Xenon Headlights

[Guest mainhead]

Hi,

I have a 2001 model Ford Galaxy Ghia with Xenon headlights fitted.

Recently I have noticed that when I am on a dark road, my headlights seems to annoy the driver in the front because the lights are strongly reflecting on his rear view mirror.

Is this normal? Do I need to adjust the beam level somehow? I ask this because I thought that the lights are automatically adjusted and that there is no manual adjustment button inside.

 

Any help on this would be much appreciated.

 

Thx

 

Mainhead.

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Get him to buy an auto-dipping mirror, or drive a little further back from his rear bumper!

[Denis]

As headlight alignment is checked as part of the MOT test and is therefore not a big deal to carry out, I wonder if your local garage/MOT centre would check them for you for a few quid?

[johnb80]

Xenons do auto adjust for level (assuming they're original equipment) but they are bright some other drivers do get annoyed by them and think you have main beam on. The only time I've had a problem is is heavy falling snow and they were horrendous, I needed sun glasses to drive at night.

 

Regards - John

[Ivor_E_Tower]

...and some people get upset by the blue tint - my wife finds the light from xenons very annoying, disturbs her brain I think (more than usual anyway...) and I know she's not the only one to be affected by them in this way.

 

Tried using front fog lights in snow, instead of dipped beam?

[Guest mainhead]

I'll try taking it to my local garage and see if they can adjust them. So am I right in thinking that there is a way to get them adjusted? Electronically? And that any garage other than the Ford dealer's garage could adjust them?

 

Thx

 

Mainhead

[Guest fredt]

Xenon head lights can be adjusted manually by adjusting the whole light unit! unlike the standard head lights there is no manual adjuster switch on the dash

adjusting the lights is done by adjusting the two screws on the top and back of the light unit as on the standard lights, although if this is done the auto adjustment system still needs to be reset by plugging it into the diagnostic machine and resetting the base settings!

 

you could try seeing if the auto adjustment system is working? by loading the boot up so that the front sits high, with the bonnet up and someone to switch on the ignition and lights on, see if you can hear or see the lights adjusting? if they do, switch of the ignition and the lights, unload the boot and repeat to see if they adjust to compensate for the loss of the load? if it works as it should do then you should be ok!

[Guest mainhead]

Thanks for the helpful advice fredt. I shall give this a try over the weekend.

 

Rgds

 

Mainhead

[LostBoy]

Hi All

 

I have acquired a set of factory xenon headlamps for my Sharalaxy, does anyone know if these can be fitted as a direct replacement or will I need to do a few more 'tweaks'?

 

One thing I have noted is that only the off side (drivers side) has an extra connector, any idea what this is for and can I just tape over it? The only thing I can think of is this might be a connection for a levelling sensor but I thought that auto levelling was done by the headlight itelf?

 

Finally, can anyone confirm that I need to remove the grill to replace these, got halfway once, took the 4 torx screws off, but headlamp was stuck, then ran out of time as the school run was pending...

 

Thanks

 

VW Sharan 2001 Sport 1.9tdi

[Guest wolfie]

auto leveling is controlled by a couple of sensors on both the front and rear suspension, the signal from these sensors is sent to the head light range control box which in turn operates the head light leveling motors as required! it may be possible to link the control motor to the original leveling set up?

[LostBoy]

Thanks Wolfie! Damn, wish I had some research before buying them, was told they would be a simple swap out.

Sounds quite complicated fitting them in 'properly'.

 

Is the head light range control box actually in the headlights or is this a sepearte unit?

 

Thinking of putting them in and just have them set to a bias downwards, seen people selling HID kits in one of the threads here and I guess theyre not auto levelling,

but the last thing I want to do is blind other road users.