headlight nipples?

[buzz11]

ok so wtf are the headlight nipples for? i ben trying to figure this out for so long since day one of driving lol. the only thing i can think of is it has to do with temperature in the housing and im just guessing. any ideas?

[bluecb7]

They're used to help aim the headlights.

[JaberCB7]

that is so useless!

[Bullhorn7]

Shave them off.

[djcaz_aom]

ok so wtf are the headlight nipples for? i ben trying to figure this out for so long since day one of driving lol. the only thing i can think of is it has to do with temperature in the housing and im just guessing. any ideas?

Because they are made from glass. It is part of the mold.

[Tippey764]

No one has a definet answer.

[djcaz_aom]

I gave you the answer. Just look up how they manufacture glass headlights.

[Cb3vtec]

we dont have those on our euro headlights, they are also made of glas...

[tommi]

I gave you the answer. Just look up how they manufacture glass headlights.

thats correct. they are to help aide in aiming the headlights. with oem tools from dealership.

[Tippey764]

If the nipples were for the mold then how come they can make head lights without them?

If the nipples were for aiming the head lights then how come they made head lights with out them?

[Bongo]

like bluecb7 said...they are there for aiming the headlights. I learned this in tech school when I used a headlight aimer that only worked with headlights that had nipples on them. They are used to mount the aiming tool on the car without any measurements or having to line anything up. Look it up on google or something if you disagree, I believe it's called a Hopkins headlight aiming tool.

Edit: http://powertools-outlet.com/special...luxe-case.html

There's one. "Hoppy" aimer or Hopkins...

[CB7Man]

Lol the aiming shop I went to didnt use that, they used a projector sheet on the wall and dialed it in.

Im not a fan of the nipples. USDM FTL

[wherm]

They're used to help aim the headlights.

This may be true, however, out of the hundreds of headlights I've aimed in the body shop industry, I've never used the nipples as a point of reference. Typically there is a crosshair, or small circle on the lense that accomodates the laser assisted aiming system like Hopkins. If there's no crosshair or circle, you center the laser on the bulb itself. This is why I don't think the nipples have anything to do with aiming. If anything, it would be from the glass molding process.

[djcaz_aom]

Okay, let me be more specific, the nipples ARE from the casting process. HERE IS THE REASON WHY:

" Back in the 1950's and 60's, automobile headlights seemed like fertile ground for government control. Laws had been established requiring all cars to have one of two types of headlight systems: two 7" round headlights or four 5" round headlights.

Also, the light output of headlights was limited. And all headlights were required to be "sealed beam", meaning that the entire headlight was the bulb itself, when it burned out you had to replace the whole thing. The headlights also had to have three little bumps on the front, used to check alignment. On top of all this were general prohibitions on more than four headlights or six head/auxiliary lights on a car.

In the early 70's, they added rectangular headlight systems to the approved list, basically allowing two arrangements of rectangular sealed beams.

With the advent of energy conservation concerns, the automotive manufacturers were finally able to convince US legislators in the mid 1980's to drop the requirements for using standardized sealed beam headlights and permit the use of "composite" headlight assemblies in the name of better aerodynamics. These headlights have a lens/reflector assembly that was custom-designed for the car (and usually atrociously expensive), and the bulb itself is a smaller quartz-halogen item that plugs into the reflector from the rear.

Unfortunately, apparently the US DOT couldn't be convinced to legalize the same composite headlights that were being used in Europe, so the US-spec cars got their own style of composite headlights. To this day, to be fully legal in the US, your headlight lenses need to say "DOT" on them. And most US-spec headlights seem to still have three little bumps for alignment even when the front of the headlight is sloped so some bumps are actually rearward from others. There are still limits on light output."

From Jag Lovers.org
Hope this helps some.

[bluecb7]

This may be true, however, out of the hundreds of headlights I've aimed in the body shop industry, I've never used the nipples as a point of reference. Typically there is a crosshair, or small circle on the lense that accomodates the laser assisted aiming system like Hopkins. If there's no crosshair or circle, you center the laser on the bulb itself. This is why I don't think the nipples have anything to do with aiming. If anything, it would be from the glass molding process.

They aren't so much a point of reference, more than they are used to make sure the mounts for the tool in the link that bongo posted are on the lenses at the same level and angle. Then the housing is adjusted until a couple of lines match up. In no way is it the fastest way, but it is a way of aiming headlights.