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Electrical Short???

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Old Aug 14, 2008 | 09:41 AM
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Question Electrical Short???

*I hope this is the right section; forgive me if it isn't...*

Anyway, my boy called me yesterday; he recently bought a '00 WS6 and replaced the front side marker light bulbs with some kind of L.E.D , now when he hits the lock/unlock button on his remote the headlights go up and down. He also said that there was some high pitched sound also. I haven't heard it in person or even seen it happen yet as i couldn't go over his house last night, but has anyone ever experienced this?

He put the stock bulbs back in and the problem hasn't gone away which make me suspect an open/shorted circuit (relay???) or something, or worse, a now VATTS issue. IDK...
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Old Aug 14, 2008 | 12:40 PM
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None of the above. One (or both) of the headlight motor gears is stripped. The system determines when to stop moving the headlights (opening or closing) by the resistance when the motor reaches the end of it's travel. When the gear is stripped, the resistance isn't there so the system cycles the headlights. That's why the headlights pop up and down when the parking lights flash as part of the alarm arming sequence. It's also the source of the squealing noise.

There is a free "fix" that involves rotating the plastic gear 180 degrees so that the unstripped side is in use. This will solve the problem until the other side strips. Another option is a replacement motor but it will still have stripable plastic gears. The third option is to replace the plastic gear with a metal one. Doing a search on "headlight motor" should get lots more information including instructions for the free fix and links to where to get metal gears.
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Old Aug 14, 2008 | 01:15 PM
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that is what i told him, i said the headlights were notorious for stripping the gears; esp after he said one side doesn't close all the way. My father had to replace both headlight motors twice of his '90 GTA before he gave it to me. My boy was the one who said he thought it was short cricuit, i was just relaying that info to see what ppl thought; he is the type of person who asks for advice and then pushes his own idea's.

Anyways, what threw me off was the fact that it happened when he armed/unarmed the car, and AFTER he used a L.E.D bulb in replacement of a regular one. i wasn't aware the motor worked off of resistance, like, i didn't know it measured resistance to know it is at the end of its travel.

thanks
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