dabest09

iTrader: (1)

My drivers side headlight would randomly not want to raise up a while back. It seemed like the metal arms that extend the headlight up would almost get jammed up. My current issue is worse, I literally cannot even manually turn the headlight motor to raise the headlight. Its very tough to spin the little turn dial on top of the headlight motor itself, and it just keeps spinning without lifting the headlight. My motor never showed signs of wear or grinding noises up to this point so I'm a bit confused. Something seems like its on a bind and I've tried lubricating all of the pivoting points on the headlight assembly with no luck.

sjsingle1

iTrader: (1)

if the gear is stripped ....it aint gunna do nothing

Chris Paveglio

iTrader: (2)

The motors on the worm gears also become loose over time and the mis-alignment causes wear or even disengagement. You'll have to take the entire motor assembly out to fix it with a new gear (brass or aluminum) or to fix the motor tangs that hold it on.

Go to 16:20 minutes in my video and you can see how the motors are loose on the housing.

dabest09

iTrader: (1)

That helps a lot I'll have to check for that issue. The only problem is, how do I get the motor out if the headlight won't come up? Every video I've seen they manually raise the headlight up so they can access the bolts that hold the motor in.

sjsingle1

iTrader: (1)

you can unbolt the whole assembly...not just the motor........i think you have to remove the bumper tho

dabest09

iTrader: (1)

Ahh man, thats just great news lol

Chris Paveglio

iTrader: (2)

Maybe you'll have to try turning the motor by hand and lifting a little. Take off the rubber booty, then use allen to turn the motor, or by your fingers. Left is up, right is down. The plastic trim frame has 3 screws but you need to have the headlight up almost all the way to get to them. The body colored cover has 4 screws. The frame below that has 4 also IIRC, but you dont need to take any of that off it you can raise the light by hand just to get to the motor. Removing at least the trim piece gives you some room in the front.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Disconnect the bulbs and then remove the nuts on the two hinge bolts on either side of the headlight assembly. The whole assembly will then rotate up on the actuating arm and you'll be able to access the bolts holding the motor in. (At that point you can also take off the bolt holding the actuating arm on, so you can place the headlight assembly aside and work on the motor in the clear.)

dabest09

iTrader: (1)

The allen hole literally just keeps spinning counterclockwise while I try to pull up on the headlight. Cant get it to move whatsoever.

Alright I'll give this a shot! Thanks for the help everyone.

dabest09

iTrader: (1)

dabest09

iTrader: (1)

So I think the reason for the corrosion is because my car didn't have the protective rubber boot on the top of the headlight motors. I can't seem to find a part number or anyone who sells them. Anyone have a part number?

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

The motor picture you posted isn't stock. It's a replacement, so there could be a number of stories there. (The stock motors didn't have screws holding on the gear cover. The stock gear cases were sealed.) ^ So, that's probably when your motor boot disappeared.

We haven't seen anyone carry the rubber boot. Assuming it will fit the aftermarket motors, you would probably need to search the salvage yards for them.

dabest09

iTrader: (1)

I realized after I posted that it must've been an aftermarket motor, especially after seeing the splice job that they did when they bypassed the 5 pin connector for whatever reason. I had fun fixing that. I ended up getting everything back together smoothly and actually found a spare boot from my old car that I had lying around for some reason. Although my passengers side is still missing one, I may get lucky and find one at a junkyard or if worse comes to worse I'll make one with the 3D printer. Thanks for the help everyone!

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

The stock connectors are not sealed very well for the location and rust really badly. (I've had to replace all of mine.) Since they are mainly needed for easy assembly of the car and replacement of the parts, one can splice the motors in to bypass the headache.

dabest09

iTrader: (1)

I see what you mean. It just didn't look very neat. I'll keep an eye on them but not too worried since the only water the car sees is when I wash it.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Then you can treat your garage queen nice with some proper heat shrink butt splices. 3M makes some nice ones. You can get them online or at local marine dealers: