Ford Galaxy - Headlight Levelling Motor Removal / Repair

[Mirez]

This describes how to remove the headlamp levelling motor located within the headlamp itself. These are usually spotted as failing when the headlamps are first turned on, an intermittent whiring noise can be heard from the offending lamp and the beam will "hunt" up and down. On Xenon headlamp equipped cars this will generally throw a fault code and the levelling system may be disabled (An MoT Failure).

The headlamp needs to be removed for this, see > Here <

If you do have Xenon headlamps, unscrew the ballast pack from the rear of the headlamp and put it to one side, the rest of the procedure is the same.

Unscrew the two star screws show and remove the rear headlamp panel:
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The motor assembly is held in place by two screws and a clip, remove the two Phillips screws from the rear of the headlamp:
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Looking inside the headlamp, the motor assembly should now be loose - lift it up and out before pulling it free from the clip. The reflector assembly will be loose as this point so pushing it forward can help gain some space. The clip itself is a ball/socket type clip so a fair bit of pressure will be required to pull the ball from the socket:
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Disconnect the wiring plug and remove the assembly - Recover the plastic cap, as this must be refitted later as the screws locate into this! Click to enlarge the smaller photo if required - this shows the part numbers of the assembly should the worst come to the worst and replacement be required! Note, its another VW part! 1J0 941 295 - as fitted to a number of VW models.
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The grey plastic cover can now be unclipped and lifted off to reveal the circuit board, motor and offending sliding resistor:
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The next step is to remove the circuit board from within the assembly, this is held in place by three clips. Two hold the board and one holds the end of the motor. Click to expand the smaller photo if required to see the clips location when the boards removed.
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This is the varistor, the sliding peg sitting up contains a conductive pad under it which slides up and down on a resistance ladder - as the motor moves the headlamp reflector in/out the sliding peg measures a resistance and the controller knows where the headlamp is. So what's the problem with it? Well over time one of two things happen, either the conductive pad wears out or, much more commonly, the pad simply isn't making a good enough contact with the ladder below. If you have a volt meter handy then measuring the resistance as the peg slides will show you if there are any poor contact patches. As you slide the peg it should feel smooth, not wobble about and have some resistance - ie, it shouldn't move on its own but require a little effort to move.

The fix is to apply a little electrical contact cleaner (IPA = Isopropyl alcohol) first and then apply some pressure to the case to bend it down so the peg is held tighter against the ladder. Push down gently where the two arrows point, remember the case metal is weak so will bend easily and its important not to cause it to deform, catching the peg and hindering the movement.

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If you do have a meter handy then you can check the full range is measured by the ladder. The values will range from around 17K ohm at the fully "up" position down to about 70 Ohm at the other end of the scale. You can see how the values change on the graph below, the peg is being moved by hand - the motor would produce a smoother curve then this.
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The final step is to rebuild everything taking care to ensure the peg locates into the gear clip!
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