Sean McGonigal

Hey guys, I recently bought my first Trans Am a few months ago, and have been loving the car.

Recently the driver headlight has been having issues, and now that I'm thinking about it, it seems to be after I replaced the headlight gear on that side.. maybe I better check my work.

Anyways, here's the scoop.

Both driver side bulbs were burnt out, I just figured they were old and needed replaced. I took the opportunity to upgrade to HIDs and projectors for my low beams, high beams coming later.

I got the kit installed, and after a few times of running the headlights up and down, the driver side quit. Tested things, and it blew the ballast. So, I figure it's a faulty ballast, get another one and replaced it. Same scenario, blew this ballast also.

So, it's the car for sure. Other than me getting in there and checking my work, has anyone ran into this? It never blows a fuse, and the circuit never loses power for the low beam. I'm done working on it for the night, but tomorrow I'll check my work and see if somehow I caused this and have just been over analyzing the whole issue.

Thanks guys!

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Yep. Very common. I just fixed this for the second time on my car.


This probably set it off. Not because of the gear or motor, but the electrical connector. The connector gets really wet in its location and corrodes like crazy. When it's unplugged and re-plugged in post corrosion, bad connections and shorts can happen. You'll wan to start by checking the terminal pins for corrosion and then check all the wires.

The first time this happened to me, I had some bad pins in the motor connector. (This also carries the wires for the headlight bulbs.) The second time, I had some bad ground wires going from the connector to the bulb. (The cores of the wires had corroded and started to fall apart.)

Sean McGonigal

Good to know! Since I've had the car, it's never seen rain or snow, and I know the previous owner always stored it under cover and rarely drove it.

But that connector came to mind, and I plan to check everything in and around it. I also pulled up diagrams of all the headlamp circuits and ground locations for them. Hope it's as simple as the connector, I'd really like to see how well these new headlights will work!

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

You may not have the corrosion problem, then. (It still doesn't hurt to look.) You'll want to still check the wires (pulling back the protective heat cover) to look for breaks and deterioration between the connector and lamps. If you have HID kits, you may look for melted wires, etc.

The harness has a shared ground with a splice to split off ground wires for each bulb. Often, that is the source of a problem with both lights going out. If there is a short in the circuits, the passenger lighting can be affected, as well.

You could also have a short or issue in your HID system. I'd also unplug it and test the wires with an electrical tester. f your HID components are going bad, I wouldn't think a short or bad ground upstream of the ballasts would be a culprit. I'd think the issue lies with the bulb hooked up to the ballast - so you may want to also swap those components side-to-side in the car.

Cwick386

At a bit of a loss, I swapped brass gears in to both my headlight motors recently.

both worked before aside the the sketchy driver side light due to the teeth on the gears.

Currently neither headlight will raise on its own. If I move both lights up by hand they will actuate down. I removed the drivers side headlight arm to see If there was a binding problem and it just doesn’t seem to be getting power at all. Even with the arm not attached it gets no power when the flip the lights on (the lights themselves work on both sides) but the driver side will power itself to move the headlight down.

possibility I messed up the gear install? (Not sure how) could it be the switch itself inside the car or possibly the headlight control module?

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Indeed.


The motor connectors are notorious for getting wet and corroded. The process of removing the motor to do a gear swap is enough so that when you plug things back in, the contacts are hitting corroded areas on the terminals and not flowing power.

The first step would be to disconnect the motor connectors and see what you got.

Cwick386

pulled all the connectors apart. Did find some corrosion. Got it cleaned up as far as I can tell still the same problem. No power to raise but motor will spin to lower. Hooked up a completely new motor to test and same thing. No power up but will power down. I checked the control module contacts as well as the look clean.

Cwick386

Gonna bring in some
vinegar and such tomorrow and really give them a good cleaning. I don’t think the contact cleaner and wire brush did a good enough job.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Try some emery cloth and then use a pick or dental tools to get it in there.

Cheetoh

iTrader: (10)

Is it OK to leave the Rubber Boot off? Can't get it back on right.

WS6 Rampage

iTrader: (3)

Yea, Mine's been off for years. If you got it, use it, if you lost it you'll be fine.

dtumbl4u

Had the same problem with right side motor. no noise, just didn't move at all but cranked up/down by hand. pulled harness apart and cleaned the connections with a dental type tool. Fixed issue, for now.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

As long as you don't unplug it, things should be fine. Otherwise, you'll need to re-clean and re-connect.

The permanenent solution is to re-wire the connectors with better seals, but there isn't much wire to work wtih in order to do that and the tools are expensive.

Scott Wooley

Does anybody at all know where to buy the metal Gear Shaft that goes through the middle of the gear and motor that also holds the Headlamp arm?? I'm really not trying to buy a whole new motor if I can just replace the metal shaft

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

It's not sold separately.

Usually people who ask this question try to replace the gear and then have the cover come unglued and fly off. (Along with the gear and shaft.) If that happened to you, you should get a new motor. Go with the Cardone and it has screw-on covers and you'll never have the problem again. (You can also do 10 plastic gear changes over the next 100 years and still save more money than metal gears would cost you.)

David_UM

I'm having an electrical issue with the headlight motors. I thought my drivers side motor went bad, so i went to the junkyard and picked up used one. installed that one and same problem. It does not want to go up, or down.
-I than tested both motors with direct 12v, and they work.
I tested the wires from the harness and got 12v more or less from each of the 2 wires. Im no electrical wizard by any means, but i feel like thats good?
-So are both of my motors bad? or is there something else i should be looking for here.
Anything info will help.

WS6Mark

Anyone used these Hawks Motorsports HID headlights/fog lights? Everytime I read about HID lights it gets real complicated, but this seems like a simple, complete package.

https://www.hawksmotorsports.com/hid...ns-am-98-2002/

David_UM

hey everyone, so I did a little reading and found out about the headlamp module. I went back to the junkyard and picked one up, and an extra motor just incase. Turns out the module was bad! Swapped it out and all is in working order.

k3000

wssix99 - the benefit of your experience is extremely helpful.

I'm at a stage where my headlight doors are still working, I'm just "worried" about it. LOL

Where do you get the replacement plastic gears?

Lee

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Cool. I'd just hold off until you need something done and then move on to the Cardone motor. They are built to be serviceable, unlike the originals. I've had some issues with the wiring on mine, but I haven't seen any other members with problems. (I think my motors probably just came off an assembly line in a far away land that was having a bad day...) https://ls1tech.com/forums/stereo-el...ght-doors.html


Dorman says it's their part, #42400 https://www.dormanproducts.com/p-978...ear&origin=YMM