Passenger side Xenon not auto levelling.

N

no fit state

Senior member
UK
So I've noticed tonight that my passenger side headlight isn't auto levelling anymore :x

I've had a little dig around on the net which leads me to believe that it's more than likely the levelling motor for that headlight that has gone rather than one of the sensors, as that would effect both headlights?

realoem list 2 part numbers for the xenon headlight vertical aim motor. 67168352206 and 67168372381, does anybody know which is the correct one and also could the problem be something other than the motor?

Thanks :thumbsup:
 
UPDATE - So had a look at this issue in the garage last night. It's all pretty easy to access. First, remove the front wheel and the cover on the inside of the wheel arch. This gives good access to the back of the headlight. Remove the rear headlight cover (just a large wire clip) and you can clearly see the headlight internals.

The headlamp vertical adjust motor is the metallic round thing here, part no. 67168352206...
645.jpg

On the end of the motor is a metal plunger with a plastic ball on the end that locates into a groove. It's reported on other bmw forums that the ball can easily pop out of the groove in which case you would obviously have no adjustment. The Z4 design however actually looks much improved over other models, I don't really see how it could pop out easily at all over bumps etc. To remove the motor you have to remove 2 x T10 torx screws and then slide the ball sideways out of the groove...
646.jpg

Once out you can see the motor in all its glory...
647.jpg

And a good close up picture of the groove arrangement..
648.jpg

I then proceeded to get a helper to turn on the headlights whilst watching the motor. You can clearly see it cycle in and out but it's a surprisingly small amount of movement (no more than 2-3mm). I guessed that it should move a lot more than this and concluded I needed a new motor.

So I put everything back together and did another check. To my surprise the headlight now cycled as expected and finished at the correct height. I can only imagine that disturbing the motor has got it working again and that 2-3mm plunger movement is normal. I had heard that the motors often go intermittent before they die so I am expecting this to fail again over the coming days, but at least I know the procedure for replacing it now. The whole job can be done in 30 mins or so.
 
Good write up and great photos :thumbsup:
I wonder if there is a away to check the motor, maybe drop it in diesel like the roof motors. Another one for DLV I think :)
 
It's a stepper motor, and the system "knows" where about along it's travel that it is at any given time, hence the extra wires for the positional sensor. As they only move a small amount, yes your 2-3mm sounds about right, they can jam up as the white grease is rubbed away by it moving through the same area all of the time. Pulling it out probably moved it outside the normal area of operation, meaning that when refitted, it will have probably moved to it's max extension/retraction in order to calibrate. That's probably why it is now working. The good news is, that it'll probably be fine now for a good while.

One thing I would have done was to spray some white grease from an aerosol into the interface between the pin and the body.

Mike
 
I had a similar problem but it was that the motor had somehow gone too far in and jammed, opening it up and turning it slightly then caRefully clipping the cover back onto the base. Then it works fine, cycling on power up and operating on level adjuster.

Have i just fooled myself and it’s gonna jam again ?
 
An excellent write up with great pictures. Well done. Damn useful. :thumbsup:

Mike, do you mean grease the ball before relocating it in its slot? Or do you mean grease the shaft as it goes into the body of the motor?
 
I think he means greasing the ball. Incidentally this issue never appeared again for me...1 year and counting and still on the same motor. Just works fine.
 
thats wonderful news.. i gotta do it today so fingers crossed, but i dont have a lovely assistant so will remove it grease it and put it back in and find out eh,
 
:thumbsup: ...it's all simple enough to do. I'd place a very small bet that just pushing that rod in and out a few times and cycling it out of the socket will fix it. I'm assuming it's just one of your headlights that has the problem, not both?
 
Can't quite remember, but you should definitely see it move in and out if you have it in your hand while somebody cycles the lights on and off. I bought a spare which I have at home in my garage, I can have a play with it tonight and report back to you tomorrow if that's not too late?
 
Guys, is this problem just on low beam or high beam too? My dipped lights are very low but main beam looks fine. I thought I’d just need an adjustment until I read this thread?

Thanks
 
Once again an old post on the forum came to my rescue. I had a stuck Xenon adjustment motor (only one side could be seen moving up and then back down against the garage door when I switched my lights on).

Went in through the wheel arch, and removed the motor. Seemed to work fine, but was out of range, as per Nelly Welly. Spun the barrel around the thread to protrude the arm a little more, refitted and now both move up and down. Bit of a faff removing the motor from it's mount, but simple enough.

Both offside level sensor arms were broken too (front and back). Bodged with tie wraps for now. Are there two on the nearside too?

Just got to take it out in the dark now to see if the Xenons actually light up the road ahead, rather than just a couple of feet.
 
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