Winking Bird

[TucsonBird]

Well, it happened.

I was driving to the gym to workout with my friend and when I turned the car off I turned the headlight switch off. The headlights went down like normal, but after they went down the right headlight made a grinding noise. :mad: After pondering for 10 minutes how I was going to leave the car parked withought draining the battery and without the headlight trying to close while I was gone I finally pulled the fuse out for the right headlight. Anyways, I was going to take it apart tomorrow after class and hopefully come up with some sort of solution before I go out tomorrow night. Anything I should know before I go at it?

EDIT: They come back up fine. No noises. But it doesn't stop after 5 or 6 seconds and it has happened every time I try turning them off since this.

I did search and came up with this, but the noise doesnt stop after 5 or 6 seconds. I've let it go on longer than that before turning the headlights back on to make it stop cuz I'm afraid it'll break something

[ January 26, 2005, 02:41 AM: Message edited by: TucsonBird ]

[SilverTAWS6]

It's the gear in the headlight motors. Had it happen multiple times (although usually the noise does stop after a few seconds). Don't worry it won't break anything it's just really annoying. What I did was put the headlights up and pull both motor fuses until it was going in to be fixed (covered under warranty at the time) so they were up if I needed them but they didn't go down and grind. You can try that fix it might work, or you could get new motors, or there is a company out there that makes metal gears to replace the plastic ones so they won't strip and grind. They're a little expensive (I think around $40 a piece, but I'm not sure), but they won't strip so easy.

Chris

[TucsonBird]

Thanks. I think I'm going to call the dealer I bought it from today. I bought it on the 27th of dec. so it's within 30 days, im pretty sure they'll do something. Although it is a Lexus dealer, so I highly doubt they carry anything, so I don't know what they will do

[grayman]

So you mean you did the above "free headlight fix" by spinning the gear 180 deg? Not sure from your post if you had done that yet and that after the fix it still grinds? SilverTAWS6 is right on the money. You can do the free gear fix once per headlight. After that get the brass gears.
The only fix the professional mechanics offer is to replace the entire headlight motor assembly...$350 bucks or so. whatever.

[jbfirebird22]

the way to fix it is to get brass gears. however, there is a one time fix per headlight...heres how it works-
the healight motor has a round gear in it, however, only 180 degrees of it is being used. the arm that attaches to the headlight needs to be taken off of the motor. once the arm is taken off, use the manual raise/lower knob for the head light and turn it so the spot where the arm connects to has turned 180 degrees. (the spot where the arm connects to has 2 flat sides so u will be able to tell when it has been turned 180 degrees). once it is turned 180 degrees, then reattach the arm and it is fixed
this fixed mine for a short time till the other 180 degrees of the gear got messed up. only fix after that is new motor which is a waste of money, or to get the brass gears which are 40 bucks a piece. this fix is very easy.

[3.4 slow to go]

Originally posted by TucsonBird:
Thanks. I think I'm going to call the dealer I bought it from today. I bought it on the 27th of dec. so it's within 30 days, im pretty sure they'll do something. Although it is a Lexus dealer, so I highly doubt they carry anything, so I don't know what they will do

THey might just farm the car out to a gm dealership & have it fixed there. let those who know how to fix it, fix it.

[TucsonBird]

I wasn't going to post anything since it looked like the thread died, but anyways, I called the dealership and they told me to take it to the Pontiac dealer across the street and its covered under my 60 day warranty. I was looking at the the guide to turn the gear and stuff but I thought that since mine didnt stop grinding it might have been a different part. Anyways, why would I bother taking it apart (I already looked in there when I looked at it the other day, it looks like a PITA) when the dealer will do it free.

[TucsonBird]

I took the car in today. The dealer says it's not covered under the 60-day warranty and they want $44 to look at it (which they did) and they just called me saying it needs a new headlight actuator $196 and $200 in labor. I'm guessing the actuator is the part that the stripped gear is in and they just think I'm stupid enough to have them replace the whole part. Anyways, I'm going to pick it up tonight and look at it myself this weekend. Do you guys think there is any part other than the gear that could be messed up here? Thanks.

EDIT: On a happier note, I finally got some pictures of the car taken wednesday and I think they may be developed today [img]graemlins/banana.gif[/img]

[grayman]

it is not that hard. jsut follow the guide...you will be able to see if the plastic gear is striped...if sow, flip the gear to the un used side. cant hurt. just a couple of metric tools. the labor and parts from dealer you save would go a long way to buying nice tools or other more important, more expensive coponents to mod or maintain.

[shock_core]

here http://www.rodneydickman.com/n113.html

i bought my brass headlight gears from this guy when i had my ole 96 Fbird, great quality product, works wonders, it just hurts the wallet. and its really really easy to replace, hit me up at sp00rkz@hotmail.com if you need help or i think he has a page on how to, or at least he used to... just search

edit, actully, i lied, the gears you buy come with how to instructions :D

[TucsonBird]

No problem. Did the fix on Saturday, just forgot to post anything. I only had trouble with the arm rusting onto the shaft. Works like new ;) I just wish I could find what's causing this squeak I believe is coming from the left door (not the one that was stripped), so I took it apart too. I sprayed WD-40 on all the "joints" of the arm and the shaft but it's still doing it.