I am getting ready to buy another 2000 RA TA. I had bought one new and sold it about 1.5 years ago. Got the itch for another one. Found one cheap that needs a few minor things. First and foremost, it needs that damn headlight motor fixed. After reading this forum, it looks like the passenger side goes more often that the rest. OK, no biggie there. What is wierd about this car is that when you activate the alarm with the FOB, the headlights don't just blink, they go up, light up for a sec, and then go back down (which of course makes the aweful headlight noise currently). Seems to me that my first car, when you set the alarm, it didn't fully open the headlights and close them. I seem to remember them blinking on and off in the closed postion but not fully opening and closing. The guy says that it started doing that when the headlight motor started going. Anyone else seen this problem?

Thanks

 

That happens when the gears get stripped. You can do the free mod which just rotates the gear to the unused half or replace it with a brass gear.

http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/headlightfix/
Brass gears are near the top of the page.
Scroll down for the 180* mod.

--VIP1

 

But would that cause the headlights to go up and down when setting the alarm? I understand the noise problem with the stripped gear.

 

dude have the alarm fixed......the alarm should not make the headlights go up and down someone tapped the wrong wire when installing it. all you want to blink is the parking lights. blinking the headlights also is just unneeded wear and tear on the headlight motors and helps to kill the battery if the alarm is set off multiple times.

 

Well, this is not an aftermarket alarm, this is the factory one. Are you saying that you think they wired it wrong from the factory?

 

the factory alarm should not be tied into the headlights.... someone has done some kinda mod or something then it sounds like. the factory wouldn't hook motorized headlights up to the factory alarm because of the problem you are having now with the bad light motor. they definatly wouldn't wanna replace it under warranty.

 

This isnt weird or odd at all. Many people report odd headlight behavior such as this when the gears are stripped. This is becuase the headlights are supposed to go down when the alarm is armed. Thus the alarm makes sure the headlights are down. If the gears are stripped, then odd behavior can happen.

--VIP1

 

i guess i've never noticed the headlight thing on my car then..........i disabled the factory alarm shortly after gettin my car and put a real alarm on it . factory just doesn't cut it and eventually has or causes problems.

 

VIP, thanks. That kinda makes sense. If it is strpped, then it wouldn't send back the 'signal' that the headlights are closed already.

 

Yup.
It knows if they are closed based on resistence. It they are closed, the motor cant spin anymore. If the gear is stripped, the motor will spin.

--VIP1

 

I have owned a 1998 TA for over two months. And last night was the first time this headlight movement occured with setting or on setting the alarm. It really freaked me out, especially since the passenger side headlight gear is now apparently stripped and makes that awful grinding sound. It was totally unexpected!

I will attempt the headlight fix, if I can get the link to open.

Again, thanks for the timely post.

 

I've seen it several times, he's absolutely right.

 

nice to see a post that explains this.. mine out of the blue last night started doing this. as a temp fix i pulled the fuses on the headlight motors so the crap wouldnt embarass me everytime i set the alarm. -g