2018 GTI - Headlight Recalibration After Lowering

Moderately lowered my car recently and I tried following the wiki as follows with the only difference being that this is now housed in Module 4B.

Basic Setting
Headlight Adjustment
Prerequisites:
Vehicle must be parked on level ground and settled on its suspension
[Select]
[55 - Xenon Range]
[Basic Settings - 04]
Select Basic headlamp setting from the drop-down menu.
[Go!] to activate the Basic Setting.
The meas. block field will show Running.
Adjust the headlights using their manual adjusting screws as referenced against a suitable aiming target.
[Stop] after any needed mechanical adjustments are completed.
Select Acknowledge basic setting
[Go!] to activate the Basic Setting.
The adjustment should now be learned.
[Stop]
[Done, Go Back]
Don't forget to check/clear fault codes afterwards.
[Close Controller, Go Back - 06]


However I do the "Basic Headlamp Setting" option and the headlights do not do their self adjustment dance and the box below the dropdown menu says "Not Running" in green instead of "Running". If I back out at that point I get an AFS error so I go back in, do the "Basic Headlamp Setting" where still nothing seems to happen (still says "Not Running") but I then "Acknowledge Basic Setting" and that clears the AFS error. I'd like to physically adjust the headlights a little by turning the adjustment screws and according to the factory service manual I need to place the car into a kind of service mode for the headlights to do this.

Hello,

If the vehicle has been lowered more than the [55 - Xenon Range] controller will allow for the Basic Settings function to run correctly, you may not be able to properly perform the adjustment as per the repair manual.

Have you tried to manually adjust them without the above procedure? You might be able to get them close enough, this would be fooling the system because there is no sensor in the headlight that tells it where is is in space that I am aware of.

Let us know how that works,

drpeter

Agreed. I've seen cases where the headlight range module would not do a Basic Setting because a car was lowered too much, or one of the suspension height sensors was mis-reporting the height. Way back when we had a local guy who swore our software was broken. "Bring the car by." We jacked the car up a about an inch and presto, Basic Settings worked.

-Uwe-

Thanks for the responses guys.

The car was lowered pretty moderately, maybe 20mm?

Before:


After:


I wonder if that since it was such a moderate amount of lowering that it hasn't thrown off what the car was expecting?

For adjusting the headlights manually, if they're not put into a service adjustment mode where the you active the basic setting and it says "running" do you not run the risk of the headlights falling off the adjuster? I not planning on going in there and cranking the adjustment knobs, just a couple turns at the most.

It wouldn't be very difficult to stick a jack under it just to see whether you can run Basic Settings as expected with it a bit higher.

-Uwe-

Uwe: I'm not sure about the hex4B modules, but in the hex55 units (for MQB platform vehicles) there are a couple of adaptation channels as follows:

• PWM to Level Scaling Factor Front > 4.12 mm/%
• PWM to Level Scaling Factor Rear > 4.17 mm/%

Can you comment as to whether changing the % values on these channels might accommodate re-calibration of lowered suspension?

Don

DV52 said:

Can you comment as to whether changing the % values on these channels might accommodate re-calibration of lowered suspension?

Click to expand...

Nope, I've never messed with that stuff.

-Uwe-

Tooly said:

Moderately lowered my car recently and I tried following the wiki as follows with the only difference being that this is now housed in Module 4B.

...

However I do the "Basic Headlamp Setting" option and the headlights do not do their self adjustment dance and the box below the dropdown menu says "Not Running" in green instead of "Running". If I back out at that point I get an AFS error so I go back in, do the "Basic Headlamp Setting" where still nothing seems to happen (still says "Not Running") but I then "Acknowledge Basic Setting" and that clears the AFS error. I'd like to physically adjust the headlights a little by turning the adjustment screws and according to the factory service manual I need to place the car into a kind of service mode for the headlights to do this.

Click to expand...

You're doing the right thing. The "Not Running" response to basic settings appears to be normal, and the headlights may not necessarily move at that moment.

My bone-stock experience: https://forums.ross-tech.com/showth...t-restrictions&p=145309&viewfull=1#post145309