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Stripped Headlight Gear - Have a question

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Old Sep 10, 2004 | 03:07 AM
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Unhappy Stripped Headlight Gear - Have a question

Alright, so my headlight motor geats were stripped and I replaced them with those brass gears but I couldn't get teh housing to stay on right. Eventually, the brass gears stripped and I have the headligh going up anddown problem again whenever I lock the door.

I wanted to know if there was a way to disable the headlights from going up and down when I unlock or lock the car. IS there a wire I can cut or modify something to stop it. If I remember correctly, it does it because whenever you lock or unlock the car, the computer checks the headlight motor to see if the gear can handle the torque or something. Anyways, just wanted to know if I could do something short of unplugging the headlights (I drive at night), until I get the time and $$ to fix it properly. Thanks.
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Old Sep 10, 2004 | 09:41 AM
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i know theres are fuses under the hood for both the headlights and that if you unplug them they stay up, but i've never thought to see if the lights will still work.
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Old Sep 10, 2004 | 10:38 AM
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turn the lights on, and remove the connector on the headlight control module, it has a 5 pin and a 4 pin connector next to the fuse boxes under the hood.

I pull the one closest to the shock tower, and everything else works fine.

Ryan
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Old Sep 11, 2004 | 06:19 PM
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Wait. So that means the lights willl be on the whole time?? I am not quite sure how that will stop the lights from going up and down when I lock/unlock the car? Will the lights still work normally?
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Old Sep 12, 2004 | 11:05 AM
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The plastic gear in mine got stripped and it is a very easy to temperary repair.
All you have to do is take off the bolt on the headlight linkage rotate the pin on the motor 180 degrees and reattach it. Then uses the other side of the gear in the motor. It worked for me.
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Old Sep 12, 2004 | 12:00 PM
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TTT

I know I can flip the grea. I just want to see if I can disable the lights from going up and down when i lock/unlock the car while still being able to use them at night. Thanks for the info though.
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Old Sep 13, 2004 | 02:05 PM
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Originally Posted by slow
turn the lights on, and remove the connector on the headlight control module, it has a 5 pin and a 4 pin connector next to the fuse boxes under the hood.

I pull the one closest to the shock tower, and everything else works fine.

Ryan
Another option is to pull the headlight motor fuses. Under the hood on the left side fender there are two junction boxes. In junction box #1 there are 15-amp mini-fuses marked LH HDLP DR and RH HDLP DR. Turn on the headlights so that the lights are up, then pull the fuses. The headlights will still go on and off with the switch but they will stay up all the time.
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Old Sep 13, 2004 | 08:17 PM
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i knew there might be some fuses that would work.

But that was my fix when they were making noise in the parking lot, when mine stripped, easier than finding a fuse at 4:00 am

Ryan
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Old Sep 13, 2004 | 10:40 PM
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Originally Posted by slow
i knew there might be some fuses that would work.

But that was my fix when they were making noise in the parking lot, when mine stripped, easier than finding a fuse at 4:00 am

Ryan

So what does your fix do?? Just not make the headlights operational at all? I am just confused as to what it would accomplish.
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Old Sep 14, 2004 | 07:04 AM
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Unplugging the control box does the same thing as pulling the fuses - the lights will go on or off with the switch but they won't open or close (so make sure they're open when you pull the plug).

I am somewhat surprised that the metal gears would strip. I was always told that replacing the plastic gears with metal ones was a permanent solution. Oh well, I guess nothing lasts forever.
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