Today I turned on my headlights and only the passenger side flipped up. I turned the lights on and off multiple times and still no success. I manually flipped up the driver side to drive to work. Next day same thing... After 16 years, is the motor for the headlight finally shot? I want to make sure the fix is as easy as replacing the motor before I buy a replacement. Any other ideas?

 

follow the wires from the motor to the nearest plug and check it for corrosion that could cause the contacts to not work right, it is possible the motor finally gave out, this would actually be the first I've read of one actually dieing on here, usually they just strip the gear, does it make any sounds when it's in the down position and you flip them on?

 

^ Good advice.


You'll also get good info here: https://ls1tech.com/forums/pontiac-f...s-go-here.html

 

I'm pretty sure it's not the gear. I've had that problem in the past and replaced the gear with a metal one. I'll take a look at the wiring later today.

One thing I find weird is that after I have manually flipped up the light, when I turn the headlights off it flips it down no problem.

 

This is indicative of a stripped gear. The metal gear thing is not a silver bullet as they strip, too. After my loose motor housing stripped my metal gears, I went to a new Cardone motor with an access door to replace the gears. I'm back with Nylon now and everything has been great since.

 

So you're saying that the brass gear I put in there 3 months ago is most likely stripped, when the original, plastic gear was good for nearly 15 years? I'm not trying to sound insulting, serious question. Could I just replace the motor and call it a day?

 

it's possible, did you follow the instruction about tightening the body of the motor shaft, the looseness between the body and gear section is what leads to stripping of the gear to start with, also depending which kit you bought if it wasn't the newest style with the T-brace you could get enough flex in the motor to bust the cover loose allowing the gear to slide off the edge of the worm gear, pull it out and inspect it to be sure, if you do buy a new one get the NEW (not reman) Cardone unit, they redesigned them with screws for accessing the gear instead of having to break the cover off, the remans are still the old style.

 

Yup!


Hardened metal = brittle. If your problem is not general age and fatigue, the brass or aluminum gears can break/strip faster than the nylon.

This is such a common thing, my metal gears arrived with a disclaimer that a loose motor body would still cause the metal ones to strip.


Yup. If you do, I'd suggest getting the Cardone's with the screw-on gear doors. You can replace 20 pairs of stripped out nylon gears for the price of one set of metal and this motor design makes that a snap.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/stereo-el...ght-doors.html

 

I'm going to explain exactly how to resolve this problem because I too have had this issue (and MANY more issues with the headlight motor) on a 2002 Pontiac Firebird 3.8L . Contrary to the post above, my brass gear was not stripped. Its the design of the Headlight Motor assembly that is doing this. When you turn your motor to open it by hand, you will notice that it is much harder to open it by hand than to close it. Also, the way our headlight motors know when to shut off, is it detects the resistance when the motor can no longer move and a circuit breaker is activated to kill the circuit as soon as that resistance is detected. The problem you're experiencing is that the resistance to move the motor to the up position from the down position is enough to trigger the circuit breaker before the gear in the motor even moves. This usually occurs from a poor install of the brass gear, ESPECIALLY if you glued the housing back together. I have had bad luck with the retainer as well because it adds too much resistance to the housing and doesn't allow the gear to spin freely.

The way I resolved it, isn't exactly cheap, but it IS a permanent (I will never ever have to touch this again) fix. I purchased two BRAND NEW Cardone Headlight motors from RockAuto do NOT get the reman ones. The Brand New motors come with SCREWS on the housing, you can open the housing and replace the gear with a Phillips head screwdriver instead of prying the housing apart and gluing it back together.. When you get it, remove the Nylon Gear and install the Metal Gear. Now when you install the gear, MAKE SURE there is no play in the gear housing (as in the gear can't move side to side in the housing), if there is you WILL strip the metal gear (I've done this). I have found that the stock washers in the cardone gear are just slightly too thin. I resolved this by getting a slightly thicker washer and replacing the stock washer with it from Ace Hardware.. Re-install the motor and you should be okay.

 

Well I just ordered a new motor so as soon as that gets here I'll take apart the old motor and find out what went wrong.

 

Please do. The move to a motor with a gear door makes whatever you do a lot more straight forward and controllable.

 

For what its worth since you guys are bird owners, you can read what I went through with my headlight motors here. I had been fighting them for about a year and even destroyed two brand new cardone motors (of which they warrantied and sent me new ones for free) but here you go...
http://forum.camarov6.com/showthread...eadlight+motor