2017 Headlight Sensor/Rear Camber Arm NOTIVE

[007BRZ]

YFI
2017 BRZ/'86 Owners Headlight Sensor NOTICE?
If you are changing rear camber arms on your 2017 the is a sensor arm attached to the drivers side arm. This controls headlight leveling. The only company that I have found is Verus Engineering with their Velox rear camber arms that have a special bracket for this sensor. (See pictures attached).


My 2017 BRZ (mine has the PP) has a sensor attached to the driver side rear camber arm to level your headlights. If you install new coils and you need new camber arms for perfect alignment, you need a Special Bracket. Verus Engineering has it available for their Velox rear camber arms. I found this out the hard way. (Where do I put this dangling little arm?? As my car was all installed on the lift.. Most websites should ask you what your car is so if it needs and extra part or bracket for an install, it tells you so. I put KW V1 on my 2017 Yellow BRZ Special Editions. Unfortunately. the camber alignment is NOT possible without adding new rear camber arms and spending another $550 (First Surprise). Then the only arms that I was told to use is the Velox ones (Second Surprise). Now I had to order the sensor bracket at $31 with shipping (the third Surprise). I should have gone with door #4 and bought other Coils or V2's and camber heads and spent a little more.


Order the camberarms and the bracket all together so you don’t have to wait for it and pay more shipping charges.

[Tcoat]

Very well done! I bet many do not even realize there is a sensor on the 17s.

[Poodles]

Camber heads wouldn't give camber adjustment in the rear, only the front. You require new lower control arms in the rear to adjust camber enough if you're too low...

[TachyonBomb]

So far the confirmed LCA that work with the 2017 auto headlight level arm are:

Verus/Velox (with the adapter)
*VooDoo13 (if you buy the most current version from them directly)
Megan racing
Megan racing type II
Function 7
TRUHART
DME
RS-R
Buddy Club
Whiteline
Cusco
and many many more.

Honestly a lot of the Japanese brands already accommodate for the auto level. Maybe the is because LCAs that fit our car also fit into the impreza, wrx/sti and legacy. So one of these other cars probably has a similar auto headlight level situation and most of the aftermarket accommodated it. The US brands got a little lazy and did not. Or to be better stated the US makers in which the brz was the first Subaru they made an LCA for are the ones which did not know to include these extra holes.

*Most aftermarket parts sites do not make state whether they have the new versions. Most aftermarket sites only have the older versions pictured. So you may want to email whatever website you are buying from first.


To conclude, if you had bought nearly any other companies LCA you would have been fine. I ran into this tunnel vision situation as well because similarly to your situation velox/verus and voodoo were the top two LCA on my list so I figured that almost no one thought about the 2017. But the second I started looking into my 3rd and 4th choices which were Japanese I quickly figured out what was going on.

[gtengr]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Very well done! I bet many do not even realize there is a sensor on the 17s.

Mine must be broken because I can't tell that the beam ever adjusts. When I crest a hill the beam pattern goes up into the trees whereas on my M3 I could see it adjust downward.

[Lust]

Originally Posted by TachyonBomb

So far the confirmed LCA that work with the 2017 auto headlight level arm are:

Verus/Velox (with the adapter)
*VooDoo13 (if you buy the most current version from them directly)
Megan racing
Megan racing type II
Function 7
TRUHART
DME
RS-R
Buddy Club
Whiteline
Cusco
and many many more.

Honestly a lot of the Japanese brands already accommodate for the auto level. Maybe the is because LCAs that fit our car also fit into the impreza, wrx/sti and legacy. So one of these other cars probably has a similar auto headlight level situation and most of the aftermarket accommodated it. The US brands got a little lazy and did not. Or to be better stated the US makers in which the brz was the first Subaru they made an LCA for are the ones which did not know to include these extra holes.

*Most aftermarket parts sites do not make state whether they have the new versions. Most aftermarket sites only have the older versions pictured. So you may want to email whatever website you are buying from first.


To conclude, if you had bought nearly any other companies LCA you would have been fine. I ran into this tunnel vision situation as well because similarly to your situation velox/verus and voodoo were the top two LCA on my list so I figured that almost no one thought about the 2017. But the second I started looking into my 3rd and 4th choices which were Japanese I quickly figured out what was going on.

SPL has a revised model which will work now

[nico_rsx]

Can anyone explain to me how this sensor work?
I'm under the impression that it measure the angle of the LCA to determine how much the rear suspension is compressed (weight in the trunk), and lower the light beam appropriately.
But even if you install the sensor on the new LCA, if you lower the car, that will change the angle of the LCA (am I right?). So the headlight will lower the beam, but because you also lower the front suspension (where there is no sensor), that will mean the light will be shining down.
What am I not understanting? The sensor should basically not work properly with lowered car.

[mav1178]

Originally Posted by nico_rsx

Can anyone explain to me how this sensor work?
I'm under the impression that it measure the angle of the LCA to determine how much the rear suspension is compressed (weight in the trunk), and lower the light beam appropriately.
But even if you install the sensor on the new LCA, if you lower the car, that will change the angle of the LCA (am I right?). So the headlight will lower the beam, but because you also lower the front suspension (where there is no sensor), that will mean the light will be shining down.
What am I not understanting? The sensor should basically not work properly with lowered car.

The system works when you have known fixed values for the car, i.e. height of front and rear suspension.

The auto level feature is calibrated for a stock car. Any aftermarket suspension kit that lowers or raises the car can have the auto level feature work properly if the difference between front and rear suspension static ride height is the same as stock.

-alex

[nico_rsx]

Originally Posted by mav1178

The system works when you have known fixed values for the car, i.e. height of front and rear suspension.

The auto level feature is calibrated for a stock car. Any aftermarket suspension kit that lowers or raises the car can have the auto level feature work properly if the difference between front and rear suspension static ride height is the same as stock.

-alex

Even if the front is lowered the same amount as the rear it would only work if the LCA is at the exact same angle as stock. Because there is no sensor in the front, so if the LCA angle is not the same as stock, the ECU will consider that the rear suspension is compressed but not the front (so will adjust the lights). I think you need to be able to adjust the sensor to compensate for the LCA new angle (unless the LCA stay at the same angle when you lower the car?).
Maybe with something like this, but I haven't heard anyone using this for the BRZ:

https://www.cusco.co.jp/en/parts_pro...levelizer.html
http://www.tf-works.com/cusco-auto-h...-s-subaru-brz/

[Grady]

Originally Posted by nico_rsx

Can anyone explain to me how this sensor work?
I'm under the impression that it measure the angle of the LCA to determine how much the rear suspension is compressed (weight in the trunk), and lower the light beam appropriately.
But even if you install the sensor on the new LCA, if you lower the car, that will change the angle of the LCA (am I right?). So the headlight will lower the beam, but because you also lower the front suspension (where there is no sensor), that will mean the light will be shining down.
What am I not understanting? The sensor should basically not work properly with lowered car.

That is the way I understand it, however I can tell you with Ebach springs with around a .4 inch higher adjustment on the rear you can not tell any difference. I would guess when you got to around a 2 inch change is when you would start to notice a change.

[neilr]

Originally Posted by gtengr

Mine must be broken because I can't tell that the beam ever adjusts. When I crest a hill the beam pattern goes up into the trees whereas on my M3 I could see it adjust downward.

Mine behaves similarly. I don't like it, but don't know what to do about it. My evening commute takes me through lots of uphill and "rolling" roads. Oncoming traffic flashes me several times on my way home, every day.

Someone else suggested that the levelers in a Subaru can't be expected to work as well as levelers in a BMW. But it seems reasonable to expect them to do their job, which they aren't.

[gtengr]

Originally Posted by neilr

Mine behaves similarly. I don't like it, but don't know what to do about it. My evening commute takes me through lots of uphill and "rolling" roads. Oncoming traffic flashes me several times on my way home, every day.

Someone else suggested that the levelers in a Subaru can't be expected to work as well as levelers in a BMW. But it seems reasonable to expect them to do their job, which they aren't.

There was another thread on this recently. Turns out there's a manual adjuster. [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hye_OnwEyTs"]Winjet FRS/BRZ Headlight Cutoff Adjustment - YouTube[/ame]

Also it was confirmed that the headlights only adjust when the car is turned on. No active adjustments.

[neilr]

Originally Posted by gtengr

There was another thread on this recently. Turns out there's a manual adjuster.

Also it was confirmed that the headlights only adjust when the car is turned on. No active adjustments.

Link? That video is for aftermarket lights - is there something similar on the stock lights? If it stops raining, I'll actually poke around under my hood this weekend. :-)

What do you mean by no active adjustments? Apparently the pre-2017s had an adjustment knob in the cabin next to the interior light brightness knob. Bit of a shame they switched.

[gtengr]

Originally Posted by neilr

Link? That video is for aftermarket lights - is there something similar on the stock lights? If it stops raining, I'll actually poke around under my hood this weekend. :-)

Good catch, I didn't realize those were aftermarket. I was going off this recent thread: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124177

I haven't confirmed yet (in a company car right now) but it seems like a few people have been able to adjust them so I dunno.

Originally Posted by neilr

What do you mean by no active adjustments? Apparently the pre-2017s had an adjustment knob in the cabin next to the interior light brightness knob. Bit of a shame they switched.

Yeah I wish they had kept that leveling knob. By no active adjustment I mean it doesn't turn the lights with the steering wheel or make any other compensations after taking its initial set.