Hi,

My Mother's 1999 T Reg S Type 3.0l V6 SE Auto has just failed it's MOT on the N/S Dipped Beam Height being too low. The main dealership in our area where the Car has been MOTd for the last 5-6 year's now has said that they are unable to adjust the height of the dipped beam on that side because the adjuster is faulty/broken.

I removed the unit from the car and inspected the adjuster's. I found that the adjuster over the dipped beam, which I believe adjust's the side to side aspect of the light function's ok. The adjuster over the high beam, which control's the height of that lense appear's to be working ok. The only other adjustment I can find is via the electrical motor which is controlled from inside the vehicle which also appear's to be working ok.

The dealership said that with fitting, it would cost close to £500 to replace the faulty unit. Sadly, this is beyond my Mother's finance's, so if it is repairable, it would be very beneficial to find out how. As this was one of the first new shaped S Type's, it has the reflector style halogen headlamp instead of the projector style HID variety.

Could anyone tell me if there are any other adjuster's which I have missed which control the up/down on the dipped beam. I have included some photo's of the Head Lamp unit. Appologies for the poor resolution folk's.

Many thank's,

Paul.

 

I'm pretty sure this is in the FAQ section......not sure if you've checked?

Can any of the S type legends jump in here and help out please??

 

Jim I think the fix you are referring to is for the self levelling HIDs.

This one has me puzzled, if all the adjusters work I'm not sure what can be wrong, maybe stick it back together and take it to a local shop, there is no secret in headlight alignment that the dealers keep to themselves.

 

Thanks guy's. I think I'll have to do that and see what happen's. As far as I can tell, they are all funtioning, but I'm no expert. Just didn't want to have to replace the unit if it wasn't necessary. I'll let you know how I get on. Hopefully, when she is all back together, I'll post some photo's of her.

Cheer's, Paul.

 

Since you didnt take the lights apart, you didnt see the parts that are broken. You just took pics of the back of the adjusters. These work and are not whats broken. The post inside are broken. See my thread on fixing this with a screw. To really verify if theyre broken just grab the electrical connector on the high beam(main beam) and wiggle. You find the inside unit flops around. If the leveling up/down is the only one broken the screw works perfectly and provides the adjustment. If more are broken it doesnt work well. But you can buy a repair kit from motorcarsltd.com and take the assembly apart

 

I stand corrected.

 

Well, I reasembled the Car and took it to my local garage to get them to check and adjust. They said the adjuster's were working fine and should pass. Today, I returned to the main dealer in our area, and explained that the headlamp adjuster appeared to be funtioning now. They came back ten minutes later to say that they had issued a new MOT for the year. I guess sometimes it pay's to investigate the problem before forking out for a new expensive part.

Thank's to everyone who offered advise as to what the problem could have been. Atleast my Mother has her beloved Car back.

Cheer's, Paul.

 

Did your mechanic explain what the problem had been?