[BTinLC]

So just this past week finally had V1s installed on my car, absolutely love them they totally change the character of the car. However since then, my headlights are now pointing down all the way, so I only get about 10ft of illumination in front of my car.

Okay, sounds like the standard levelling sensor problem that happens to so many people who make suspension changes. So we jack up the car and take a look, and as my luck would have it, both of the levelling sensors (front and rear driver side) are facing the proper directions. That is they both make the reverse 7 shape (┌) rather than making a reverse L shape (┘).

Now while I haven't yet popped the wheels off and fiddled with the sensors, I'm pretty sure they work. When I turn on the electronics at night, they do their initial check: turn on, and raise up. However after raising up, they lower themselves and point all the way down.

To anyone who has done the install, is there something I'm missing? I want to consider a manual headlight adjustment a last resort, because in theory the levelling sensors should be doing all the work.

Also some additional information: the KWs are dialed all the way to max height, so they're pretty close to stock height right now. Which is making this doubly confusing.

[Bee Pee]

RE-adjust your headlight levels using the adjusters under the bonnet

[Jchan112]

http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...adlight+adjust

scroll to the bottom of the 1st page, the 1st post is incorrect

[reprod]

I'm not so sure it is that the headlights need to be adjusted all the way up. You mentioned that the headlights start at their regular position and then adjust themselves all the way down to the point that they are only a few feet in front of the car. If the leveling sensor were correct and the lights incorrect then the headlights would start further down than pre-installation and then lower down the normal distance as before the installation. This is all assuming your car is not slammed on the ground.

I swapped into Dinan springs and never had to adjust the headlights. They were at the same level pretty much as pre-installation.

Couple of questions:
How much did you lower your car?
Any pictures of the leveling sensor bars?

[BTinLC]

Hi Reprod,

To your questions:

1) The drop has been minimal if any. I think 1/4 inch at most. We didn't take an accurate before measurement but just eyeballing it's pretty close to stock.

Images are below:

Front

Excuse the grime, we're having an uncharacteristically early thaw. Sensor arm is horizontal.

Rear

Unfortunately I can't get a very good pic of the rear, since I don't have a way to jack up my car at home. The red arrow is pointing at the secondary arm part of the assembly, vertical as it should be.

Now in the process of taking these pictures I may have figured it out. The blue arrow is pointing to the bracket that holds the sensor assembly to the control arm. You can see it's on a bit of a sharp angle.

Having just read KapkaniMD's xenon retrofit guide this morning that bracket is supposed to be somewhat flush against the control arm. As shown below.


That just might explain why the headlights are pointing downward? The usual problem is that the sensor arm (with the cross bar pattern on it) is hanging down too low, causing the headlights to point upwards. In my case, because of the bent bracket, the sensor arm is sitting too high, causing the headlights to point downwards.

Edit:

Yep, used a pry bar and bent the bracket back so it's flush with the control arm, seems to have solved this one.