Adaptive headlights problem, anyone know what this motor is?
T Chap
Posts: 4,198
I have a headlight assembly problem and fault light. A little motor drivers a worm gear that rotates a headlight left<>right. The cheapest solution anywhere is to replace the entire assembly for 1750 US. There are not really any options unless you find a very rare used one which is still very high because of the demand. The motor has 4 wires, it is a very tiny motor that drives a larger gear attached to a worm gear. I have heard these can freeze up and people have solved it with lubricant and working it by hand, but in this case it moves freely. I can't tell what the motor is, it is very small. The bigger problem as far as diagnosing it is that once the fault light is on, the faults must be cleared by a special device just to get the assembly to do it's initial calibration on power on. If it fails on power on, the fault kicks back on and you must reset the faults to try to diagnose again. I just thought I'd see if anyone has messed around with these things before. I don't really care about the adaptive lights but the blinking fault light is driving me nuts.
Comments
Can't agree with you here. In order for there to be "proprietary lock-in", there needs to be an available non-proprietary option that they chose not to use.
I don't think "cost effective" and "Range Rover" can be used in the same sentence.
There's always this non-proprietary option:
"Already done" doesn't mean "non-proprietary". In hindsight, though, I wonder if @evanh had really meant something more like "Another one lost to non-serviceable design."
How about disconnecting the power going to the bulb or the blinking unit?
The access tools are restricted. It prevents any servicing other than sanctioned. That's the "lock-in". The "proprietary" is just part of the means of lock-in.
The only way around this would be to reverse engineer the access tools ... and, well, that comes up against the DMCA and all its relatives doesn't it.
They're still too expensive for a non-classic. New at $95K; 5-year old used at $45K+.
For about $200K you can get this. Guaranteed date-getter, and kept up, keeps increasing in value (this was the model, year, and color of the one in my family - my step-father sold his in 1983 for about $4K.)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Jaguar_E-Type_series_1_coupé_1964.jpg
On the notion of using proprietary design: I suppose even with the E-Jag that would be the case, as back in '64 theyused positive-ground electrical. After they switched to negative-ground in about '67, it was nearly impossible to get replacement Lucas gauges at anything not resembling highway robbery.
Maybe you should put the new one behind the front seat for safe keeping.
How much of a headlight is it. i.e. is there much flood, or mainly spot?
+1, steering clear from now on.