frenchtony

So todays solution opens up a new mystery on my car. The warning message was suggested by the dealer to be a front sensor and its due to go in and have that fitted. He said it could be the headlamps themselves.

So I thought I would take them out and have a look. They are in fact USA headlights (part numbers 997.631.063.21 and 997.631.064.21) The car is lhd by the way.

There are no motors in them to actuate the lights so I guess thats my problem.

There are plates to mount the motors and wiring for them, I am looking to find out if I can just buy the motors and install them? As you can see from the picture there is a threaded bit on the motor plate and beneath it is the actuator arm. The motors I have found have the actuators already attached, can they just be removed and the motors threaded on? Do USA specs not call for the levelling system on xenons like the uk?

Any tips appreciated

Petza914

Both my 05 c2S cars with the Xenon lights have auto leveling, so yes, they are in US spec cars. There is a sensor on a front and a rear control arm that provides the attitude inputs to the system.

When I did my RSS LCAs I fabricated a bracket to mount the rear sensor. If you look here on your car you can at least validate you have the sensors. Stock arm with mount shown for comparison.

frenchtony

thanks for the info so the US spec theory is washed out!! , yes I do have the sensors on the suspension arms too. Guess it has to be a mystery as to why these blank plates were fitted, Maybe the previous owner might throw some light on it.

frenchtony

Petza914

The 997.2 headlights will fit into a 997.1 but the dynamic beam functionality won't work. If your car didn't originally have the Xenon /Litronic lights, then I'm not sure about the auto-leveling beam function either since there are sensors at the front and rear of the car on the LCAs to control that.

frenchtony

Here is an almost final update:-
I drilled out the centre of the dummy motor mounts and removed the ball adjuster. The motors I fitted went in perfectly. The wiring existed and I plugged it in. Now the lights go up and down like they are supposed to hooray! The beams are higher and in a better place rather than melting the tarmac in front!

I still have "Headlamp Beam Adjustment fault" in the dash.

I tried disconnecting the battery and waiting but the alarm is still there.

From googling I think the next step is to calibrate the headlights but I don't know how to do this. I also need to read the fault codes. I have a durametric version 3 but it doesn't show any relevant faults.

Would anyone know the module that controls these headlights?

frenchtony

So just to close off this thread here is a summary of the problems that I solved on my 997.1,

I had the headlamp level warning message.

I had a Porsche specialist diagnose it, they told me the motors in the headlights were defective and the front angle sensor was faulty.

I had them change the angle sensor -no change as expected really.

I took the headlights off and found there were no motors in them, but there were xenon bulbs in there.

I bought the motors but couldn't fit them as the mountings were different.

My headlamp casings were for halogen headlights!

I drilled out the plastic blank mountings and fitted the motors, the wiring was all existing. The headlamps now went up and down when you turn the lights on first and then the ignition.

I still had the headlamp level warning. I used a porsche diagnostic to check the fault codes and it was still showing the front angle sensor, I found this had a broken wire inside the scotchlok connector and there was also a joint in the wiring that had corroded,

I repaired the scotchlok and rewired the joint with crimp connectors and finally the warning has cleared and the headlights work fine.




Next projects TPMS and rear quarter window adjustment!

Thanks all for the advice