The 250 is 9 years old but only owned it for 3 months and with the dark nights I’ve noticed that the xenon headlights are very poor in output. They are very low on the road and the beam barely goes 10 metres out. Are they normally that bad? Or do I need to replace them? If they need replacing which D1S bulbs are the ones to go for?
They are but they still have manual adjusters n the headlights I have Osram something in mine and they are superb but the OE bulbs wern't that bad either
On a closer inspection the headlights themselves are not cloudy but the lens in front of the bulbs are very cloudy/dirty. I’m guessing it’s a case of headlight out and splitting to clean?
No dirt should be able to get in really, I would definitely pop and get them aligned 1st, splitting them is ball ache
If your " beam barely goes 10 metres out." check you level sensor... I had the same problem in mine, it was the sensor plug out.
I´ve found this video... it´s in Polish language, you can laugh a little bit, but you will understand where´s the palce to look. It´s for a Laguna, but i think it´s in the "same" place...
I had a quick look at the lights on Saturday and manually adjusted them. They would go up so far then the adjuster kept dropping the beam down so not sure if they are broken or loose? They beam has stayed where I left it which is good.
There are small bits inside the housing that the projector clips in, may of popped out, it's like a little white plastic ball stud
If the lights first go up but then drops down, most probably it's the height sensor that is broken, either front or rear. There should be fault in memory as well telling whether it is front or rear.
They haven’t dropped back down to where they were originally. After driving in the dark with them this week they are 100% better and light the road well. I think I may have adjusted them a little too high so will sort that.
Yeah, they haven't dropped "too" low anymore because you made that manual adjustment. Even if they try to go lower, they can't get because it's mechanically limited. Your manual adjustment shouldn't be any permanent solution. Of course it can be mechanical problem as well, but usually there is no other reason why the both xenon lights stay down than the height sensors. That's why I'm assuming there is a problem with the sensor(s). If e.g someone is sitting in the backseat the dynamic level correction should adjust the beam lower according to the movements of the vehicle body recorded by the front and rear height sensors. But now the lights are already at the lowest position (i.e. against the manual adjuster) and therefore cannot be (automatically) adjusted as low as they should and your lights may dazzle other drivers. Based on my own experience I bet it's the height sensor. Although it is tempting to leave the lights as they are now I think at least you should read the fault memory with some Renault-specific reader to see if there is something wrong with the height sensors. Then fix / change the sensor(s) and adjust the manual beam adjuster back to it's original position (or close to that wherever it belongs to). Just to be sure it is not the sensor.
I recently had this problem and the advice here really helped. After changing the bushes at the rear, the garage had knocked the mount and bent it. This resulted in the lights dropping to a few metres in front. Got under the car, found the bent mount (it's literally a finger of metal), straightened it and all resolved.
