Auto levelling headlight issue

[egres_svk]

I misremembered. It was the left that started failing last year, now the right one is following, however I have noticed on last drive that both of them go down, right one goes lower. I will oil the actuators, but I smell a fuse pulling later, since this is a bit of an annoying shitshow. Since the schematics shows that all signals are sent via LIN bus, it should not be any intermittent connector fault, it smells more mechanical.

Did you have any issue removing and mainly, reinstalling the stepper? I had issue with this on a previous car, that after pulling the plastic stepper ball from coupling in the reflector, I could not for the life of me snap it back in place, since I would have to somehow push from the front side of the light and that was not possible. Eventually i removed the lightbulbs and made a jig to hold reflector in place while pushing the stepper in, but this was a 50 EUR headlight from a 1993 car, not a bloody 700 EUR LED thing with more smarts than is suitable.

I do agree, Ford fucked up here.

I have Forscan Lite in the phone, but I can't remember whether there was an option to show real time value from level sensors and real time step count on the headlights, more likely no than yes.

Based on these pics from fordownersclub, it should be a direct connection between the sensor-HCM and HCM-light, so tracing wires should be enough.

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[Rilot]

Thanks for the pics @Btassinari_Bullitt
I'll try the lube when we have a day here without rain and I can get my head under the hood, but based on what you said about it dropping a little again I don't hold out much hope of it being a permanent fix.
I think I'm probably just going to run without the fuse and will pop it in when it's MoT time so that the tester can see them do their autoleveling.

From looking at the design, it appears that Ford just took the US manual leveling system and added a sensor. I bet they never tested the duty cycle that the system would be exposed to when they are constantly adjusting.

 

[Btassinari_Bullitt]

I misremembered. It was the left that started failing last year, now the right one is following, however I have noticed on last drive that both of them go down, right one goes lower. I will oil the actuators, but I smell a fuse pulling later, since this is a bit of an annoying shitshow. Since the schematics shows that all signals are sent via LIN bus, it should not be any intermittent connector fault, it smells more mechanical.

Did you have any issue removing and mainly, reinstalling the stepper? I had issue with this on a previous car, that after pulling the plastic stepper ball from coupling in the reflector, I could not for the life of me snap it back in place, since I would have to somehow push from the front side of the light and that was not possible. Eventually i removed the lightbulbs and made a jig to hold reflector in place while pushing the stepper in, but this was a 50 EUR headlight from a 1993 car, not a bloody 700 EUR LED thing with more smarts than is suitable.

I do agree, Ford fucked up here.

I have Forscan Lite in the phone, but I can't remember whether there was an option to show real time value from level sensors and real time step count on the headlights, more likely no than yes.

Based on these pics from fordownersclub, it should be a direct connection between the sensor-HCM and HCM-light, so tracing wires should be enough.

Be CAREFUL!!!!!!!
Do NOT completely remove the motor!!!!!
Only the baionet thing (see pics above) just gently turn the motor to disconnect it from the headlight housing
With that you can move backwards about 2cm, enough to lube the actuator screw!!!
I agree with you. it should be a nightmare to reconect the ball joint!!!!

The next thing I'll try to replace the HCM. First I need to find where it is in the car!

Cheers

Bruno

 

[Btassinari_Bullitt]

Thanks for the pics @Btassinari_Bullitt
I'll try the lube when we have a day here without rain and I can get my head under the hood, but based on what you said about it dropping a little again I don't hold out much hope of it being a permanent fix.
I think I'm probably just going to run without the fuse and will pop it in when it's MoT time so that the tester can see them do their autoleveling.

From looking at the design, it appears that Ford just took the US manual leveling system and added a sensor. I bet they never tested the duty cycle that the system would be exposed to when they are constantly adjusting.

You are welcome!
Same here in Germany!!! Cold and rainy!!!
Not the best weather for a brazilian living in Germany!!! ;-)

If we can't fix this, I'll do like you said: fuse 68 out!!!
One day before the TÜV (your MOT), fuse back in again, after aproval, fuse out!!!
At the end, this is a sports car. No full family ride, no trunk full of things. Me and, sometimes my wife for a short trip! - The car is level most of the time...

Cheers!!

Bruno

 

[Nutkin]

I work quite closely with automotive software development, and one thing I think i would try here is turning the car on so it aligns the lights and disconnecting the height sensor from front or back.

I believe if the Headlamp module gets improper data it forces the lamp to its lowest position which is what i would say is happening on mine. I dont know why just one would go though, i am looking to find a full mustang wiring diagram so i can piece together how the lighting leveling system works.

It might not be this or it might be that it dips the off side one as thats the one that would cause issues to oncoming traffic. Who knows!

 

[Rilot]

To resurrect this thread, I just put my Mustang through the MoT test with the fuse for the auto-levelling removed. It passed with no issues (well, it failed on a seized handbrake on the nearside, but that's a different story).
So, the fuse can stay removed and I won't be paying Ford for an entire new headlight assembly.

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