Onboard Scales Wrong - Affects Headlights

[Snakebitten]

I doubt Glare Free is in conflict with "auto leveling".
But I'm the last one to be sceptical of a software bug.

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[J17GT]

I do not have glare free enabled.

 

[BAP84]

My issue has been since the day I drove it off the lot, so not the change to glare free in my case causing the issue I can confirm that in my case at least. Just recently (a few days ago) enabled glare free... Owned the truck since February 22. Been adjusting headlights based on payload in the bed ever since lol. Now that I have glare free enabled I’m going to do more testing tonight after work and I’ll report back with what I find.

 

[antho]

Yeah. It gets kind of confusing. The Raptor and vehicles with a VDM send the height data via Lin if i remember correctly. Vehicles without have the front height sensors send the data directly to the HCM. So i need to figure out what pids for which setup. I know the pid for the front level sensor always read 0 Volts but the Front height sensor worked showed the height changing in mm.

 

[BAP84]

Ok. I have glare free enabled and im not really seeing any leveling. I can see the key on initialization but putting weight in bed and jacking up on the bumper just moves the light as if its stationary. Going to go look at some stuff and report back.

@BAP84 See Edit
EDIT: Did some testing. Lifting the driver side front showed the headlights calculating and adjusting to level. But by level it was looking at the difference between the left side and front side and balancing that out. So mine are "leveling" the difference between left and right but they balanced to the higher light (driver side) Gonna test some more on the front/rear aspect. Heck, Maybe we are thinking of leveling in the wrong aspect?

After looking at the schematics you posted earlier I think what you mentioned here in this post @antho makes sense but I’m not positive. It appears the leveling only uses data from the left side height sensors?

 

[antho]

After looking at the schematics you posted earlier I think what you mentioned here in this post @antho makes sense but I’m not positive. It appears the leveling only uses data from the left side height sensors?

I think it’s just showing left for example. I’m gonna look into it more tomorrow. Hopefully have an answer for Raptor and others. From what I saw today it was only leveling the Right side to match the left. I didn’t jack up the right side so I will check that tomorrow too. Then dig further into rear/front pids

 

[BAP84]

Did a fair amount if messing around and collecting some data tonight. Without a doubt the leveling feature is “leveling” in the wrong direction. First I measured the unloaded ride height from the ground to the lip on the fender flares front and rear to get a baseline height. The rear sits at 41.25” and front 40.75”. Then I set up a 40” measuring device on a wall with tape lines every 12” from the ground for easier reference. With the truck unloaded the headlight cutoff line was basically exactly the same at 36” above the ground with and without the leveling feature active (key on engine running headlight switch to auto vs key off engine off and headlight switch to the on position). However, that’s where the similarities ended. I put 300 lbs of sand bags on the tailgate to simulate the tongue weight of roughly a 3000lb trailer. With the leveling on, the height jumped up to 43” from 36” unloaded and the leveling feature off yielded 41” or 2” lower and closer to the unloaded cutoff line measurement. With a jack back under the hitch I lifted the rear of the truck up and recorded measurements every 1” I went up with the back. I’ll attach the spreadsheet so you guys can see the data but it’s clear the self leveling feature at least on my truck is backwards. Lastly I wanted to see what would happen if I just loosened the rear ride height sensor to where I could move it a bit separate from the suspension to see which way the headlights are moving. Same conclusion…interesting to watch it work though. Hopefully all of this kinda makes sense. I’m tired and it’s well past my bedtime lol…I’ll share more pictures with explanations later.

 

[vidwiz]

Did a fair amount if messing around and collecting some data tonight. Without a doubt the leveling feature is “leveling” in the wrong direction. First I measured the unloaded ride height from the ground to the lip on the fender flares front and rear to get a baseline height. The rear sits at 41.25” and front 40.75”. Then I set up a 40” measuring device on a wall with tape lines every 12” from the ground for easier reference. With the truck unloaded the headlight cutoff line was basically exactly the same at 36” above the ground with and without the leveling feature active (key on engine running headlight switch to auto vs key off engine off and headlight switch to the on position). However, that’s where the similarities ended. I put 300 lbs of sand bags on the tailgate to simulate the tongue weight of roughly a 3000lb trailer. With the leveling on, the height jumped up to 43” from 36” unloaded and the leveling feature off yielded 41” or 2” lower and closer to the unloaded cutoff line measurement. With a jack back under the hitch I lifted the rear of the truck up and recorded measurements every 1” I went up with the back. I’ll attach the spreadsheet so you guys can see the data but it’s clear the self leveling feature at least on my truck is backwards. Lastly I wanted to see what would happen if I just loosened the rear ride height sensor to where I could move it a bit separate from the suspension to see which way the headlights are moving. Same conclusion…interesting to watch it work though. Hopefully all of this kinda makes sense. I’m tired and it’s well past my bedtime lol…I’ll share more pictures with explanations later.

Incredible, great work! I'll see if i can duplicate.

 

[antho]

OK, Did some testing and mine for sure is backwards. I can jack the back up and watch the headlights slowly adjust down further after truck has stopped moving. Same for when i let the jack down, The headlights slowly move higher up. When it should be reversed.

 

[BAP84]

OK, Did some testing and mine for sure is backwards. I can jack the back up and watch the headlights slowly adjust down further after truck has stopped moving. Same for when i let the jack down, The headlights slowly move higher up. When it should be reversed.

Yeah that’s exactly what mine does. Just finished checking the wires at the height sensors to make sure something isn’t pinned backwards but they match the schematic at least at the sensor end. I don’t have time right now to dig any further into the wiring pinouts but I’ll get back to it later. Looks like the LH height sensors feed straight to the HCM. Maybe a programming error in the HCM?

 

[vidwiz]

Sounds like you guys are on it but heres a possible temporary partial fix? hcm spreadsheet line 5, turn off dynamic headlamp leveling.

 

[Snakebitten]

The power of the collective!

The only missing ingredient for perfect resolutions to things like this are the unexplainable lack of leveraging a forum by the manufacturer. It's crazy.

They could save Million$ AND increase Brand value by paying one person's salary to quietly harvest the information power of the collective.

 

[antho]

I was able to fix mine. I had to update a configuration file in the HCM. It now stays level with the marked line when jacking the back of the truck up. So its actively leveling the correct way vs reversed like it was before. So seems like Ford fixed it but forgot about sending it to some of us.

 

[Thetoad30]

I was able to fix mine. I had to update a configuration file in the HCM. It now stays level with the marked line when jacking the back of the truck up. So its actively leveling the correct way vs reversed like it was before. So seems like Ford fixed it but forgot about sending it to some of us.

How? FORScan? If so, what register and what value?

 

[antho]

How? FORScan? If so, what register and what value?

@Thetoad30
Yes with Forscan and it was a file. No asbuilt changes or anything. So you have to have 2.4 Forscan and a Good OBD adapter. You also need to know what file you currently have and if there is a newer version available.

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