Which Accords came with motorized adjustable headlights?

[yh61r]

I have a Euopean (Netherlands, to be exact) 1990 EX Accord. I spoke to someone on Reddit about my Accord and he asked if it was a European model because he had never heard of Accords with adjustable headlights, and he had 3 different Accord's.

Also, the factory manual keeps referring to my 1990 EX Accord as a "KG-model", some parts (rear lights for example) also have the "KG" mark on them. What does KG mean? What are the differences between a KG and a non-KG model?

[deevergote]

I've never heard of KG, nor any older Accord with motorized adjustable headlights. Newer ones may have that feature, but the only adjustments to be made on our old ones are done by hand.
KG may be in reference to some common part numbers. Maybe even just for European models. For example, in countries like Malaysia, SM4 is commonly used (they even use it to identify the 4th gen Accord, the way we use the CB chassis code). SM4 is a common part number prefix. You'll see that stamped on your headlight supports.

[yh61r]

Yes, I see SM4 everywhere I go, too.

Here is some evidence of the existence of the adjustable lighting and KG-model.



The reason I ask is because I'm looking to replace the headlight adjusting motors, hopefully the problem will be solved, then.

[cp[mike]]

those K codes are "honda area codes" and designate different "versions" of the SM4 accord, depending on the market/emissions laws.

http://www.icelord.net/honda/area/

KA is for 49 state emissions (USA), and KL is for California emissions (USA). KH is for high-altitude. And in this case, KG is indicating German-market only! This is consistent with the fact that I know those headlight-adjusters were only offered in a limited number of European markets. To go a bit further, the headlight adjusters were only offered on the WAGON (5-door) version of the car, so start there, with German Wagons.

These codes are usually written with the transmission type appended. For example, KA5MT (American 5-spd manual), or KG4AT (German 4-spd automatic), so don't be surprised if you encounter it in that format.

The motors you are referring to are mounted directly to the back of the headlight housings and should be relatively easy to replace, assuming you're able to buy new ones. For some reason I think they come as a package deal with the headlight housings themselves. You might need to search salvage yards.

[yh61r]

Thanks for answer informative. Are you sure it's Germany only? The car first entered the country on May 5th 1990. Does this coincide with the manufacturing date? If not, it might be an early import.

As far as I know the first "owner" was a salesman who leased the car. The second owner, my friends father, and now me.

Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find the motors anywhere. I even checked the original manufacturer, Stanley. And nothing on eBay. I had previously checked if any salvage yard in the country try had a 1990-1993 Honda Accord, however er due to the rarity of these vehicles in this area, nothing.

Does anyone have any idea where I could potentially get these motors?

Also, I suspect the problem isn't in the motors themselves but earlier in the power circuit. When the motors are connected, the motors continuously run, meaning, continuously getting 12 volts. Are they supposed to get power, continuously? I suspect that's why a previous owner cut the black wires of the motors...

[Jon]

Give me a few hours and I'll see if I can't post the exploded view/part number of the headlights/switch/wiring for you. I'm pretty sure I have them somewhere and we can troubleshoot the problem(s) from there.

[deevergote]

Man, there are still so many goodies in Europe that I never heard about!
Sorry yh61r, I misread your first post. I didn't realize you actually had the motorized lights.

[Jon]

Exploded view doesn't show it on the headlight side of things, looking into the electrical.




Have about 2000 pages to sort through though...

[Jon]

You may already have this information...






I'm wondering if one of the other Honda/Acura adjuster units would work.
Since I have never actually seen one in person, I can't offer up a suggestion as to a year/make/model that may have a compatible unit.
Still looking, haven't given up yet.

[yh61r]

Whoa Jon, thank you so much.

I've been searching in the manual, too. What pages did you find these? I think there's a problem with my manual (1925 pages at 64MB), I noticed when replacing the transmission that a lot of pages are completely messed up. I printed everything out at work, in an attempt to sort everything out later, and rescan everything in ultra-high resolution (about 250 MB per page)

Either way, I'll test everything this afternoon, local time, thank you so much!

About the other Honda/Accra units, I will take a good clear picture of the positioning of the holes in the adjuster unit and headlamp unit for you. If you want, you can compare the holes with other units if you have access to some?

[Jon]

Sounds good. I know Honda loves to reuse parts across years of vehicles, so finding a similar replacement may be a bit easier than we think (at least I'm hoping).

A few of those pages I have are just singular I found them on the internet years ago and downloaded them.

If you have the 1925 page repair and maintenance manual that is all messed up, it's on page 872/873.

[yh61r]

Sounds good. I know Honda loves to reuse parts across years of vehicles, so finding a similar replacement may be a bit easier than we think (at least I'm hoping).

Here you go:


Left headlamp adjuster unit bracket


Right headlamp adjuster unit bracket



Left and right headlamp adjuster unit, top view



Left and right headlamp adjuster unit, bottom view

I apologize for the large images, I have no idea how to resize them.

A few of those pages I have are just singular I found them on the internet years ago and downloaded them.

If you have the 1925 page repair and maintenance manual that is all messed up, it's on page 872/873.

I completely read past it. You have the same manual as me, some pages in that manual are messed up, in the wrong place, some are even missing.

For example, page 871 is 16-165. Go to 16-168 (page 874), you'll see this chapter randomly stops. And the next page starts at 16-72, continues to 16-81, and the page after that is 16-32 and the next page is 16-178.. The whole manual is full of errors like this. It's quite literally everywhere.

[Jon]

Yeah whomever put that manual together didn't do a great job...

And thank you for the pictures, that will help a lot. I'll see if I can ID them with any other sort of adjuster that Honda has used (maybe once of their motorcycles??).

[yh61r]

Exactly. That's why I want to buy a manual, and then scan every image in ultra-high resolution. I have a very good scanner, it would make the world of CB7 a lot easier. Maybe even add links to chapters if I figure out how.

The motor of the left hand side of the vehicle (4517L) seems to have been attacked by battery acid or something. I think someone spilled battery acid all over it, ruining some a screw hole, however, the inside of the motor is unaffected, thankfully.

Anyway, I will make pictures of the inside of the motors, too. And I'll measure the distance of the holes in millimeters, too.


Drawing of the measurements of the mounting positions of a headlamp adjuster unit to it's frame on the headlamp, the other side is mirrored.

Picture of the inside will follow soon.