My 2009 Clubman S has the headlights that move up and down when I am cresting a hill or going over speedbumps. I don't particularly care for it because there is a delay in the movement. I'd rather disable the feature. They are Xenon/HID.

I know there are sensors on the front and rear suspension that tell the headlights to move. I suspect I could unplug the sensors but I don't know if that would cause a fault or get the connectors to corrode.

Does anyone know if there is a good way to disable this feature? I do have NCS Expert but haven't been able to get into some modules, though I did program my sunroof and windows successfuly.

 

Those aren't adaptive headlights but rather auto leveling. They ensure that that whatever the angle of your MINI that the headlights are always pointed to the road.

Adaptive headlights are designed to track as your car turns - turn the wheel to the left and the adaptive lights angle a bit to the left etc... They typically have an auto leveling feature, however in your case you have auto leveling and not adaptive (I'm almost positive MINI didn't offer adaptive headlights back in 2009).

For the safety of others on the road - do not disable this function.

 

Nice to see you edited the thread to acknowledge that your headlights are self-leveling and not adaptive...

But again, I re-iterate. Do not attempt to disable this function. It is a required safety function for Xenon lights that ensures that they are always aimed properly and do not blind oncoming drivers.

 

The self-leveling is meant to compensate for tilt caused by cargo loaded in the car. The mechanism is fairly slow (notice the speed of its motion when you start the car). Nowhere near fast enough to respond to bumps. Are you sure what you're seeing isn't just motion from the suspension? Xenon/HID have a sharp cutoff that makes up and down motion more obvious than halogens.

 

Yes, I am positive I can see the headlights moving up or down when I crest a hill or go over a speed bump. I don't see them move over small bumps. I did not consider that they would also adjust for cargo but that makes perfect sense.

Mbabischkin, I understand there is a benefit to the leveling feature preventing the headlights from blinding oncoming traffic but in over 2 years of ownership I've only had heavy cargo once, and when cresting hills and speed bumps it only helps a little and for a half second or so. Plus lots of other cars with Xenon headlights don't have this feature so I don't see the problem in disabling it. And from my viewpoint, when the headlights make an on-the-fly adjustment they also have to un-adjust as soon as I am done cresting the hill or speed bump, which means that they are aiming too low or too high for a short time.

 

I've been able to see the levelling working if I accelerate hard in a straight line for more than a couple of seconds. Start from a stop and get on it, lights go up because of weight transfer to the rear, stay on it, lights come back down, lift off, lights dip with the weight transfer back to the front, then lights go up again back to level. Great fun!

 

Yes, anything that compresses or extends the front suspension more than the back causes the lights to go up or down. If the movement of the lights was fast enough not to detect then I wouldn't mind. But by the time the lights move I almost no longer need them in the new position. I am sure there is nothing wrong with them, just the way they operate, but I find it annoying and that's why I want to disable the movement.

 

The levelling is a legal requirement I think, as are the washers, on Xenons more than 25W power (these are 35W). The new retrofit kits that can put Xenons onto vehicles that came with halogens are 25W so they have no levelling, and have no washers either.

I'm pretty sure the motion is controlled from the footwell module (not sure what that's called in NCS Expert). The Xenons on my Roadster stopped moving and stuck pointing skywards, and the fix was a new footwell module.

 

Thanks for your response. I will do some searching on the legal requirement. The motion does not bother me enough to disable it if it is legally required.