Litronic auto-leveling questions

[Wintermute]

So I was wondering the other day how the auto-leveling works with the factory Litronic lights and what is missing from the retrofit kit to make that work. The general description I have found is that the factory kit comes with "extra sensors and servos" to allow the auto-leveling feature.

My thought was why can't you rig up a small sensor unit using say a mercury switch, and have that drive a servo to raise or lower the headlight angle. You'd have to design a certain coarseness into the sensor so that every little bump and dip in the road wouldn't make your headlights wobble all the time. Might be an interesting experiment for any electrical engineers out there.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[SD987]

My understanding is that self-leveling xenons require "ballast" that acts as a balancing mechanism. Car manufacturers build these ballasts into inaccessible locations on the cars to deter xenon thievery. This information was gleaned from an interview I read with a member of the State Farm group that analyzes the effectiveness of anti-theft devices in cars.

[Wintermute]

Ah. Well that makes sense. I actually just popped into my coworker's office (electrical engineer) and asked him what he would use. He said that if the servo motors are in the headlight assembly, all you'd need would be an accelorameter(sp?) and a small CPU to (all told, about $12). The total size of the control unit would be about the size of a quarter.

Of course this all depends on the leveling motors still being in the headlights. Does anyone know if all the motors are still there? If so I could program the logic pretty easily. Then you could probably make auto-leveling kits for about $20.

If nothing else, this could be an interesting project.

[RandallNeighbour]

The motors are indeed still there. They make the lamps point upward when you hit your high beams.

My aftermarket Litronics point to the ground and swoop upward when the ignition is fired up. My mechanic said the aftermarkets aren't really supposed to do that (auto leveling), so I might have beaten the system, but have never compared it to another aftermarket litronic installation so I don't really know.

Anyone else have aftermarkets? Do they go from down to middle when you start your car?

[TriGem2k]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

The motors are indeed still there. They make the lamps point upward when you hit your high beams.

My aftermarket Litronics point to the ground and swoop upward when the ignition is fired up. My mechanic said the aftermarkets aren't really supposed to do that (auto leveling), so I might have beaten the system, but have never compared it to another aftermarket litronic installation so I don't really know.

Anyone else have aftermarkets? Do they go from down to middle when you start your car?

Only if they havent been on for a while...If its a quick off and on then it wont adjust.

[Wintermute]

Hmmm...so the same motors that rotate the xenons up when you hit the high-beams are the ones that auto-level the lights in the factory setup? If so it seems that the control unit would simply need a sensor input to enable the auto-leveling?

What we need is someone with the factory Litronic kit take a look and compare it to the aftermarket and see if where the wiring differences are.

Hell if you can build a robot out of Legos it should be possible to get a bloody headlight to auto-level.

[TriGem2k]

Originally Posted by Wintermute

Hmmm...so the same motors that rotate the xenons up when you hit the high-beams are the ones that auto-level the lights in the factory setup? If so it seems that the control unit would simply need a sensor input to enable the auto-leveling?

What we need is someone with the factory Litronic kit take a look and compare it to the aftermarket and see if where the wiring differences are.

Hell if you can build a robot out of Legos it should be possible to get a bloody headlight to auto-level.

My factory Litronic have two sensors under the car which make the adjustments. If i remember correctly they are just behind the front wheels...

[Jeph]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

Anyone else have aftermarkets? Do they go from down to middle when you start your car?

I have aftermarkets... but I never wired up the chunck that makes them raise/lower.

[Wintermute]

Originally Posted by TriGem2k

My factory Litronic have two sensors under the car which make the adjustments. If i remember correctly they are just behind the front wheels...

Excellent. Do the sensor wires feed into the control units, or do they feed into the headlight assemblies? I don't want you to rip your car apart or anything though but if it's easy to see next time you're in the trunk it would be helpful.

[TriGem2k]

I'll Look into it..