Help! Headlight Question

[Corybant007]

When I start my car in the garage the headlamps turn on as expected and close after a few moments on the road. But, every 4th or 5th time I start the car, only the right lamp opens. If I manually turn the lights on at that time, the left still doesn't open. After a few moments on the road the right closes and everything works fine.

Can anyone help me solve the mystery? :eyerole

Trent

 

[Jistari]

Im not on this site often so I may not be back for a response soon but:

It sounds like you are having a headlight gear problem. The gear inside the headlight motor is made of plastic and frequently the larger one strips. Telltale signs are possibly a chattering noise when they go up or down, or the sound of the motors continuing to run after the light is up or down (normally the increased resistance in the motor when the light unit hits the stops when opening or closing is what causes the circut to shut off, if the gear is stripped the motor sees no increased resistance so it runs on) or what you are seeing (one moves and the other one doesnt).

I noticed that you said "When I start my car in the garage the headlamps turn on as expected and close after a few moments on the road." if that means you have the twilight sentinel feature enabled, and the lights are popping up and down automaticaly as you drive in and out of dark areas during the day, well you gotta know thats not going to make the problem better . Many people disable that feature (can be done right from the DIC on the dash, its in Options, just turn it off, saves wear and tear on the motors.

If you dont have twilight enabled and they turn off and go down after driving a bit, it could be that the bouncing from the road is moving them a bit and then they grab.

The light motors arent bad to take out, its basicaly four screws, two bolts and a pin and you have the light units out (lotta room in there), and the motors have two bolts holding them in.

If you find the gears are bad (and you're the only one who is going to be able to tell, based on what you see and hear when you turn them on/off).

You can either get replacement gears (usually brass ones) from some vendors (sorry dont have the link atm but they shouldnt be too hard to find) but that involves cracking the motor case and resealing it with epoxy, which mostly does but sometimes doesnt hold.

Or you may have to replace the motors. You may be able to get salvaged ones from parts places or bite the bullet and go new.

Good luck

 

[Junkman2008]

The light motors arent bad to take out, its basicaly four screws, two bolts and a pin and you have the light units out (lotta room in there), and the motors have two bolts holding them in.

Actually, it's 2 bolts and 3 10mm nuts for the 97-2000, and 3 bolts and 3 10mm nuts for the 2001-04. The passenger's side has the headlight control module that needs to be unplugged for all years and you need to unplug the bulbs for all years. It's very easy to remove the entire headlight and that's what I usually do. Then you can work inside your house where the AC is.

Now the OP's problem could also be the bump stops if they are worn. Sometimes, you'll need to flip them over as doing so will stop some of the intermittent problems like the one the OP is seeing. Here's a picture that explains it better:

If I was a betting man, I would probably put my money on the headlight gears too. Here's a writeup that I did on the repair. A rather easy problem to fix considering some of the repairs I've done on this car. You'll definitely know the headlight gear is shot when you go to lower the light and you hear this sound. It only does it when the lights goes down, not up.

 

[Corybant007]

Thanks to Jistari and Junkman 2008 for their reply, info and links. I did turn off twilight sentinel and that solved the problem, or at least buried it. I never heard any chattering noise from the gears, going up or down, and the headlights work fine when raised and lowered with the switch.

The rest I'll have to check out in December when I get back to AZ. The car is in storage for the next 4 months. Boy, it was painful to leave it!

 

[PAULIE B]

I turned the bump stops around and it worked. I would turn off headlights and the left side would close and go back up a little as if it was winking at me. Ordered new ones from Ecklers but they have been back ordered for about two months now.ad