual as soon as I noticed it was missing when I bought my used HHR. I had already read the instructions to aim the headlamps in the vertical axis. My problem is there is no provision in the manual, or anywhere else I can find, for aiming in the horizontal axis.

 

Here is a link to the 2007 HHR Owner's Manual:
http://www.extendedgmwarranty.com/ow...vrolet-HHR.pdf


Headlamp Aiming instructions start on Page 327, you can type that in on the top and go directly to the page. Hope this helps!

 

That's for vertical adjustment, he is looking for horizontal adjustment, which the HHR does not have.

 

Oh, right. Now I feel like an idiot I was getting horizontal and vertical mixed up.

 

THAT right there should have told you something is wrong. If a body shop or some mechanics shop in a back alley can't fix something like aiming headlights they are clearly out of their league and there's a major problem.

I vaguely remember the "hay-bail post" didn't you say the car jumped into the air? You bent something with that kind of force, why take the car to a fly by night to get the work done after that....... Just trying to save a buck doesn't work here.

 

Well it sounds to me thats a bunch of Hillbilly that know nothing....Sheeeez
Now its time to get the Depo headlights and call it a day....Sheeez cant let you know its broken or not WTH is this world coming to...

 

Yes, this was the HHR with the airborne hay bale incident. I found the shop mentioned above by having them install an auto dimming mirror for a friend at a fair price without a problem. They offered to do the body work from the hay bale, as well as from my backing into another car, and some rattle repair for a fixed price. Unfortunately, none of the repairs seem to have been done correctly, and they claimed not to hear any rattles. I thought I had screened them adequately by having them do a small job first. I was wrong.

 

the grass on the other side is always greener because WHY you ask? They spray paint it with KRYLON....