# Jetta mk4 broken headlight adjuster



## DubzterChris (Feb 28, 2013)

As stated: that or whatever that piece is called:











What is the fix for this? Is it a replaceable part? I tried searching but did not find anything. This had happened on my gfs car, so I thought I had gotten lucky after a trip to the junkyard and finding spare lights to take apart and replace this piece only to find out it is now broken again since it "pops" in and out with such little force.
So pretty much when this piece is still "good" you can say, you can pop it back in and your good to go. Now if it has broken tabs like above, you can still pop it in but will eventually pop out by going over a bump on the road or any movement.

I was just about to align the light when i see the light pointing at the floor again :facepalm:

*And if that wasn't enough, now MY car does the same thing and this piece just broke! Both of them are on the passenger side headlight! Are you F'in kidding me* :banghead:

Possible solution: glue it to the ball where it pops in?? As long as the part to the right has play it should still be able to have aligning movement right?


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## DubzterChris (Feb 28, 2013)

What about using that clear silicone sealant that you would use to seal up the lenses back on? Thoughts on that?

Thinking of using that to glue it to the ball joint where it pops in. Or also gorilla glue like someone suggested me on a diferent forum OR what about that plastic epoxy thing, I just hate the mixing portion of it its hard to maneuver it..

Any toughts from the retrofit light guys?


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## Bocesco (Jul 11, 2012)

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Adjusting headlight beam patterns on mk4's is super tricky. It's hard to feel the resistance through the adjustment mechanism and then BAM, the ball and socket are no longer connected, and then you have to remove the lens to fix it. 
I have used the clear silicone sealant with my retrofits but they aren't what the pros recommend. Doesn't make for the best seal and is only really recommended if you remove the stock sealant, but that's a real bitch since you have to keep the sealant hot with a heat gun while scraping it off the lens/groove in the backside of the headlight.
Your best bet is using some OEM quality sealant or trying to re-use the original sealant by heating the headlight in an oven(google for best temp/time directions) before removing the lens, and heating again before sealing to make sure the adhesive is sticky. 
I never broke my adjustment post so I don't know if gluing is a good option for you, but I can say from experience that if they are stock lights, the easiest thing is finding a used set of stock lights for $50 a and switching one out. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## wankel7 (Nov 30, 2013)

This happened on some used headlights I had bought. 

My initial thought was to crazy glue the black tabs that broke away. Then use either a small hose clamp to secure it with the ball in place. Or dremel a shallow groove around the tabs and then twist some safety wire around the tabs with the ball in place.


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## InterociterOperator (Dec 21, 2018)

*Workaround for Some Broken Headlight Adjuster Problems*

I don't have the link any more, but one of our fellow owners didn't want to pay for a new headlight when his "German-engineered" headlamp adjuster broke! German-engineering my ***! If it was really engineered, it would simply stop - not break and drop the headlight to point at the ground! Or even better raise a tiny red tab to tell you to STOP. But no...

His fix was to drill a small hole at the lower back of the headlight assembly and then thread a bolt into the hole. He screwed it in until it made contact with the bottom part of the back of the headlight reflector. Then he adjusted it to raise the bottom of the back of the headlight and point higher on the road. 

I wish I had a picture of it. He used a narrow finely-threaded bolt about 2 1/2 inches long and it worked like a champ.


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