I was doing some work on my car today when I discovered that the projector assembly of my car's driver's side headlight is moving around loose in the headlight housing. I have not removed the lamp from the car yet, but I was wondering if this is a normal occurrence and whether or not it can be fixed.

 

Probably slammed the hood too hard, or hit a big bump on the road. The FL xenon units have a ball and socket which can pop loose in the housing. I think you need to take apart the headlight to snap it back into place. You might be able to do it through back cover in the housing, but I'm not sure if you can get enough leverage to pop it back together.

 

Big bump in the road is a likely cause. I routinely have to go through the large construction project on I-75 south of Atlanta.

I will be removing the housing this weekend to see if I can get this straightened out. Thanks for the tip.

 

Pulled the headlight; ball and socket joints intact on both sides of the light. Adjustment seems way out. Maybe fixing that will solve the issue.

Edit: when I put it back into the car, everything worked correctly and the auto-level check function worked. So I guess whatever I touched managed to free up the mechanism. On the down side, the auto-level function did not work on the passenger headlight, so I get to pull that one next for a look-see...

 

Continuing along... I pulled the passenger side headlight today. One of the ball and socket joints had come apart. Using a long screwdriver, I was able to exert enough pressure to pop the joint back into place. After reinstalling the light, I turned them on. Neither one moved as part of the auto-level test, but if my memory is correct, that doesn't always happen.

For now, I need to work on getting them aimed correctly. All of my manipulations in the housing has left the beams wall-eyed and high.

More to follow...