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Headlights adjusted unexpectedly?

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Avendit

Active Member
Apr 18, 2019
1,484
1,107
EDI
Just wondering if anyone else ever had this?

Car has been sat for a few days, and I've not used the dipped headlights for a couple of weeks. When I went out this eve they were not pointing where they used to? A quick re calibration in the service menu once I was stopped has sorted it, but was very surprised they had moved, apparently of their own accord?

Car is sitting on 48.12.1 and prompting to install 48.35.5, but I'm holding on to my old UI until the update adds something I want.

The lights weren't waaaay out and were fine to get me to the supermarket, but out on an A road they would have been much too short. I wonder if stuff like this is what makes people think the headlights are rubbish! (I don't, as long as they are adjusted right).
 
Yes. Has happened to me twice now, possibly three times including the misalignment from new. First time I was getting flashed a lot with the lights dipped, so took it to the local garage and together we worked out how to adjust them (they were way off, and the Tesla SC is ~40 miles away). Second time was just after an update, I think, Started getting flashed again, took the car back to the local garage and the lights had moved and were way out again. Third time, just after an update, and the lights were yet again pointing skywards, this time at the upper limit of their adjustment range. Stopped the car, went into the service menu and started the adjustment process and they just motored back to more or less where they should be, without me needing to actually adjust them. I did notice on Friday night that I was getting flashed again though, so I suspect they've yet again moved up a bit, so I'll pop back into the local garage sometime and get them adjusted yet again.
 
Weird. My car was in the SC on Tuesday for a new pillar camera. Driving in the dark last night the dipped lights were way to low with the top edge of the light not more than 10m in front of the car. I simply thought that the SC has reset them. I had raised the dipped level manually when I got the car because you really cant drive it at night with the shap edge of the lights so close.
 
If you hit the adjust headlights button in the service menu while parked on a flat surface, they go through a self calibration cycle which -should- end up with them pretty much right. You then get the option to move them individually if the auto didn't get it right.

'right' is something like 1.5 degrees downwards from level, but if you can't measure this, aim for a car about 30m away (a few rows in a carpark) and make sure your lights are hitting the numberplate, but not the windscreen.
 
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There's another thread from a while back with the same issue. Seems fairly common. Mine had gone way too high with the right higher than the left, almost like it had resorted to a LHD setup. It's good that it's easy to fix, but annoying that there's no notice that it's changed until people start flashing you, or you can't see when you go to drive off.
 
Sorry to raise an old post, buttttt... I can confirm the same. :)

Headlight alignment seems to randomly change after running the manual headlight alignment as they were only shining maybe 1 car length ahead, making it next to impossible to drive at speed and see any kind of road debris that might be ahead.

I also noticed that it seemed to happen after updates, however, it also started happening when I'd get in my car on a sloped driveway. If I aligned my headlights there, getting in on flat ground would make them out of alignment again. Kind of like some sort of gyro drift is going on, why does it even change the alignment in the first place...? It's supposed to based on weight and 'driving style' according to my local service center, but I'm not sure what the latter meant really.

Did any of you figure out anything about this? Or do you just keep running the headlight calibration to correct it?