Headlamp height adjustment broken?

[ben g]

I have normal halogen headlamps and recently, the drivers side headlamp level dropped after i started her up.

It done it last year for a while and suddenly sorted itself out after a few weeks.

I've just gone out and tried to manually raise the headlight beam level, using the under bonnet adjusters. The passenger side works fine, easy to raise up and down using a screwdriver to turn the adjuster. The drivers side adjuster turns freely, but the beam level doesn't raise or lower.

On ignition, the beam level dips and then raises (as per normal operation), but the beam on the drivers side lamp doesn't raise to the same level as the passenger side lamp.

I've lowered the passenger side level for now, to keep them level, but ideally need a proper fix, as it's far too low for country road driving.

I can only assume something to do with the adjuster has become dislodged inside the headlamp. Is this a case of buying a new lamp housing or something simple that i can remedy myself?

Cheers.

 

[Smartbear]

I have normal halogen headlamps and recently, the drivers side headlamp level dropped after i started her up.

It done it last year for a while and suddenly sorted itself out after a few weeks.

I've just gone out and tried to manually raise the headlight beam level, using the under bonnet adjusters. The passenger side works fine, easy to raise up and down using a screwdriver to turn the adjuster. The drivers side adjuster turns freely, but the beam level doesn't raise or lower.

On ignition, the beam level dips and then raises (as per normal operation), but the beam on the drivers side lamp doesn't raise to the same level as the passenger side lamp.

I've lowered the passenger side level for now, to keep them level, but ideally need a proper fix, as it's far too low for country road driving.

I can only assume something to do with the adjuster has become dislodged inside the headlamp. Is this a case of buying a new lamp housing or something simple that i can remedy myself?

Cheers.

Hi Ben, I don’t think my e85 had self levellers? Has your car not got the height adjustment by the light switch?
Mine had halogens as well by the way, I thought it was cars with Xeon lights which had the self levelling gubbins :?
Rob

 

[rally-chris]

You can take the rear cover off the headlight from under the wheel arch (there’s an access panel), and from there you can take out the levelling motor to replace it or see how it has become detached.

Chris

 

[ben g]

I have normal halogen headlamps and recently, the drivers side headlamp level dropped after i started her up.

It done it last year for a while and suddenly sorted itself out after a few weeks.

I've just gone out and tried to manually raise the headlight beam level, using the under bonnet adjusters. The passenger side works fine, easy to raise up and down using a screwdriver to turn the adjuster. The drivers side adjuster turns freely, but the beam level doesn't raise or lower.

On ignition, the beam level dips and then raises (as per normal operation), but the beam on the drivers side lamp doesn't raise to the same level as the passenger side lamp.

I've lowered the passenger side level for now, to keep them level, but ideally need a proper fix, as it's far too low for country road driving.

I can only assume something to do with the adjuster has become dislodged inside the headlamp. Is this a case of buying a new lamp housing or something simple that i can remedy myself?

Cheers.

Hi Ben, I don’t think my e85 had self levellers? Has your car not got the height adjustment by the light switch?
Mine had halogens as well by the way, I thought it was cars with Xeon lights which had the self levelling gubbins :?
Rob

It does have the adjustment wheel on the dash, but it doesn't physically move the drivers side headlamp level up or down, so there must be something inside the headlamp that is dislodged or broken.

The passenger side headlamp level works perfectly fine.

All Z4's of my shape appear to do the drop and raise leveller when turning the ignition on.

 

[ben g]

I knew there was more to this than meets the eye, so I decided to take the headlamp completey out today.

I was greeted with this:



Not quite sure what that does, but it attaches to the part which you turn which raises/lowers the headlight beam.

It has snapped off the back off the chrome inner reflector part of the headlamp. If superglue doesn't work, it's time to look for a 2nd hand headlamp