Headlight fault - is this an MOT failure?

[JonRGV250]

Yup.
OP can you post a pic of the rear of the lamps to see where the hex adjustment screws are.
If they're there and i've no reason to think that they're not, then it's the easiest/cheapest solution.
If you try and anchor the internal part of the lamp, how will you know it's within spec?

 

[IAmATeaf]

Have you tried shooting wd40 down the shaft? Might be able to free it or even take the motors apart, clean them and put it back together?

 

[gc123]

tbh if you have replacement lights coming from ebay and they are the same unit i think thats your problem solved. i would be wondering how the water got into the unit and by the looks of that motor its been doing it for a long time.
maybe the cover not fitted correctly?
ive popped out and looked at mine and can only assume maybe a cracked casing or leaking around the lens seal? did the lights condensate up ?

 

[danlightbulb]

MOT tester here - will try and clear a few things up...

• The warning for the active headlight fault is not a fail.
• The active headlights do not need to work, however the self levelling system does need to work (ie. if weight is put on the back end of the car, the headlight aim should lower).
• If your headlights are stuck to the left, as long as the beam 'kick-up' is still visible on the beam setter it's a pass, providing that the vertical aim is also within spec. But both of these should be adjustable to make it pass as it allows for a huge amount of adjustment to the left before the kick-up disappears.

Thanks for this. I dont think I have auto leveling headlights (there is a manual dial adjustment in the car, auto leveling I think came with xenon option which these aren't).

Yup.
OP can you post a pic of the rear of the lamps to see where the hex adjustment screws are.
If they're there and i've no reason to think that they're not, then it's the easiest/cheapest solution.
If you try and anchor the internal part of the lamp, how will you know it's within spec?

There may be some adjustment screws inside, but the swivel motor makes the whole lens mechanism move a considerable amount to the right and left. If the motor is removed, the whole unit is free to just waft about inside with nothing to hold it.



See where its labelled AFS (H7)? That whole circular lens is free to move left and right within that oval shaped aperture. The motor pushes and pulls it on a pivot from the rear, without the motor it just swings freely on that pivot.

Have you tried shooting wd40 down the shaft? Might be able to free it or even take the motors apart, clean them and put it back together?

Yeah I did, wouldn't budge. But I took out the other side motor as well (to swap them over, trying to fault find), and that one wouldn't manually turn either.

The motor's metal outer casing looks crimped on in some way, if I tried to take it apart fully I might have broken it and then would have completely messed my lights up.

tbh if you have replacement lights coming from ebay and they are the same unit i think thats your problem solved. i would be wondering how the water got into the unit and by the looks of that motor its been doing it for a long time.
maybe the cover not fitted correctly?
ive popped out and looked at mine and can only assume maybe a cracked casing or leaking around the lens seal? did the lights condensate up ?

Its been condensating up for a while. A couple of years ago I had the units off the car and tried to put sealant along the interface between the clear plastic lens front and the back black plastic rear. I noticed that it had been done before too on both lights. It went away for a while but then came back and although I knew there was water in the lights I hadn't envisaged it doing this kind of damage otherwise I would have tried to reseal it again sooner.

 

[Nasher]

That motor is probably toast, water has got inside it.

 

[danlightbulb]

Spare part headlight (used off the bay) arrived and fitted today at a cost of £85 and seems to be working.

Rant time- little motors like those in my headlight should be available off the shelf. What a waste of money and plastic to have to replace the whole unit. Also why not make the front and rear part separable so that the seal can be replaced if it deteriorates.

Will have to keep a close eye on this new unit to see if too has any condensation issues developing.

I might try and separate the lens from this old unit now and apply a new seal, and then I'll have a spare if I need it.

 

[Rroff]

Rant time- little motors like those in my headlight should be available off the shelf. What a waste of money and plastic to have to replace the whole unit. Also why not make the front and rear part separable so that the seal can be replaced if it deteriorates.

Personally think it ridiculous the amount of fragmented approaches and convoluted work needed to service what should be simple to access and change parts. Why in this day and age for instance you can't, if the situation required it, simply hot swap headlight bulbs at the side of the road with a couple of simple actions boggles my mind.

 

[arknor]

They wanted to break the "repair at home mentality" and it seems it worked.

hardly anyone fixes anything these days, barely ever see people working on their cars outside like you would in the 90s.

people would rather just pay someone else even if it's simple like replacing an oven element...

undo 3-4 screws + a connector, swap out part, put things back how they were = too much trouble we need a professional

 

[Greebo]

Personally think it ridiculous the amount of fragmented approaches and convoluted work needed to service what should be simple to access and change parts. Why in this day and age for instance you can't, if the situation required it, simply hot swap headlight bulbs at the side of the road with a couple of simple actions boggles my mind.

Some cars you need to take the bumper off to change headlight bulbs. That was mental. the VW passat had a booking time of 2-3 hours to change one lightbulb

 

[jpaul]

Spare part headlight (used off the bay) arrived and fitted today at a cost of £85 and seems to be working.

good stuff - no recoding required ? I had tried silica gel bags at one point - work used to have many small bag in IT equipment packs.


They wanted to break the "repair at home mentality" and it seems it worked.
Isn't the right to repair ethic on home electronics (ie apple now providing instructions) soon going to pervade the car space , especially EV's.

It works to the manufacturers profitability if they have a significant parts business and sealed units, but there should be an envrionmental tax cost,
above and beyond increased insurance rates you may pay; the BMW laser light units, and the tesla single(ish) casting for Y/3 come to mind.

 

[Rroff]

That was mental. the VW passat had a booking time of 2-3 hours to change one lightbulb

Yeah it is something like 18 fastening/bolts or something on some of the VWs... (not sure if it was literally 18 but it was ridiculous).

 

[gc123]

Spare part headlight (used off the bay) arrived and fitted today at a cost of £85 and seems to be working.

Rant time- little motors like those in my headlight should be available off the shelf. What a waste of money and plastic to have to replace the whole unit. Also why not make the front and rear part separable so that the seal can be replaced if it deteriorates.

Will have to keep a close eye on this new unit to see if too has any condensation issues developing.

I might try and separate the lens from this old unit now and apply a new seal, and then I'll have a spare if I need it.

have found with the previous mondeo 2005 i heated the surround around the plastic lens with a hair dryer (the wife wasnt too happy ) and slowly parted the lens from the cover. reasonably expect the same with newer shape, however the black sticky stuff was a pain to clean...

 

[gc123]

Some cars you need to take the bumper off to change headlight bulbs. That was mental. the VW passat had a booking time of 2-3 hours to change one lightbulb

yeap i think it was a a1 that caught us out when in business we were contacted by one of the lease companies to change a spotlight bulb took us about 3 hours stripping the front off just to change a 3 quid bulb grrrrrrrrr owner said he asked for free fitting at halfords and they tried for a hour and gave him the bulb in the end.....

 

[danlightbulb]

So close.

The headlights are now going through their left to right swivel test procedure on start up, and all appears fine. The motors move left to right. No dash warning.

After 30 seconds to a minute driving, up pops the dash warning again.

Will have to connect to the car tomorrow to see what the error code is, hopefully a reset or a calibration will sort it. If not, then I have no idea what the problem can be because the swivel motors are now moving perfectly.

 

[danlightbulb]

Hi all. Connected to the car this morning using Forscan. There are DTC codes stores in the headlamp control module (HCM):

===HCM DTC B1D68:64-6C===
Code: B1D68 - Left Headlamp Swiveling Feedback Sensor
Additional Fault Symptom:
- Signal Plausibility Failure

I reset the codes, went for a drive, and again after about a minute or two it reappeared.

I've tried forcing the start up procedure and the same fault - signal implausibility - appears.

I tried running the calibration procedure, but actually I don't think this did anything.

Then I tried going into the body control module (BCM) to access the central configuration. But, Forscan wanted me to upload a secondary boot loader to the car first. I don't know what this is so I cancelled the operation, so as yet I've not been able to access the central configuration to see what options there are for disabling the adaptive headlights.


Signal implausibility suggests to me that the signal coming from the swivel motor is somehow out of expected range. But..the lights work and swivel, and there doesn't seem to be any calibration procedure specifically for the swivel motor and sensor.

Im a bit stuck now with what to do next.

 

[jpaul]

Are the two l/R motors interchangeable - if so might indicate if its a fault with just left one ?
is there other electronics in the bulb case, or connectors you can inspect ?
e: or, sorry, maybe you just didn't copy bothe messages here

 

[danlightbulb]

Are the two l/R motors interchangeable - if so might indicate if its a fault with just left one ?
is there other electronics in the bulb case, or connectors you can inspect ?
e: or, sorry, maybe you just didn't copy bothe messages here

They are interchangeable, and I already played about with switching them over to determine if it was the motor at fault on the old headlight. Switching them over moved the fault to the right, so that is when I bought the complete used headlight unit.

The new (used) headlight unit was internally inspected when I recieved it. It was dry and clean, no signs of water ingress, no corrosion internally and all the connectors and wiring looked fine.

When I fitted this to the car, everything worked. Swivels and leveling motors work both sides, all the bulbs work.

Upon the starting the car the unit does a self test, crisscrossing the beams. No errors at this point. It is only after driving along for a few minutes that the signal fault pops up again on the dash. It self clears on each restart but then comes back.

I think the headlight units themselves are working fine, but this problem with the intermittent/out of range signal must now be sitting somewhere else.

 

[danlightbulb]

Im thinking perhaps I need to now investigate the connector itself. Its one of these:



When I pulled the old unit off the car the face of the connector was green with corrosion. The pins all looked intact after I cleaned it all up, but its possible moisture caused some damage inside it.

I dont know how I can take apart the current connector though to check each of the wires inside.

 

[gc123]

if you look at the picture you posted you see the framework with the crosses in , using a small sharp electrical screwdriver it prises out. when removed the metal terminals have little tangs that hold them into the housing, flip them whilst easing the wire from behind and they will pull out. i suggest one at a time so not to mix them up.

 

[gc123]

the yelow and white bungs are to stop damp getting in from the wiring side if there is corrosion on the wire terminals you could swap for a new connector or possibly get a good second hand one with wiring and splice them, almost certanly will be the cause of inplausible signal (wire more likely broken and just making and breaking as you drive.).
not sure if ford sell them seperately, i know when i had my merc i had to replace loads at the front of the car due to corrosion (parking sensors/headlights spots etc) and they sold them as kits. check ebay