Heath Detweiler

Hello. I am an new owner in that I purchased my first Porche a few weeks back. A '14 Panamera 4s with tons of options. I'd been waiting over a year to find one that truly had all of the options that I wanted. Long story short, I ended up having to replace an entire headlight assembly as it stopped working about 250 miles after purchasing (actually on my way driving it home to NC from buying it in Ohio). Cost a pretty penny to replace. I had the dealer do a few other things that needed done as well. I got the car back and realized at night the low beams are pointed so low I can not see anything with them--they don't illuminate signs or provide any assistance other than directly at the road maybe 20-30' out from the car. It has the PDLS lights btw. Took it back to the dealer, they said an adjustment was all that was made. I get it back home and take it out at night--still looks exactly the same. I was so mad! So now it is due back to the dealership again. My question: has anyone else experienced this problem? Could this be an issue that the suspension is not right and maybe the front of the car is too low? I am shocked that when they returned the car to me the low beams do not illuminate the way they should--and even after having them work on this problem again, they still do not work right. Now I am beginning to wonder if it is more than an adjustment is all. Any insightful would be greatly appreciated!

Fulwild

Headlight measurement per Panamera manual.
http://www.porscheownersmanuals.com/...ual/5/285/page
The adjustment procedure is on the following page and seems pretty straight forward

The cutoff will be too low to fully illuminate signs especially on the left side of the road. In general the cutoff is below horizontal so illumination of signs will be from scatter and reflection off of the road.
I have attached an illustration of the shape of the illuminated areas with different lighting types.
I believe "Country Road" is "normal" illumination, "Highway Light" is for speed over ~70-80 MPH and deactivated a 56 MPH.
If fog lights are turned on (light switch pulled out) a shorter/lower angle illumination is in effect up to ~45 MPH. The fog lights are a modification of the main beams pattern not separate lights.

Heath Detweiler

Thanks for the reply. I have a 2014--does this apply all the same to that model year do you know? The dealer got back with me today after looking at it yet again. From what they can tell, they say the lights are where they should be. However, they were not able to take the vehicle out at night and actually verify that the low beams are entirely too low. They are doing so early Monday morning though while it is still dark. So now I am even a little more at a loss. They said they could adjust them higher but are afraid they will be too high and thus be a danger to oncoming traffic. Apparently whatever means they use in the shop to measure it is showing the beams where they have been. So now I am waiting for them to drive the car at night to actually see that regardless of what their tests or specs are saying, the road is not in fact illuminated. If they don't fix it or give me something promising on why this issues persists, I may just adjust it myself via the information you shared. I hate tinkering with something too sophisticated on a car like this but the simple adjustment via the procedures outlined in the manual doesn't seem too complex and looks to be straightforward enough. Thanks again!

Heath Detweiler

Update: they have determined the auto leveling works. There are no codes. Light levels are adjusted to within specifications. In comparing it to another Panamera side by side they think the issue is the brightness of the LEDs but they have no idea what could be causing this. They are contacting Porche technical support now. I had read somewhere else about how someone had a module issue in that the module was not "telling" the LEDs to fully illuminate (layman's terms there). They had replaced the one module when they replaced the passenger's headlamp but used one module from the old light--I had suggested that this could be the issue but other than ordering a new one (since they have no comparable panoramas there to swap parts with) they ache no other way to test to see if this is the issue. Anyone else have any similar issues with their PDLS on any models?