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[Dean]

I have been getting the very annoying low beam / field warning for some time now.

I have changed both servo motors on the rear of the headlights with no joy...

So today I ventured to remove the levelling sensor off the front nearside wishbone, it took about 30 mins due to the rusted nut that i had problems getting off.

I have attached the pictures below, I think the unit is broken due to the fact the part that goes into the sensor fell out easily during removal and seems not to be connected when pushed back in, it wont click into place or lock in any way.. which i assume it should??

General opinions on whether its knackered welcomed please.

[Marks DTM Calib]

There is no electrical or indeed main physical connection between the arm and sensor.......as the arm has a magnet in it and the sensor has a Hall effect pickup...

I have found in the past that if you clean the ball section REALY well and the socket part REALY well that very often they fit back together and cause trouble free operation.....it appears that any grit between the two surfaces causes problems and results in the ball popping out...

As for the motors you changed.....is one of them gong begging....

[Dean]

I paid £20 for the motor... you can have it for £15  

[Marks DTM Calib]

PM Theolodian....hes after one....hence why I asked....

[Dean]

Will do.. thanks for the advice. i might clean it all up tomorrow and try sticking it back in ..see what happens.

[Dean]

OK. Cleaned the sensor until it was spotless and fitted it back on the car, it still doesnt feel like the main ball joint is seated properly and i still got the LOW BEAM warining!  

I checked the rear sensor and its in a bastered position, took one of the joints off and grease it up, the main ball joint is definetely more secure than the front one, however greasing the rear did'nt get rid of the warning.

My plan is now - get a replacement front sensor, just to be sure...

If i still get the error, I am NOT going to remove the rear one because its to damn difficult without it being on a ramp  

SO is there anyway without TECH 2 to tell which sensor or ecu is causing the fault? is there a way to short one of the wires to the sensor so that I can either tell if is the rear one or just GET RID of the damn warning! (tricking it into thinking its working).

I am really getting pissed off with the warning (you may be able to tell fron this message!XX?)

any further help appreciated

[Phil]

The replacement front sensor/ ball joint is £80 from Vxl

Dont connect the little arm to the wish bone, and see if the warning goes off, if it does, work out roughly where mid level is, by manually moving the arm up and down, then zip tie it in place.

Its what ive done with mine, the warning goes off and it passed the MOT

[HI2DVY]

I had exactly the same problem last week. Front level sensor - the ball kept coming loose from the socket. Clean it up as suggested but also coat the ball and pack the socket with silicon grease. When pushed together the excess grease is forced out b ut it tends to create a kind of vacuum seal making it more difficult for them to separate.




I also "loosely" tied a zip-tie around it so that it can still move but won't come out.

The cost of a replacement from a dealer is £51 +vat - so well worth the effort of a diy fix.

HTH

Dave

[Dean]

and thats solved you getting the low beam warning did it?

[HI2DVY]

Fault has cleared and haven't had the warning back on since - and the headlights move dependant on load.

[Dean]

might try that tomorrow.


Thanks

[TheBoy]

SO is there anyway without TECH 2 to tell which sensor or ecu is causing the fault? is there a way to short one of the wires to the sensor so that I can either tell if is the rear one or just GET RID of the damn warning! (tricking it into thinking its working).

No.

[Dean]

Well.... my hand has been forced with this problem.. after i refitted it yesterday I drove to work and when i took a right hand bend i heard a bit of a clatter from the front nearside.

Today i removed the nearside wheel to find the sensor main joint and the arm missing.... bugger!

So i removed the sensor in preperation for the replacement. I thought i would open it up and see what it was like inside...




I guess that is knackered?!

Hopefully thats what was causing the error!

[Kevin Wood]

That won't have been working too well. A touch of water ingress there!

Kevin

[HI2DVY]

That is knak'd ... no amount of silicon grease on the ball joint is gonna fix that one!  

[Marks DTM Calib]

I wonder how well it will clean up with some solvent......

[Dean]

NO!! not even going there! there is only so much fixing i can tolerate until you have to resign to the fact its sh**ged!

got a second hand one off ebay for £18 so will try that when it comes.

[Dean]

YIPEE!!!!  

Replaced the front sensor with one from ebay for £18 and no low field warning!!!

I am so happy i could SH*T

Thanks for all the advice!