Headlights won't adjust

J

jackc

Member
Hi

I'm new to the forum, having recently bought a Z4 Coupe Sport which I absolutely love to bits. I've read on this and other forums about how poor the standard halogen headlights are but I came to realise how bad they are when driving the Z4 at night for the first time recently. They only illuminated a few feet infront of the car and I had to slow right down to negotiate some tricky B-roads. Anyway I tried to adjust them using the knurled adjuster knob by the light switch but it made no difference at all - I had tried it in the past and I could detect a change in the aim of the lights but not now - could the adjuster be broken? Also, I'm sure that in the past when starting the engine the lights would dance up and down but they don't do that anymore either. Do the halogens also have self levelling like the Xenons and therefore perform this start up dance?

I'll be taking the car to the dealer but I want to be sure that there is a problem first of all. The last thing I want is for the dealer to do a manual adjust on the lights and not fix what I suspect to be an adjuster fault. Grateful for any opinions.

Christian
 
Halogen headlights don't have self-levelling, this is why your car has knurled adjuster knob. It can be broken now.

The illumination of halogen headlights is quite bad on Z4. The cheapest and easiest upgrade is to buy the best and brightest bulbs. That's why Z4 with factory-fitted xenon headlight are easier to sell, and not easy to buy.

I only bought my Z4 because it has xenon headlights.
 
i upgraded my bulbs which helped a bit, but yes the beam is low, even when adjusted properly for mot purposes.

i will say i know what the op means, when you turn the ignition the lights level (beam goes up then down), i think i read on here its a sensor tied in with the suspension. could be wrong on that though. is the adjuster a white lever, ive never done it but you can adjust the headlights for when driving in left hand drive countries.
 
Where are you trying to adjust them? If you are using the we knob by the light switch then that is not going to achieve what you want it to do. If you want to properly adjust the lights if you open your bonnet you will see that above the lights there are white plastic screws that by screwing ever so slightly allow you to adjust the height. Do this with the lights on against a wall or something so you can see the difference. Just remember that you may end up adjusting them to a height that may be deemed illegal and you could fail your MOT so try and remember the height they are currently set at.
 
Currently just trying to adjust them using the dial knob by the light switch but this is making no difference at all whereas before it did, albeit very little. Also the lights won't do the raise and lower cycle any more when starting the engine. I want to get to the bottom of this fault first (if indeed there is a fault) before going down the manual adjustment route. I've got some better Philips bulbs on standby but again want to be sure there isn't an underlying problem first.

I did a bit more digging around and found mention of water ingress and shorting of connections - anyone know more of this?

Cheers for your comments.
 
the dash knob only makes a very minor adjustment, best place to see if its doing anything is to park a few feet away from a wall or garage door, and adjust the knob. as mentioned though in the manual it advises how to adjust the beam.
 
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