AlexSmith

When I set the alarm by the key fob on my 2001 Trans Am, the headlights go up and down 1 time and make the loud grinding/clicking noise for about 10 seconds. It does not do it 100% of the time, but about 95%.....so its a problem. There is nothing that I have done electronically that could cause the car to do this, so does anyone have an idea of what it might be?

JOHNNY59

iTrader: (398)

time to replace your headlight motor gear/s.

trans_am7935

iTrader: (15)

BAM! there you go, just get yourself an brass gear from ebay, it will run you about $40. you have to take apart the motors and replace the gear. Have fun.

jastone

Not to knock that gear replacement method, but I did that on mine about a two years ago. First did the driver side it worked for a couple of months. Then it started doing it again. Turns out the housing was twisting and causing the worm gear to bind and skip a tooth. I did tighten the housing but there was just too much play in it. Decided to go to my local parts store and order the Doorman replacement motor/housing. The gear is housed in a removable casing (held on with screws instead of glue). Haven't had a single issue with it since it was changed. Fast forward to last year and same thing started to happen with the passenger side. I skipped all the temp repair stuff and just ordered a new motor/housing. No problems since either. The price of the Doorman replacement motors weren't that much more than the price if the brass gears (though for some reason the pass anger side costs more than the driver side, go figure), and they come with a lifetime warranty too. So if I had to do it again, with the need to pull the motors to repair the gears anyways I would just buy the new motors and be done with it. Just my .02 cents though.

trans_am7935

iTrader: (15)

You even stated here that after your new housings you had to do it again, so why didn't you just put a brass gear in there can call it a day, especially since the new ones bolt on instead of being glued on?

I as well bought new motors when i needed to fix mine due to one of mine actually dieing and it was not repairable. I too received ones that had 3 screws on the cover, BUT, i placed brass gears in the housings and re-greased everything inside for a nice clean install. 6 years later and still going strong. never again did i have a problem with mine.

Even if you get new motors, they are still not capable of lifting the headlights over and over again without breaking. The motor uses a steel pinion based gear on the stator to turn a NYLON gear that lifts the actual headlights which is the problem. The motors that are on our Trans Am cars were designed for the Corvette, and they just slapped them on our cars, called it a day. So motors that were designed to lift one headlight are lifting more then twice the weight, what did you expect. The problem is that nylon gear. Also when i bought my brass gear, it came with a brace that tied all the bolts together to ensure the housing did not flex under load. I am very happy. Do yourself a favor and get the new brass gear now so you wont have to take it apart over and over again.

jastone

What I actually wrote was my DRIVER side motor started grinding first. I tried the gear replacement on THAT motor. Worked fine for a couple of months then it started again. The housing was already worn out and causing the worm gear to skip a tooth. This WAS WITH the brass gear. After buying a new housing which already HAD the brass gear my problems were solved.

Then LAST YEAR my PASSENGER motor started to do the same thing. Instead of wasting my money on the brass gear I ordered the new motor immediately.

So if you go back to my original post and read it, you'll see I haven't had to do anything to my headlight motors after I purchased new motors.

My point was why buy the brass gears and find out the housing is causing the issue when if you just order the new housing right off the bat you get the brass gear with it.

Again the 180* method, the new nylon gear method, the brass gear method works for a lot of people, for me it was a mute point due to the housings being worn out.

Just giving the OP another option.

Though I do agree that these headlight motors are severely undersized, IIRC they were originally designed to be on the 1987 fiero and firebird, then they were introduced on the vette in 1988.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Here's another story about the metal gears stripping. https://ls1tech.com/forums/stereo-el...ght-doors.html

Metal is more durable than nylon gears. However; for the cost of metal, you could replace with nylon for the next 75 years and spend the same amount of money. (By that time, the headlight motors should be shot....)

With the new motor design and screw-on/off gear covers, swapping out nylons isn't so tough - IMO.

ahhwataday

iTrader: (7)

Mine did the same. Installed metal gears=mo betta now

MikeZ28TA

iTrader: (3)

Mine does same thing . What causes the door lock from remote to even activate the headlights?