caverman

I noticed a couple weeks ago that my passenger headlight was pointing down to the ground and that it wasn’t self adjusting itself. I did not get any kind or error message displayed in my instrument panel. When I did some research I was finding very limited information about my specific issue. Most of the threads I found dealt with the error message I the dashboard. Finally I was able to dig around a find a few things that helped me and I’m going to post them here. I thought I would add some information out to the community in case any one else came across the same type of issue. In this picture you can see the passenger side is pointing downwards.

Ultimately it made sense that it was the AFS motor on the back of the headlight. A new OEM part was supposed to be in the $200 range so I went to eBay and bought a used one for $30. I decided that while I already had my headlight out I was going to go ahead and replace my bulbs since I had no idea on their age and it was only about $100 to get a set of Phillips OEM style bulbs. If you change one bulb, you should change the other at the same time.




Following the threads I went ahead and replaced the fuse in the passenger side inside panel but I figured it was a long shot since my driver’s side headlight was working correctly.



https://remont-bampera.com/en/lexus-ls-430-2000-2006

caverman

Honestly, to take the bumper cover loose and headlight out it’s pretty easy. The first one took me a while because I couldn’t figure out where the two main nuts were. Once I found them, it wasn’t bad to get to them using a long extension. The second headlight came out in half the time as the first.



Reference videos and threads I found that were helpful but I’m posting some pictures that will hopefully give you a better idea on where the nuts are located in order to remove the bumper cover and how the headlight comes out of the pin holder in the fender.













You don’t have to take the wheel off. Just turn it to the opposite side to give yourself some room. If you are using a cordless drill like I was, you’ll probably have to jack up each side a little just so you can get to the bolts that hold the engine under pan to the bumper cover.

caverman

Once you pull back the inner fender well you have to really look inside to se the bumper cover nuts.

The AFS motor's arm fits into a plastic cup type of thing. That's why you have to kind of pull on it hard to get it out. When putting it back in you have to grab a hold of the plastic chrome section of the reflector and pull it up to snap it onto the motor's arm (refer to the video in the first post). I tried to taking the best picture I could to show the inside plastic cup.

nvwls

Thanks for posting this DIY.

Do you know if there are any other motors in the headlamp or this the only one responsible for the AFS? I wasn't able to find a good parts diagram for the headlamp.

Trying to troubleshoot my AFS light for which no codes pop up on TechStream. I had water in my headlamp, which caused my R headlight to go out. I was able to fix the light itself by replacing the ballast, but the AFS light begins to flash when it tries to activate when driving at night. The normal up-down movement of the headlights upon start-up still occurs in both headlights so I suspect that it is a problem with the left-right movement - but is that done by a separate motor or the one you mention here?

caverman

I don't think there is another motor for the AFS. At least that's the only one I saw or read about. For $30 and an hour or so of work it would be worth trying to just replace the motor. In theory, I guess there is always a possibility that the moisture inside the headlight might have rusted something inside the AFS motor just enough to keep it from moving.

nvwls

Do you have a part number for this one? Is it 85661-50040 or 85661-48030?

caverman

I don't remember exactly. This is the one I bought and it worked.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/17454461899...53.m1438.l2649