Xenon Headlights In France - 2012 Galaxy Titanium X

[nickcockman]

Hi all,

 

I emailed Ford about adjusting lights for France, they said contact dealer. I contacted dealer who said I would need to take car in before and after trip to have the lights plugged in and adjusted before and after the trip. He suggested they would be lowered. Cost would be £45 for each visit... I don't think so!

 

When I put lights on with the ignition on, the xenon's light up. If I start the engine, a halogen lights up on the passenger side (in addition to the xenons) providing 'spray' out to the left. There is a halogen in the driver side which never lights up, however the bulb is fine. They halogens are different to the full beam halogens. See the attached picture showing the headlight configuration.

 

I have unplugged the passenger side 'dipped' halogen and no bulb faults show up in the dashboard. So I'm thinking I can just unplug this and tape up the connector when I'm in France and don't need to worry about eurolite stickers? When I look at the xenon pattern against my garage door the pattern seems very horizontal and I can't see any glare off towards the passenger side.

 

I'm guessing that the passenger side 'dipped' halogen can be turned off using Ford software for driving on the right, and if you were staying abroad for a long period you could get the driver side 'dipped' halogen turned on with the software. This is just a guess though! :)

 

What are people's thoughts?

Thanks,

Nick

[nickcockman]

Did some more investigating last night in the dark using a stick and some white paper to measure height of light.

 

The passenger xenon is set around an inch higher than the driver. I gave the outter yellow passenger headlight adjuster two turns clockwise. From googling this sets the max height of the light. Now the passenger is around the same height as the driver side.

 

I used a stick with some white paper behind it to mark the height of the light beam to see what adjustment I was getting.

 

I also checked the spray from the passenger dipped halogen which comes on when the engine is running. The reflectors from this halogen provide massive spray and I believe would be the main cause of issues for driving abroad.

 

So, in summary... I can set the passenger xenon at the same height as the driver side. I can also disconnect the halogen dipped bulb which sprays from the passenger side. This will allow me to travel in France without using deflectors or any masking.

 

If there was a way to turn OFF the passenger dipped halogen and turn the DRIVER dipped halogen on in France, this would be the ideal. I feel this must be a software tweak... If only ForScan could do it... :(

 

Hopefully this is of some use to someone. If anyone knows of other references to this dipped halogen I would be very interested to read more about how it works.

 

Cheers,

Nick

[nickcockman]

By the way. I adjusted the yellow max height adjuster with the lights OFF in case it might affect the xenon levelling system. I am feeling my way so please don't take my findings as perfect info but more as reference! :)

[nickcockman]

Ok, so I realised after taking the car for a spin in the dark that I have lights that come on when steering - that is what the extra halogen lights are for. It happened that the car was parked on the drive with the steering to the left! :)

 

Anyway, I'm in France and lights are fine. I simply adjusted the max left side to lower it an inch or so...