Finally got around to fixing the Fits lazy eye. A few months ago the auto adjuster on the RH headlight gave up and I ended up with one headlight aiming very low. Went for a WOF, passed, just, as they couldn’t adjust it higher (I already tried). Got warned that it probably wouldn’t get through another WOF and I only got this one because it’s aiming low not high.
Had a quick look and noticed on the parts diagram that the adjuster is a separate component, and I worked out how to remove it. It just twists and then you either pull hard, or tilt the rear of the unit up to unhook the ball from the socket (it actually slides into the socket from below, not push into it).
Once removed I pulled it apart and it was immediately obvious it wasn’t in good shape. Clear signs of corrosion, and once the circuit board was removed, the worm gear was popped out of its clips.
The corrosion wasn’t too bad, just coated the motor housing but spared the circuit board.
Its pretty ingenious how it all works. The manual adjuster on the back (the brown/yellow thing, and the metal shaft) winds the ball on a shaft in and out. The gears and motor don’t adjust the shaft at all, the whole unit is actually on a thread in the casing, and the motor winds the whole unit in and out of the casing to adjust it.
I cleaned it all up, reassembled but for the life of me the damn thing when connected will just run the motor until the gears try to eat themselves. Clearly its buggered.
In the meantime, before I worked out how to slot the ball in, I tried to push it into the socket in the light. This caused the light housing to tilt down too far and get stuck. Some choice words, and a few hefty pulls on the back of the socket with a pick later, and it was back in place again.
In the end I’ve reassembled the unit with the motorised section at its shortest (highest) point, and I’m only using the manual adjuster to set the beam. I’ve got the beam perfect now, which makes a hell of a difference in the dark. I’ve also disconnected the other lights adjuster, just to stop that one light from auto adjusting.
This won’t affect wof, but the lights just wont auto adjust to changes in angle or loading of the car. I can live with this.
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And almost a year later, passed another warrant with just minor adjustment of both lights, as expected.