Well I have discovered that mine doesn't work, but thats not much of a surprise after reading threads here.

The question is, everyone says they are a sealed unit and should be replaced as a whole, but why is this the case surely there must be some way to refill the system at home. has anyone out there tried to fix the system or is everyone just living with a broken one or forking out a wodge on a new system?

On my first it worked for a while then slowly packed up. On my second it was already broken when I bought the car. I'm afraid I had the lights re-adjusted and forgot about it. I wondered if it was possible to refill the fluid but never carry that much weight in the back to really need to use it.

Is there a way to convert it to cable rather than fluid?

It might be in the Haynes.

I'll have to read it

The anti-freeze hydraulic fluid leaks out over time. The whole unit has to be replaced. All it's there for anyway is when you stick seriously heavy stuff in your boot to stop your lights pointing up into the sky. So long as when you drive along your lights light up the number plate of the car in front, and not the inside of their roof, you should be causing no menace to other road users and be ok

I know that it doesn't really matter as long as my headlight aim is legal for MOT and all that, but considering the number of people that have had problems with it and even failed MOTs on it I thought it would be good to try and sort it, plus im in a tinkering mood with the felly at the moment seeing as its new to me and all.

The Haynes manual just says replace it as a whole like everywhere else.

I thought if it was just a matter of refilling the system I could pretty much use any kind of oil as I doubt the system needs very much pressure to operate and it doesn't matter if it doesn't work as well as it should.

cheers,

Rich

I'm not sure that it is an oil. I think it may be a water and antifreeze sort of thing. The hoses look very much like screen wash hoses if I'm looking at the right thing.

I don't see any reason why you couldn't find the leak and refill the thing tbh, you could even use uprated hose and fluid, the only real issue is bleeding the thing as far as I can see, since its hydraulic any amount of air in it would be near fatal to the operation.

you could do it with a syringe and needle to carefully extract any air.

mines not working either and would like to get it sorted as im running a motorcycle collection business sort of thing with the fun.