savedsol

My '04 was out of the 48K/4yr warranty based on time as of 7/29/07. In October my headlight leveling MIL (malfunction indicator light) would come on when I started the car and turn off after driving a bit. Weeks later it never turned off. Someone on the board tipped me that there was a TSB here: http://www.finishlineperformance.com...8-07-1729a.pdf
But I called Mazda and they wouldn't honor the work because, "A TSB is not a recall".

So rather than spend $360 per sensor Mazda Motorsports cost (membership has it's priveleges) or Mazda's cost of $550 for the front and $600 for the rear, I thought I'd be no less in the hole than to tear one of these open and see what the fuss is about.

Read the TSB on removal because I'm taking it from there...

Difficulty level: 1 on a scale of 5
Tools need: Phillips screwdriver, really small flat head screwdriver, files, dielectric grease*, marine grade silicone
*the 98 cent packet at the auto parts check out is more than enough

1) We only need the sensor, leave the metal bits attached to the car or on the side.
2) Unscrew the four screws that hold the back of the sensor on. WARNING! hold the case closed while loosening screws and very gently release pressure. There are three springs waiting to shoot out on the unsuspecting DIYer and get lost in your carpet.
3) Pic 1 - This is what you end up with - a case, case back, pendulum and 3 gold springs. Hardly the stuff of $550 dollars eh?
4) Pic 2 - Analyze your situation. My middle spring was corroded and the spring seat was too. Turns out a lot of that corrosion can be scraped away since the stuff is made out of gold or at least plated. My spring was in bad shape though and broke in two while cleaning it. I took the best looking 1/2 and stretched it out to longer than the normal sized spring. Then I took an assortment of tools from flat head screwdrivers to files and cleaned the junk off all of the seats and springs. Also look at the external contacts and make sure they are clean.
5) Pic 3 - Put it back together. You'll see my bad springs stick up high so they have a good amount of "bounce" and will always remain in contact with the sensor top. Before putting them back in though put a good glob of dielectric grease on the bottom of each one where they contact the gold seats (not to much so it gets in contact with other springs). Put the pendulum back in place (Pic 4) - location doesn't matter.
5) Screw the top back on the sensor like you would lugnuts on your wheel, so you achieve even pressure.
6) Reassemble everything, put dielectric grease on contacts in the plug and the spindle that goes into the sensor body, seal with silicone (as shown in TSB) and pray!

My light is now off and hopefully yours will be too!

Other notes: if your springs are totally shot you could easily replace them with some thing else as long as it can carry a current: copper, gold, silver. If worse comes to worse buy one from a junked 8 and maybe it will be perfect, if not at least you can play Dr Frankenstein with the parts.

savedsol

Remember, these are already broken. You've got nothing to lose except time by giving it a shot.

Determining which one is at fault without opening is not too likely. My rear plug that went into the sensor looked fine so I just put dielelectric grease in the contact holes, reassembled and siliconed the leads. The front had a very tiny bit of corrosion on one of the leads coming out of the sensor. The DIY above is for the front sensor.

swoope

iTrader: (5)

very well done.

beers

Spinning Sushi

iTrader: (21)

Genius!

TrochoidMagic

as far as the auto leveling sensor goes... i can really care less about "auto-leveling" if i just made sure i adjusted the headlights a smidge higher and better, then left as is. i have a question about running without the sensors, period. like a post somewhere that someone said, its another thing to break.

so are there any "warning" lights that will stay oon the dash if i removed the sensors? or would there be an complete assembly to be removed?

i'd just like to ask in case someone has already attempted this in a quest to shave a few pounds. or lose a few unwanted mumbo jumbo.

TrochoidMagic

anyone? anyone at all?

savedsol

You posted one minute later looking for an answer. Not to mention it was 3 am!

Your answer plain and simple is you can surely remove all of the hardware and save another 5-10lbs off your car. You'll have the headlight auto level malfunction indicator on your dash though. No way around it except removing the bulb or a piece of electrical tape over it.

dazed01

You can test them with 3 AA batteries and a multimeter, but it's a PITA and it looks easier to just take them apart.

savedsol

Indeed you can (as mentioned in the linked TSB). However you can't see if they are bad or not.

dazed01

You can see on the multimeter :P

savedsol

r15

I have a question about sensor calibration. I was having similar problems with my headlights so i took apart the sensor and everything looked fine. I put the sensor back on the car the headlights were pointing too low so i looked at the sensor again and changed the angle between the internal arm relative to the outside arm and now the headlights are too high. They still respond when i put weight in the trunk by a few degrees but overall they are now too high. I was wondering if there is a specific angle the internal arm has to be to the outside lever, or if there is a way to re-align or calibrate the headlights or sensors.

Thanks

WpgDSMer

I had my headlight leveling all messed up. The light came on a couple of times, but is out mostly. I noticed that the lights were pointing at odd levels even thou the light was out so I decided to re-level them. Later they would change for no reason, still without the warning light. If you have an older car before the put on the new connectors, I would do the sensor check and seal the wires, even if you don't notice anything.
I ran the test and the rear one was fine, but the front did not have the correct output (as per the TSB). When I took mine apart, it was in much worse condition than the one shown here. All three springs were severely corroded and broke apart when I removed them. Unfortunately my camera battery was dead when I did this, so I don't have any pics. I did take the rear one apart later, just to double check, and took some pictures (it was in really good condition).
As far as the springs go, I'm going to try find some brass or stainless springs to put in place, but just about anything seems to work. For now I have used pen springs cut to the proper length and it seems to be working fine. Not sure I want to leave it that way, but seems ok for now.
I think 99% of the problems will be with the front sensor. The wiring on the rear one goes up into the sensor, so water is less likely to leak in. On the front, the wires go down into the sensor, so any leaks will allow water to drain in. If you've messed with your headlight level, and even if you didn't, you should re-level you lights after messing with the sensors.

R15: I'm assuming you've sorted out your headlight issue, but if not... The sensors adjust the headlights from a reference point. If they are working properly (as per the TSB test) you just need to perform a headlight leveling as per the shop manual. Once set, the sensors will adjust from that point (again, assuming they are working properly). Adjusting the sensor arm angle would be a very difficult way to fine tune the level of your lights.

r15

WpgDSMer,

Thanks for a response. I have fixed everything and now it works great. You are right about the front sensor, the connector looked fine inside but once apart it was that rusty and corroded even the black resistance strips were rubbed off and kinda resembled wet sand. Not once did I receive an indicator light. Every week or two I would turn on the headlights and they would point at the ground, then stay like it for a few days and go back to a "normal" level. So for the third time I took the car to Mazda and this time I gave them a copy of the TSB and said look at the front sensor. They replaced it under warranty (which is up in a month!). So I was happy with that however my headlights are a little high now that the front sensor was fixed. So this is where it gets cool.

After picking up a multimeter and calibrating the rear sensor according to the TSB, everything looks fine. I was thinking, the sensor is really just a fancy potentiometer (pot) which mounts on the suspension. So really the signal is just a voltage measure of resistance, feeding back to the headlight control module. So I figured maybe the sensor can be "fine tuned" with a variable resistor or simply another pot. So, after a little bit of experimenting I found by tapping into one of the three leads you can easily control the angle of the beam. So now I have solved the little problem I read some people complaining about on another thread concerning the cut-off line of the headlights being too dark on the highway, well now with a flick of a switch i can angle my headlights to any angle I want. Up a little for the highway, and down a little for around the city. Cool, but a tricky mod, and you have to be careful not to fool with it too much and possibly interfere with your traction control, or to blind other drivers, etc. I was thinking about posting the procedure online but haven't gotten around to it yet. If yourself, WpgDSMer, or anyone else would like to see how to control the angle of your auto-leveling headlights, respond to this and I'll get around to it a little faster.

Have a good one!

R

WpgDSMer

I like the idea of an adjustable level. I wonder if you could just get the switch that the euro cars get that allows you to make this adjustment? I'd be interested to see how you did it, but I don't plan on doing it any time soon if at all (I'll see how I like the lights now that they are at the proper level) so take your time.

sveltina

Just had a quote from Mazda for £834 to sort both my front sensors out i've asked for the car back, will be trying the above worst case scenario ill still have to get them to fix it but decided nothing to lose by at least trying this.

Does anyone have any decent pics of where these sensors are located?

sveltina

Took it apart unfortunately mine is completely f'd

Even the metal on one of the contacts has broken off, anyone know of where i can order one of these parts cheaper than £321.26 incl vat???

Here is the details of where i found the info to get the part as the other link no longer worked, hopefully this will help someone else.

http://www.finishlineperformance.com...8-07-1729a.pdf

Transam kid 01

iTrader: (1)

Do all RX8s have auto leveling? I have never seen mine auto lever, and they seem to be projecting very low, however, I have never noticed a light.

I have an 04 sport MT with an existing warranty. Should I get it checked out?

savedsol

If you have factory HIDs you have auto leveling. I wouldn't bother with it unless you get the dreaded MIL (malfunction indicator light/lamp).

lorryload

Ok so i have the part off the car and opened up and it is totally coroded / rusted up. All but one spring is completely knackered. Anyone have an idea where i might get some replacement ones?

WpgDSMer

I picked up some stainless steel springs from McMaster Carr (www.mcmaster.com). I can't remember which ones, but I had to cut them to length. I'm not sure if they sell to non-companies anymore either, but if you can't find another source, give them a try.

savedsol

See step #4 in my post. They springs themselves don't seem to rust, just get gunk all over them. They are fragile though. If they do need replaced pretty much any metal spring or comparable diameter will work. Just needs to conduct electricity. If you find a spring at your hardware store that's similar diameter you could easily cut it to length.

lorryload

Thanks. Nice post by the way. Amazing how something so simple can cost so much to replace.

My springs were so jammed in and blocked up they couldn't be removed without destroying them. HAve it all cleaned out now and on the hunt for some new ones. Gonna try a spring from my pen if i can't find something in hardware store! Also thought about coiling wire around something to create a spring...i'll see what i come up with.

Incidently lights are working fine and are still raising up to what seems to be the correct level with front sensor removed. I'll post pics of my problem and solution when i get there

ps how robust are the contacts on the back of the plate that the top of the springs slide along? Don't want to scrape the gunk too much in case i damage them...

pps was turning the arm very stiff for you - like so it took a lot of force to rotate?

viprez586

iTrader: (5)

At work (Lexus) if the arms have a lot of resistance we replace them.
Our height sensors are built the exact same at Lexus. Any time I replace one, I take out the good springs and toss the rest of them. If anyone is in need of purchasing the exact correct size springs, PM me. I do however only get to take them from non-warranty sensors, so getting them in perfect condition is rare.

Eliminating the sensors completely would be nice, however traction control, ABS, and other modules (or computers if you will) look at the height sensors to determine output's to the traction/stability control system and ABS system.

It would be a different story if our cars only had 1 height sensor - just for the headlight leveling, but since there is two, it compares both of them.

My mother's car (Nissan Murano) has a rheostat switch for adjusting the headlight level, If something like this was possible I'd be all for it.
It would be a long time before i try anything like a rheostat switch because of the fact that I can get access to parts from used/failed sensors.

lorryload

savedsol you're a legend

After taking it all apart, cleaning oiling and pondering how to replace the springs i took apart a biro and used the spring from that! Snipped it in half and had two the perfect length. A bit of tweaking at the ends and they were ready to go. Put everything back together and bingo lights working perfectly saving me €500. Cheapest repair ever - pen was free, ironically from 'engineers ireland'