Headlight Sockets Loose

[Bigguy136]

I have a 2014 Tenere I bought with 4300 miles on it and the headlights have always been high. With winter here in the north, I can get my to-do things done. I was adjusting the headlights and wanted to understand everything better so I pulled the light housing out. When looking inside the housing, I noticed the light sockets were not solid. There are two adjuster screws diagonal with a 3rd pivot socket. The pivot socket was a ball and socket but the ball was not snapped into the socket. Below is showing an overall where the pivots are located, the before and after snapping the sockets in place. If you are wondering if yours are the same, pull the bulb covers off, grab the wire connector on the bulb and try to move diagonally. It will be secure in one direction but loose in the other direction.

 

[BadNews]

Thanks for posting this. I noticed my headlights have some "shake" when going over bumps, and I was wondering if it was normal. I swapped in some of the Cyclops LED's today and checked everything, including what you said. Everything seemed tight, so I am just attributing it to normal flex in the headlight assembly. Good to know about that ball and socket joint, though.

 

[Bigguy136]

The socket will be tight in one diagonal direction but not the other.

 

[Gigitt]

This ball and socket is pretty standard for light housing in both car and motorcycle.

one is fixed and 2 others are attached to the adjustment mechanisms.

There was a bloke on here recently having high beam flashing issues and I told him to do exactly as you did and see if the internal housing wiggles - as it could be the ball and socket mounts.

Note that this is something to check when buying replacement headlights even for cars... if they have been in an accident, the ball can pop out of the socket, or the post holding the ball can break.

Good that you have taken pics of this, as we did not have pics referencing the inside of the headlights.