gruffalo

The headlight regulator system is (like many other things, it turns out...) disconnected on my car. This leaves the lights resting in the lowest position.

(They do pop up/down. I'm talking about the fine tuning done by the **** on the floor by the handbrake.)

Are there any documentation to be found on the web explaining how this system is supposed to work?

MM

Mark

MM -
The US cars do NOT have the adjustment you are speaking of. And - most all EUROS brought into the US have had it disabled.
You might try one of the non-US based 928 forums, as the majority of posters here are US.

At one time, I did find something on this - as I wanted to make mine work again. It is an oil-based fluid system, and the oil does tend to leak out over time.

GlenL

My car had it. It didn't work and I removed it. The system used a silicone fluid to move the lights up/down as is common on European cars. With the fluid gone the headlights would bounce whenever hitting a crack or hole on the highway. Bothersome and rude.

The quick and stable fix is to replace the piston in each headlight with the equivalent US part which is solid. Then there's no fine adjustment, but the headlights are always pointing where they are set.

jayc67

Sort of off topic but why exactly was this not sent to the US market, and why would it be disabled importing a Euro car? Is there some weird DOT regulation about this? Just curious.

jpitman2

My Euro has the **** and all the tubes, but it never worked. Research around our group came back 'dont bother trying'. Even after refilling with fluid, it dies again quickly. My lights dont shake or move in use, but I can rock them against a spring.
jp 83 Euro S AT 48k

Jim bailey - 928 International

correct a DOT requirement no adjustments on the fly , as was having the aiming nipples on the lights so they could be adjusted down( and checked ) not to blind opposing traffic which is why H-4 lights are illegal ....plus all USA cars back then were required to have sealed beam lights ( prevented you from using brighter bulbs) . The DOT literally wanted to keep us all in the dark

Vilhuer

Up to '89 there is two small plastic pipes runing from adjustment **** to lights. One place where pipes fail is where they go from body to headlight frame. Every time lights go up and down this part of pipe is twisted and eventually when plastic hardens over time they just snap and leak silicone fluid. Other possible problem is small piston that does actual headlight moving, they may leak. And then there's the ****. They all might need reneving/rebuild.

From '90 onwards system was changed to electric. It might be easier to get this system from dismantler that try to find suitable piping etc for old one.

Think why this wasn't legal in US is DOT's reguiremed for driver independent aiming. We can't allow just anybody adjust them on the move, can we.

EDIT: As usual, Jim beat me to it. Only way to beat him seems to be; hit when he sleeps.

Randy V

To add to Jim's comment - the euro (ROW) cars were fitted with H4 headlights that have a very distinctive cut-off of the upper beam path. When a car is loaded with stuff in the rear the front end raises up, causing the potential to blind on-coming traffic.

The headlight adjustment was then utilized to lower the headlights to counteract any load weight in the rear.

When euro cars were brought to the US, part of the federalization process typically was to remove the H4 headlights and replace them with crappy sealed beam units and disable the headlight adjustment system.