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Today I tried to inspect my height level sensor on the front. I tried to remove the nut arrowed in the picture attached. But eventually it just started spinning. Now I cannot tighten it or remove it. I have just discovered that this nut seems to connect directly to the electrical sensor. If this is the case, I am worried i have broken it. Can someone advise or shed some light? Tomorrow I will completely remove the bracket that holds it and try and inspect it.
The reason I am inspecting it is because my auto levelling has completely stopped working.
Yep. Looks to me like if that nut started spinning you screwed the rotational sensor in the unit. As for your auto-level not working, do you have any liights in the cluster indicating that fact?
Yep. Looks to me like if that nut started spinning you screwed the rotational sensor in the unit. As for your auto-level not working, do you have any liights in the cluster indicating that fact?
I have disabled the AFS light problem because I have retrofitted the LED units But that AFS light was blinking for years with the Auto Level still working. So the bolt that the nut connects to is somehow part of the sensor? Is it repairable? I seems rather silly that it is bolted down and can just start spinning out. surely if that was the case it shouldnt be bolted
I have disabled the AFS light problem because I have retrofitted the LED units But that AFS light was blinking for years with the Auto Level still working. So the bolt that the nut connects to is somehow part of the sensor? Is it repairable? I seems rather silly that it is bolted down and can just start spinning out. surely if that was the case it shouldnt be bolted
Well it appears they only sell the total assembly as one piece (no replacement electronics) https://www.discountpartsmonster.com...omponents-scat
Therefore, it may be a non-serviceable part which is never meant to be disassembled. Looks like you need to start checking junk yards for a replacement because that thing is $311!!! Wow!
So I went to junk yard today and got a front height sensor. It seemed in good condition and I tested it for resistance across the pins. I got the entire thing with the rods. After installing it still no luck with the headlamp auto adjusting. So I went to the back left side removed the wheel. The rear sensor looks perfectly fine too. Tested the resistance and tests fine. Only one thing I noticed with the back one is that the connecting rod is shorter than the front and the rod has 2 ball joints on the end just like the front. However on the back one the ball joint on the end that connects to the plate on the frame seems to be seized. Only one of the two ball joints are actually swivelling. So wondering can a seized ball joint really cause this? One of the ball joints is still working and I inspected it the sensor does go up.and down even though the ball joint is seized
Do some searching on this forum for AFS and other terms. A lot of times people put the arms back on wrong when they change out their suspension in the rear. I'm sure I've seen a pic of what the sensor should look like normally. Maybe that'll give you an idea. Apparently the AFS system is sensitive. I believe you can, if possible, adjust the rear sensor to get it in range and the AFS light might go off. Obviously, if the linkage is frozen, this is just a test to see if that's your problem. If successful, you may be able to unfreeze the joint or just get the rear sensor from the same junk yard and see if they'll let you try it.
Just came across this info in the pic below. Seeing as I have my old front sensor at home, i decided to perform that test. And it seems to always read 0.5V so regardless of what angle the sensor motor is, it always reads 0.5V. This leads me to believe the old front sensor might have been faulty anyway. I will test the one i fitted to the front with this method tomorrow to make sure the second-hand one I got is actually working. Then I will move on to the rear one and test that in the same way.
So by looking at this test procedure it seems to me that the AFS ECU sends 4.5V via pin 1 and 3. And the height sensor is the essentially a variable resistor that reports back either 4.5V, 2.5V or 0.5V. Using these reported voltages the AFS ECU then makes the decision how to adjust the lights. I'm wondering as a test if I should maybe turn the car on with the sensors removed and test how much voltage comes out of pins 1 and 3. If it is 4.5V as predicted, then loop pin 1 back to pin 2 essentially fooling it into reporting back as +45 degrees. And then technically it should adjust the lights right?
So by looking at this test procedure it seems to me that the AFS ECU sends 4.5V via pin 1 and 3. And the height sensor is the essentially a variable resistor that reports back either 4.5V, 2.5V or 0.5V. Using these reported voltages the AFS ECU then makes the decision how to adjust the lights. I'm wondering as a test if I should maybe turn the car on with the sensors removed and test how much voltage comes out of pins 1 and 3. If it is 4.5V as predicted, then loop pin 1 back to pin 2 essentially fooling it into reporting back as +45 degrees. And then technically it should adjust the lights right?
OK here's an update. The auto level is working now. I replaced the rod with the seized ball/knuckle joint. I figured out how it works. Basically the connector going to the sensor has 3 pins. Pins 1 and 3 are + and - from the AFS ECU. The ECU provides around 5V of power through these pins. The height sensor reduces this to about 4.5V. The height sensor is essentially a variable resistor. This allows the voltage to change from 4.5v to 0.5V. the 4.5V. The ECU then reads this to determine angle.
Now that my auto-levelling is working. My right side aim is still considerably lower than my left side beam. I've had to use the adjustment cog to raise the right side. Even after raising it with the cog, I am now at the max amount I can raise it using the cog before it pops out of the mechanism. Any ideas how I can adjust it further? I know there is another cog on the side, but if I am not mistaken that cog is for adjusting horizontal aim. So therefore turning that cog won't really raise the beam aim right?
Another idea I have: Is it possible with the right headlight completely out to maybe send some sort of voltage to the motor that does the levelling to raise it? that way it creates that slight offset. Not sure how that motor inside the headlamp works and what sort of voltage it takes. Anyone know? If like a normal motor, I would assume a certain polarity would lower it and the other will raise it.
12-18-17, 09:50 AM
Height Level Sensor
