Headlight leveling

bitslice · 8 Nov 2013 at 22:57

You know that little dial next to a car's light select knob, apparently it's supposed to level the headlights if you've loaded the car up.

Does that actually work on anyone's car?

It's just that on every car I've driven, this little dial never seems to do anything. I think on mine it's supposed to connect to a little servo motor, but that's not something I noticed when changing the lightbulbs last year.

It's annoying because I've just blinded a million people driving home with a heavy load earlier.

In b4 my Butler informs me that it's functioning perfectly correctly on the Bentley

Clarkey · 8 Nov 2013 at 23:02

Worked on every car I've had.

rodenal · 8 Nov 2013 at 23:02

Same here, it seems an odd thing to break ( but I guess you wouldn't notice for a long time)

dfarrall · 8 Nov 2013 at 23:23

Clarkey said:
Worked on every car I've had.

This.

Are you sure your just not noticing the change?

Havana_UK · 9 Nov 2013 at 00:07

Also worked for me on every car I've had that's had it.

asim18 · 9 Nov 2013 at 00:10

Of course it "actually works" lol

. Always has done and the change is noticeable even whilst moving.

Iamzod · 9 Nov 2013 at 00:37

Had it not work on one side of one of my rovers, it's worked on everything else.

Imy · 9 Nov 2013 at 00:40

Some cars have auto-levelling (common on cars with xenon headlights and estate cars) and sometimes the manual control is left there but doesn't do anything.

If it's meant to be working though it'll be obvious if it is.

I have a similar problem on mine with the wiper stalk. I have auto-wipers but the manual controls are still there but don't work.

Matt82 · 9 Nov 2013 at 07:27

Even works on my 1994 BMW

Must have been owned by a pimp thinking about it

Howard · 9 Nov 2013 at 09:21

Clarkey said:
Worked on every car I've had.

This. I even wired it up to work on my retrofitted xenon headlamps.

Glanza · 9 Nov 2013 at 10:19

Worked on all the cars I've had even after fitting aftermarket headlights.

ShakenNstirred · 9 Nov 2013 at 10:23

the only car I had it on they worked fine

ci_newman · 9 Nov 2013 at 10:27

Works for me on all cars that've had it too

telewebby · 9 Nov 2013 at 12:39

wait for it to get dark then park in front of a wall/garage and do it 1 click at a time and watch it change

alex

bitslice · 9 Nov 2013 at 12:46

OK, I thought maybe this was one of those adjustments that was so minor that I perhaps wasn't seeing it, but given that last night my lights were pointing at the tops of hedges then it really must be noticeable. S0ds law it's been broken on my other cars too.

Replacement servo seems cheap enough anyway, thanks for the feedback guys

Clarkey · 9 Nov 2013 at 13:08

Yeah, quite an obvious difference, like seeing a good distance ahead and barely seeing in front of the bonnet.

Kenai · 9 Nov 2013 at 13:15

Maybe it had a smash and someone put cheaper replacements in? When I was looking to see if you could get decent projector units for the Golf I noticed the standard type came with and without a levelling motor. Maybe someone tried saving £20 by using non levelling units in a repair?