Xantia headlight beam setting

[sparksie]

Well, I suppose it had to happen, sooner or later.
We brought the Cit to Dublin today, for a hospital visit, and got home again with nothing having broken or fallen off.
That's a new record for us. Nearly 200 miles and no new troubles!
The only fly in the ointment is, as I knew already, but assigned a low priority to it, the headlight beams are set too low.
They're ok for small rural roads, but no use for high speeds on open roads.
Once I'd jettisoned the family, I popped round to the workshop for a play with the beam setter.
I quickly found the horizontal adjustment, under the rubber grommet at the outer ends of the bonnet slam panel. It takes a hex key... a very long one!
The vertical adjuster took a while longer to find, in the middle of the lamp, high up under the bulb cover. I couldn't figure out what implement I needed to use on them. They're not hex, nor flat, square, triangular, torx, or anything I could think of.
Is there a special Citroen tool, or am I missing something?
These are so far down that the beam setter is no use for setting left/right, as the pattern is off the scale, so I think I'd better fix it.
As usual, any help much appreciated...
Thanks guys

[Xaccers]

They're all hex, the same size, however quite often they get rounded off. The ones on the top have a sort of cap which fits into the lamp unit's hex adjuster and has a hex socket on top for your allen key to fit, so if the socket in the cap has rounded then you could remove it and go direct to the adjuster. The slam panel might need removing for access to remove the caps, I can't remember off the top of my head.
Otherwise you could pop the back cover off the lamp unit and use a philips screwdriver directly, although be very careful as the plastic is soft and damages easily.

[sparksie]

I think I'll pull a light out in the morning and see can I figure out what you mean.
Access is too tight with them in situ and I can't see properly. The up/down adjuster seems very different form the left/right, so I guess there's a chance I'm looking at the wrong thing.
Pity. I was hoping for a 15 minute play, followed by a transformed experience driving home. I should have known better

[jgra1]

do the relay mod too sparksie,,

yes agree with xac, all adjusters should be or were once 6mm? allens


John

[sparksie]

do the relay mod too sparksie


John

Hi John

Yes, though not tomorrow!
Last time I did that, was on an E28 BMW. They use H4 bulbs in their outer headlights, which in standard form are used for dip beam only. The high beam filament is never used. The dipped beam filament remains lit, even when the inner, high beam, lights are on.
The customer fitted brighter (and probably illegal!) bulbs and "uprated" fuses to try and improve night vision, but only succeeded in burning the headlamp wiring loom.
I rewired it, with relays for both on/off and high/low beam, giving four high beams instead of two and safeguarding against future bulb replacements.
Even with the correct 60/55W E4s fitted, the view was transformed.
So far, my Cit appears to be unmolested, electrically, which seems to be unusual, judging by what I've been reading on here.
Assuming Citroen used the same criteria for specifying their wiring as their Peugeot and Renault counterparts, any upgrade that improves safety is definitely worthwhile. Are there any R19s, or R21s left? Judging by the contents of the breakers, back when they were common, dashboard fires claimed most of them. I've lost count of the no of 9s and 11s that burned out the wiring to the cooling fan, due to the fan motor becoming a little stiff. Peugeot's are better, though not by much. They tend to malfunction, rather than spontaneously combust.
A good rule of thumb when working around French electrics is, leave fuses as standard, or drop a size. Simultaneously, increase wire gauge by about half and, for high current items, incorporate relays, because the switches just can't hack it!
With classics it pays to identify all unfused circuits and retro-fit fuses. And remember, fuses are to protect the wiring, not whatever's on the end of it! Select fuses accordingly and avoid lighting up the loom! Also remember most fuses will carry over double their rated current for a limited time! Err on the side of caution...

[citronut]

quite often the cause for hydraulic cit's having there beams set to low, is at the MOT station the un/initiated MOT tester will set the lamps up with the engine off,
which in quite a few cases the suspension sinks one end or the other,

[sparksie]

Yes, that thought had crossed my mind.
Mine doesn't sink, or at least, not much.
Still, it doesn't take much of a droop to make the lights point skywards.
In any event, whenever I can find time, I'll be setting the lights and I know I need the engine running!
Cheers for the input.