FAQ #17 | |
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Headlight Levelling and or Directional Headlight Fail |
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The headlights drop to the lowest position and stay there. The service light comes on with a beep and the headlamp light on dash by rev counter flashes and the fault comes up as "directional headlamps faulty" and "automatic height adjustment faulty" This starts out as an intermittent fault which is hard to find and Dealers will charge during warranty for any 'fault finding' which doesn't produce one! No the default isn't to fail to normal car mode, level and centered, but to fail totally. Not much use if your miles from home down a dark country lane at night. A Top Tip: If you have a camera phone grab a shot of the service indicator and message. If the message pops up and you don't get a chance to grab a shot press the check button as this will bring up the message again. This IIRC will work as long as you don't turn off the ignition. This way you can show the dealer the error message. Stuey wrote ... I seem to remember there have been one or two people mentioning this...it is a simple fix, the tilt sensor that is in the headlight assembly somewhere is fubared. I'm sure Ham had this problem with his... Rich_Eason wrote ... Needs to go in and have the sensors replaced. I was told when I had mine done they are located behind the rear light unit and susceptible to corrosion on the terminals...not sure how true that is however that's what the dealer told me. As a get round you could try turning off the steerable headlamps as this sometimes caused mine to revert to normal...however wasn't always successful. Was a 1.5hr job... Whilst it is in, it might be worth just asking them to perform a visual inspection on the headlamp washers as these have a tendency to split/burst and if need be get changed as well... mick m wrote ... maybe its me being a tad thick but how do the tilt sensors work behind the rear lights? surely the sensor must be attached to the suspension to correct beam alignment with load? is the headlight management behind the rear lights? i had a look under my C4 tonight and there seems to be a control unit of some sort attached via a small rod to the rear suspension beam behind the fuel tank Rich_Eason wrote ... Think of a lever...the extreme of one end is the rotation point (the lights at the front) and the load is applied at any point behind that will cause the lights to go upwards (some load will be lost through the suspension). By positioning the sensors at the far extreme of the rear of the vehicle permits maximum movement of travel (away from normal load) and thus easier to "sense" the changes in load and make adjustments as necessary. ![]() Another way to think about it is when you see people driving about with 20 patio slabs in the back of the car...and the bonnet pointing skywards...or the dial you have under the steering wheel to adjust beam angle...all the same principles... If you have the flashing light symbols on the steering wheel the car will need to go in and be looked at. |
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FAQ Posted by | Rich_Eason |
Info | Created: 18 October 2008 Last Updated: 18 October 2008 |