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[duggs]

This is driving me nuts guys.

Please help me out on the basics.

Each of my lights have two small rods, a ball joint type
front with allan key hole and a white plastic thing on the back. Rightly or wrongly I used an allan key to loosen them up a bit as they were rather tight/gummed up.

I can't see that anything could have "popped" out of anything. I'm well confused.

Being an optimist I'm assuming the sensor on the wishbone isn't playing up.

[RobG]

Front sensor left of pic, rear is on the right of pic. Part #13 is the arm that pops off. The threaded ends top & bottom of arm are fixed to the sensor "brackets" the other end of the thread has a ball type joint & the arms tend to pop off these. HTH

[Entwood]

This is driving me nuts guys.

Please help me out on the basics.

Each of my lights have two small rods, a ball joint type
front with allan key hole and a white plastic thing on the back. Rightly or wrongly I used an allan key to loosen them up a bit as they were rather tight/gummed up.

I can't see that anything could have "popped" out of anything. I'm well confused.

Being an optimist I'm assuming the sensor on the wishbone isn't playing up.

They are the adjusters for setting the basic position of the lamp in the body. The lamp sits inside a further mechanism that is moved by the motors driven by the signal from the sensors mentioned above .....

Those sensors only work as you are driving along and the suspension moves.

As said before .. you have 2 sensors .. one at the front and one at the rear ..

[duggs]

Ok !...Think I'm getting there.

I've found the sensor at the front, attached to the top of the wishbone passenger side. (Wishbone being replaced in the morning as mentioned.)

SO there are two sensors at the back then.
One being for the self levellling, found that, and the other that i haven't looked for is for the lights...OR are they one of the same back there.

IF so then that might be the problem. Last weekend I did the rise and fall test for the rear air suspension and I may have upset something.

Changed the headlights at Xmas and it's only recently that the field of vision message has appeared.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Ok !...Think I'm getting there.

I've found the sensor at the front, attached to the top of the wishbone passenger side. (Wishbone being replaced in the morning as mentioned.)

SO there are two sensors at the back then.
One being for the self levellling, found that, and the other that i haven't looked for is for the lights...OR are they one of the same back there.

IF so then that might be the problem. Last weekend I did the rise and fall test for the rear air suspension and I may have upset something.

Changed the headlights at Xmas and it's only recently that the field of vision message has appeared.

Two SEPERATE ones at the rear.

The lights one is on the passenger side rear trailing arm just forward of the nearside rear wheel with the self leveling one being on the drivers side near the diff.

[duggs]

Brillient Mark....

Funny thing...IF a go over the bumps in the road (sleeping policemen) a little on the fast side, the "check"  light goes out for about 10/15 seconds then flickers back on. During normal driving it stays on.

Loose connection ??

[Marks DTM Calib]

Possibly.

If you look at the sensors you will see a linkage which consists of a pair of small ball joints.

These MUST be free to move.

I would remove them from the sensor, flush the rust out, clean the ball joints up a bit and refit with a bit of grease on so they move nice and freely.

I suspect one of them (normaly the front) has a seized ball joint assembly so do it before it gooses the sensor

[Terbs]

It IS confusing to keep seeing the terminology of 'levelling sensors' as someone new to Omega's, but I think the job they do is quite different if I read correctly......

1....the two sensors on the lefthand side gauge the angle of the car and make adjustments to the headlights NOT the vehicle body

2....the sensor on the righthand side, gauges the level of the vehicle under any load in conjunction with the self levelling shocks and alters (via ecu) accordingly to keep the body level.

Hope this helps

[duggs]

Take a wild guess what I've been up to this evening.

Borrowed my Fathers double garage and went down under.

Found all the sensors, cleaned the ball joints and greased them up...sadly it hasn't fixed the problem...now the check light won't go out at all, not even whilst going over the humpest of speed humps.

BUT..no matter. Least I found the little buggers.

Gotta say neither of the light sensors looked very happy...certainly seen better days.

Guess I'll get the front wishbones done and rear shocks then have a further investigation.

Assume I can't test them as we can with the self levelling shocks...

[Entwood]

If you can get to a Tech2.. they can be checked. The tech2 cans end a signal that causes the headlights to motor over their whole range.. if the motors are good of course !!!

If the motors are good and the warning is on .. its a sensor problem

If the motors don't move .. you've found the problem

Sometims the act of the tech 2 moving the motors over their whole range seems to "clean" something up and they start to work corectly again, at which point the warning disappears

[duggs]

Understood kind Sir. So your advice for now is to hang on and get it Tech 2 checked...hopefully at a meet somewhere.

Baring in mind that BOTH headlights came in and out of my car at least a dozen times over Xmas perhaps one of the motors isn't sitting right...I'll have a fumble over the weekend.

[Kevin Wood]

You can sometimes disconnect the arms from the sensors and work the lights up and down by turning the sensor arms. Might highlight which motor / sensor has a problem. The trouble is, the system often goes into a "safe" mode when a fault occurs and it winds both motors down to the lowest position and won't adjust them any more.

Kevin

[duggs]

Hmmmmmmm !   Least they point straightish at the moment. Sure don't want them point at my feet..LOL

[feeutfo]

Hi duggs, if the sensors on the suspension arms look intact and connected with nothing dangling, and all be it a little tired, then that's good. Next thing to check is the motors in the back of the lights.

If you've had the lights out a couple of times you'll be familiar with the procedure, and the the motors on the back, they are a twist and lock affair and the nylon ball inside the lightl that controles the reflector angle has to locate correctly in it's fitting inside the light to work or there's no movement, it can be plugged in to the housing but the nylon ball must also be correctly located inside. Or the motor has failed. Suggest a visual check that it's connected and looks healthy, no rust water or broken parts within the motor mechanism.

Tech 2 can test a working system sure enough, but iirc from the Oxford meet TB was trying to diagnose a similar fault, but once the hid leveling system had recorded a fault it was not possible for tech 2 to communicate with that system further. It had shut down.

I'm sure he'll confirm or otherwise if he sees this.


As said though your problem is with the hid levelling system that should automatically adjust the reflector. Not the beam alignment adjuster on the head light top or with the self levelling suspension system.
Adjusting the light beam on the road is done with the levelling system working at a given angle of the reflector which moves, if the system fails the reflector, and hence the beam on the road, defaults to it's lowest position to stop dazzling of other drivers. Fix the hid levelling system and the light beam will return to the correct angle/position on the road.

It can be a bugger to diagnose. Some have had wiring faults to the sensors, the sensors themselves fall apart, or the motors fail to work in the light...or an associated other wiring fault is possible but less likely, check the plug connections on the light/motors too.

Hth.....? If a little late. 

[Kevin Wood]

Tech 2 can test a working system sure enough, but iirc from the Oxford meet TB was trying to diagnose a similar fault, but once the hid leveling system had recorded a fault it was not possible for tech 2 to communicate with that system further. It had shut down.

Once the system has got the hump about a fault it won't let you do an actuator test on the motors, stupidly, so you can't check them. You should by then have a fault code that indicates what it doesn't like though.

Kevin