Headlight motor making noise

[FUPA]

Last night my headlight motor started making an odd noise when I turn them off. The headlights are supposed to close when I turn the switch off, and they do, but it also make an odd noise like the motor is struggling after it has closed the headlight. I makes a noise like a pool pump and the there us some kind of hydrolic sound at the end.

Also, when I use the keyless entry device to lock the car, the headlights pop up and then close and make that weird motor noise I talked about above.

Any ideas what is wrong with this thing?

[flamingchicken]

Re: Headlight motor making noise

is it like a clicking noise???

[landj]

Re: Headlight motor making noise

The noise is the gear being stripped, either the teeth themselves, or the way it mounts to the metal hub inside. Sometimes you can fix it by taking it apart and rotating the gear then re securing it to the hub. I fixed my sunbird's headlight door that way using some small screws to secure the plastic gear to the metal hub. The other option is to buy replacement gears (best one are brass).

I'm pretty sure this is your problem based on your description that the noise occurs after it goes down. It will eventually start making noise after going up. The gear is simply slipping. You alarm system is probably programed to flash the lights, hence the gears going up and down. On my Sunbird I wired it so that the parking lights flash rather than the headlights. It will save the life of the motor if you do it that way.

Run a search and you'll find more info.

In the meantime, you put the lights in the up position and disconnect the motor. The lights will work when you want them to, but you'll be driving around with the headlights up all the time.

[FUPA]

Re: Headlight motor making noise

OK- more info for you all on this... please help.

This seems to be an electrical problem.

In the fog light "on" position, the headlights pop up but do not turn on. Usually, just the fog lights are supposed to go on in this position.

When i use the fob to lock or unlock the car, the head lights pop up and then go down and the motor in the drivers side headlight makes a grinding/humming noise for about 5 seconds.

I'm not sure, but would this be a bad switch in the interior causing this? Im just confused as to why all of the sudden the headlights pop up when the switch is in the foglamp position (12 oclock). Any help appreciated very much.

thanks,

Bill

[whitdog54]

Re: Headlight motor making noise

your headlight gears are stripped. Well one of them is, find out wich one the noise is coming from and do the free fix!

http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/headlightfix/

Scroll down to the free fix

[FUPA]

Re: Headlight motor making noise

your headlight gears are stripped. Well one of them is, find out wich one the noise is coming from and do the free fix!

http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/headlightfix/

Scroll down to the free fix

Out of curiosity- why would a stripped gear cause the headlights to pop up when just the fog lights should come on?

[Need4Camaro]

Re: Headlight motor making noise

Out of curiosity- why would a stripped gear cause the headlights to pop up when just the fog lights should come on?

It's complicated, I had the same problem and yes it is the gear thats causing it. it is not an electrical problem. Here's whats happening.

When you turn your headlights to the OFF position, the motor is told to bring it to the down position. However on our cars, the down position is stopped by a position on the gear, so the headlight assembly is literally resting on the gear when it reaches its down position. When the unit detects enough pressure applied from that gear, it knows its in that down position because that gear can no longer rotate in the down position. This is what tells the Headlight motor that they are at their complete down position, and to stop rotating the gear. HOWEVER, When you strip the gear... The tooth that holds the headlight in the down position is gone, therefor, there is no internal MOTOR resistance telling your headlight motor to stop turning that gear, but it can't turn it anymore because the assembly physically cannot got beyond the down position. Thats whats causing your grinding sound. As for the lights and alarm system causing them to go up and down, this is caused because your headlights are technically still ON...The LIGHTS are not on, but the MOTOR is still on because they are not being tripped by the motor to deactivate them. Thats why the flip up and down in a confusing cycle when you hit the power doorlock entry.

Replace the gears with brass gears and becareful (like I wasn't) not to break the plastic tab on the housing... follows brents video instructions carefully... If you break the plastic tab, your motor is gone...

[whitdog54]

Re: Headlight motor making noise

^There you go, well explained.

Seems like GM could have thought of a better way to do these headlights...or atleast use metal gears from the factory!!!

[landj]

Re: Headlight motor making noise

^There you go, well explained.

Seems like GM could have thought of a better way to do these headlights...or atleast use metal gears from the factory!!!

The units are already expensive enough, if the whole car was bullet proof they'd call it a Caddilac and I doubt any of us would be driving it.

[whitdog54]

Re: Headlight motor making noise

The units are already expensive enough, if the whole car was bullet proof they'd call it a Caddilac and I doubt any of us would be driving it.

So you think its ok for headlight (a major feature in the car) to stop working properly after 50k miles or so...thats when both mine went bad. You think thats a good idea? A good way to save money? These cars were not cheap when they came out. A base v6 coupe, no optinos was around 18k. A loaded trans am was $30k plus, new. For $30,000 dollors I would have liked reliable headlights. :spank: I think they saved anough money making cheap azz dash pads, doors, and that crappy wiring scheme for the power windows.

[landj]

Re: Headlight motor making noise

So you think its ok for headlight (a major feature in the car) to stop working properly after 50k miles or so...thats when both mine went bad. You think thats a good idea? A good way to save money? These cars were not cheap when they came out. A base v6 coupe, no optinos was around 18k. A loaded trans am was $30k plus, new. For $30,000 dollors I would have liked reliable headlights. :spank: I think they saved anough money making cheap azz dash pads, doors, and that crappy wiring scheme for the power windows.

Headlight bulbs do burn out... Headlights are essential, NOT the motors to make them flip up. If they break, that's why there is a manual procedure for raising them and leaving them up. As for the motor, well that's why I've got a Camaro and not the bird with the silly pop-up lights (not that the bird doesn't look bad-*** with them). I don't like the extra crap they put on cars because eventually something going to crap out, and I don't care if it was some foreign speaking engineer from Kazakastan or your brother in Detroit that designed the car, every car falls prey to Murphy's law. It's like people who spend the extra grand on power-heated-vibrating seats that can tell you when your next minstrel cycle starts and then ***** about something breaking. Motors wear out, electronics only last so long and when you increase the number of "extras" a car has, it only increases the chances for some **** to foul up. It makes matters worse when someone wires up a car alarm so that it actuates the headlight motors ever time they get in and out.

The f-bodies were inexpensive performance cars and were not as refined as they could have been had they had sold in the numbers that other cars did, but I'd never say they are cheap, or horribly engineered. Given the target price, handling characteristics and performance numbers, I'd say the 4th gen f-bodies are one of the best damn engineered muscle cars of all time.

[Need4Camaro]

Re: Headlight motor making noise

I personally agree that the headlight motors on these PONTIACS of all expensive cars should have been designed better. The brass gear is all they really needed to do, woohoo a whole $20 more per car...

[FirebirdGT]

Re: Headlight motor making noise

your headlight gears are stripped. Well one of them is, find out wich one the noise is coming from and do the free fix!

http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/headlightfix/

Scroll down to the free fix

I think this is better.

http://www.rodney d i c k man.com/n113.html

I used this on mine.

[whitdog54]

Re: Headlight motor making noise

The f-bodies were inexpensive performance cars and were not as refined as they could have been had they had sold in the numbers that other cars did, but I'd never say they are cheap, or horribly engineered. Given the target price, handling characteristics and performance numbers, I'd say the 4th gen f-bodies are one of the best damn engineered muscle cars of all time.

I think you are missing my point, but ok. Ill agree with you, your point def makes sense... they are def the best "engineered" muscle cars of all time, is that why firebirds are still being made and camaros went out of production for 8 years

If they were soo damn great, they would still be in production right now and getting GM out of this struggle. NOPE!!! they were fast....that only matters to some people. Allot of people lost interest in these cars because of all the stupid small things GM skipped out on. Like cheap *** interior and crappy headlights...not only the stripping gears, but also the light output. Do you know GM had to make a separate wiring harness for the headlights for firebirds/camaro sold in Europe? Thats because the light output didn't meet the standards over there, but here, it was ok? 4th gen f-bodies were fast....THATS IT. The ride was crap, the quality of allot of parts was crap. Thats why production numbers dropped so fast, and they kicked from the line up.

[Everglades W68]

Re: Headlight motor making noise

My passenger side gear finally stripped out. I replaced the gear with a brass gear from Rodney D i c k man. But - I managed to break the motor housing, and I ended up buying a complete new headllight motor (ouch $$$).

The new headlight motors are much better - the gear box cover screws on with three screws - instead of the glued-on cover that used to be standard. Inside the box is the same old nylon gear. I replaced it with the brass gear and then screwed the gearbox cover back on - very easy.

The hard part for me was that I needed two 10mm wrenches - not socket wrenches. The rear bolt is just in a very tight little area.

A Torx 30 would have been nice. I did not have one but made do by using a Vicegrip to grab the head of the Torx screw. The Torx 30 parts are on the pivots of the headlight assemblies.