need urgent help - electrical problem
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 11
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From: Newport News, VA
need urgent help - electrical problem I have a 99 TA and after driving over to my parents house tonight, my passenger side drl is out for the third time this month and if I use the remote to lock or unlock the car, the headlights pop up/down and the passenger side motor grinds after the lights are all the way back down. I need some help in where to start troubleshooting this tomorrow morning. Has anyone else experienced this before? I'm really at a loss here since it seems to be affecting both sides.
TECH Regular
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 465
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From: Edgewood, MD
You've got two problems going on...1st thing..headlights...the gears inside the headlight motor are stripped. You can pull the motor apart and flip the gears around..that will buy you a little time. Or you can buy replace parts from GM ($$$$) or you can buy brass gears to replace the plastic ones that GM uses.
DRL....have you just been replacing the bulb every time? Have you looked to see if water is getting into the DRL? A lot of people have problems with water getting into the DRL and causing problems. Some people (myself included) have had to replace the socket that the DRL bulb goes in. Pull out the bulb and socket, take out the bulb and take a good look at the socket...You may have to do multiple things to keep your DRL from blowing...like you may need to replace the sockets and stop water from getting into the DRL housing...can't say though without seeing it in person.
DRL....have you just been replacing the bulb every time? Have you looked to see if water is getting into the DRL? A lot of people have problems with water getting into the DRL and causing problems. Some people (myself included) have had to replace the socket that the DRL bulb goes in. Pull out the bulb and socket, take out the bulb and take a good look at the socket...You may have to do multiple things to keep your DRL from blowing...like you may need to replace the sockets and stop water from getting into the DRL housing...can't say though without seeing it in person.
who still sells the Bronze gears. I know brent Franker used to. I have never heard of a major distributor selling them, I haven't looked yet either though. Mine has been like this for a month since I decided to put my MS4 in first. As far as the DRL goes I had to take my bulb out and I got a little tappered(christmas tree) wire brush and some wd40 and cleaned the socket out and that fixed the drivers side but I had to replace the passenger side socket.
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 11
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From: Newport News, VA
Thanks for the reply. I did the quick and clean fix for the headlight motor - I just took the arm off the motor then rotated the manual **** until the motor turned 180 degrees then reattached. Seems to work fine now. I guess the good news is that if the motor croaks again, I can always swap out for the one my father had kept after we replaced the whole assembly on my old 01 bird.
For the lamp, even after cleaning it out really well and putting in a new bulb on a dry day, soon as I turned the car on, it popped the bulb. I had already drilled the bottom of the housings on both lamps so that the water drains back out of them. Interestingly enough, after it popped this bulb, it charred part of the plastic bulb connector. Seems I'm likely going to have to replace the socket. Is 85887 (Advance PN) the correct socket part number?
For the lamp, even after cleaning it out really well and putting in a new bulb on a dry day, soon as I turned the car on, it popped the bulb. I had already drilled the bottom of the housings on both lamps so that the water drains back out of them. Interestingly enough, after it popped this bulb, it charred part of the plastic bulb connector. Seems I'm likely going to have to replace the socket. Is 85887 (Advance PN) the correct socket part number?
The headlight gears were made with plastic for a reason, GM probably did this so that if something went wrong the gear would strip so that the motor wouldnt break. Although I know that many have put the brass gears in and have had no problem, I would buy the replacement plastic gears ($15.00/ a gear) so that you dont have to replace the whole headlight motor (which is around $200/ a motor) if something else goes wrong down the road.
Mine are made by HELP! Part No. 42400. You can go to AutoZone and have them order them for you
Mine are made by HELP! Part No. 42400. You can go to AutoZone and have them order them for you
Last edited by wzup1000; Aug 22, 2006 at 02:52 PM.
