Headlight leveling..? What the heck?
03-18-14, 07:27 PM
#1
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
Headlight leveling..? What the heck?
Ref : 98 LS 400
Gentlemen,
For a few weeks now..my info display on the dashboard lights up and reads HEADLIGHT LEVELING. I am at a lost here because for the longest I have had the car , never seen this warning.
Hopefully you guys can come to my rescue..I refuse to think of taking the car to the Lexus dealer.
Your input will be greatly appreciated.
Tony.
Gentlemen,
For a few weeks now..my info display on the dashboard lights up and reads HEADLIGHT LEVELING. I am at a lost here because for the longest I have had the car , never seen this warning.
Hopefully you guys can come to my rescue..I refuse to think of taking the car to the Lexus dealer.
Your input will be greatly appreciated.
Tony.
03-18-14, 08:42 PM
#2
Have you hit any real big pot holes lately. I had this problem for years and I just fixed it recently but my problem was my motors on the back of the headlights. I had an open connection in the harness. There are height adjustment sensors on the right front and rear suspension that can rust and break or just get stuck from rust. Here is a quote from my old thread.
Full thread here.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...ng-system.html
And here is one with photos of where the sensors are on the car.
http://evansweb.info/2009/11/23/ls40...-sensor-repair
In case this can help someone.
The Lexus manuals are useless for this problem.
There are 2 motors which consist of each headlight adjustment.
There are only 2 sensors which are located on both right front and rear lower control arms. They have a large "n"looking hoop to allow the sensor to be adjusted up and down.
The arms usually bend and need to be straightened out every so often to work properly. The front sensor never needs adjusting so leave it alone.
When the car is started it turns the system to do a check and raises the lights to max up and down position before leveling out. If you get a "headlight malfunction on your readout after driving for a few meters and have an ABS light it is because the ABS light is on and disrupting the system. Fix the sensor and it will disappear. If you disconnected the arm and left it hanging it still would not trigger a fault on the ecu for having no change in output.
How do i know these things?
I bought my car and noticed the rear sensor was hanging. No issues with it not working except blinding oncoming traffic. Fixed it 3 times by welding it ,but it kept snapping off for some reason of torsional pressures.
Had my car worked on by the dealer and they broke a ABS sensor which threw my headlight sensor on also. Could not figure it out for weeks as i waited for the sensor to be installed. Realigned the arm and no change. As soon as the sensor was fixed the light disappeared .
I am now a sane man again with no dash lights.
The Lexus manuals are useless for this problem.
There are 2 motors which consist of each headlight adjustment.
There are only 2 sensors which are located on both right front and rear lower control arms. They have a large "n"looking hoop to allow the sensor to be adjusted up and down.
The arms usually bend and need to be straightened out every so often to work properly. The front sensor never needs adjusting so leave it alone.
When the car is started it turns the system to do a check and raises the lights to max up and down position before leveling out. If you get a "headlight malfunction on your readout after driving for a few meters and have an ABS light it is because the ABS light is on and disrupting the system. Fix the sensor and it will disappear. If you disconnected the arm and left it hanging it still would not trigger a fault on the ecu for having no change in output.
How do i know these things?
I bought my car and noticed the rear sensor was hanging. No issues with it not working except blinding oncoming traffic. Fixed it 3 times by welding it ,but it kept snapping off for some reason of torsional pressures.
Had my car worked on by the dealer and they broke a ABS sensor which threw my headlight sensor on also. Could not figure it out for weeks as i waited for the sensor to be installed. Realigned the arm and no change. As soon as the sensor was fixed the light disappeared .
I am now a sane man again with no dash lights.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...ng-system.html
And here is one with photos of where the sensors are on the car.
http://evansweb.info/2009/11/23/ls40...-sensor-repair
03-20-14, 09:15 PM
#5
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...g-lowered.html
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