My mates had a shock today... His car a 58 Scout has just failed the MOT... the culprit the Xenon headlights...seems the self adjusting motor has failed and they are now set too high :-(

Now I am no expert but I imagine that's not an easy or cheap fix, anyone any ideas and I will pass them on!

I'm fairly sure the motor for the height adjustment is the same on both xenon and non-xenon equipped Octavia's so sourcing a replacement shouldn't be an issue.

How does the MOT tester know that it is the motor that has failed? I assume they are no longer self levelling? It may also be the sensor on the rear axel which tells the xenon's how high they need to be, although they should then default to the lowest setting not the highest.

My 2008 (08) Scout arrived with the xenon headlights aimed too high. My local dealer performed a 'reset' and they have been fine ever since.

Hes not sure... just said the headlights are not adjusted/ing

I thought I had Xenons but apparently not as I have an adjuster wheel in the car?

Hes at the dealers now getting a second opinion!

He's in the right place then. I'm sure the MOT tester will have checked the alignment and found them aimed too high and wasn't willing to adjust them himself. Probably a good thing as you shouldn't manually level xenon's as it affects their ability to self level. They need to be reset using a diagnostics system.

The best check is to park facing a wall, turn the engine off, turn on the headlights and then turn the ignition on. Xenon headlights perform a calibration (often called a dance) on start up whereby they rise up and down (and left to right on the later Octavia AFS II xenon's). If your mate can see this happening then it isn't the motors at fault.

Hes not sure... just said the headlights are not adjusted/ing

I thought I had Xenons but apparently not as I have an adjuster wheel in the car?

Hes at the dealers now getting a second opinion!

Do you have headlight washer jets? You're not mistaking the dashboard illumination adjuster wheel in the car are you?

Both xenon and non-xenon equipped Scouts get the headlight washer jets.

As does the Elegance.

Both xenon and non-xenon equipped Scouts get the headlight washer jets.

As does the Elegance.

Bah! That's blown my fool-proof how-to-tell-if-a-car-has-xenons system right out of the water!

The only other way on the pre-facelift is to check for the manual control to adjust the headlight height next to the light switch. This is blanked off on xenon-equipped Octavia's as they self-level.

However, it is still possible to check externally on facelift (FL) Octavia's. The FL xenon's come equipped with AFS II which basically adds left and right movement to the existing up and down movement. To do this they have had to make a slight modification to the reflector just next to the projector lens. It has a small square cut out - so now you can tell!

Mine also failed for the same reason.

I put car up close to my garage door and then manually adjusted the height and reset them with the VCDS, all fine then, passes the MOT (also failed on my side LEDS being too blue, I had a second set of different design in my garage and just swapped them over)

Why would have the manual adjustments there, if your not supposed to use them?

Why would have the manual adjustments there, if your not supposed to use them?

If you have Xenons you shouldn't try to manually adjust them like this. They have to be put into an adjustment mode using VCDS before you physically adjust them. Doing it manually could break the adjusters the next time you use the headlights and they self-check. Some people over on the Audi forums have found this out the hard way.