Headlight not popping up

[tajoe]

Can someone please help me out here! My driver side headlight won't pop up when I turn on the lights, if I keep turning them on and off it will eventually pop. Then it seems to be alight after that. The dealer said it was the actuator. Anybody agree or was he just looking for $150.00 sale?:dunno: :help:

[Mr. Luos]

Any noise coming from it??

[tajoe]

Any noise coming from it??
Perfectly normal sounding, when it works. When it stays down it don't even look like it wants to pop but still no noise.

[Mr. Luos]

Not really sure then.
Electrical for sure if you don't hear any of those gears grinding.

It might very well be the actuator.
If you can be certain it is that....try LS1 sponsor Fred Beans. They give much better prices over my local stealerships.

[tajoe]

Not really sure then.
Electrical for sure if you don't hear any of those gears grinding.

It might very well be the actuator.
If you can be certain it is that....try LS1 sponsor Fred Beans. They give much better prices over my local stealerships.
I HATE ELECTRICAL!!!!!!:hide: Any ideas?

[2000pontiac6]

I had the same thing happen to mine... I forget the name of what I'm talking about, but if its the same as mine its the metal piece that turns the gear. The "hooks" go into notches in the gear, these "hooks" are probably rusted and at least one is most likely already rusted off.
I'll try and find the name and get back to you

[Kyle C]

Mine did the same thing. I posted an almost identical question, one of the suggestions was to lubricate the linkage. After lubing everything, it pops up every time. Makes me wonder if some of the headlight gear failures are due to lack of lube on the moving parts?

[tajoe]

Thanks for the responses. I'll check the mechanics and lube it up a bit. Just as long as it is not ELECTRICAL!!!:Ohno: :Ohno: :Ohno:

[BLKbandit98]

make sure ur hood isnt bent or outta alignment. Thats wut happened to me and the light didnt come up.

[The Scientist]

My driver's side light is doing the same thing right now. A year ago I had the whole gear slipping, clicking noise and replaced the plastic gear with the brass one. No problems until now. No noise just not doing anything as if the wires had been cut. the only thing that makes me think otherwise is that it worked for about 2 weeks because one time I quickly turned the lights off and back on and when i did it poped up. One day it just stopped again for no reason. Hate to change the whole motor because I know that it is good. Maybe lube might work but I doubt it. I think it has to do with the circuit overload system that is used to cut the motor off when fully closed or open. Someone please find a definative answer.

[tajoe]

My driver's side light is doing the same thing right now. A year ago I had the whole gear slipping, clicking noise and replaced the plastic gear with the brass one. No problems until now. No noise just not doing anything as if the wires had been cut. the only thing that makes me think otherwise is that it worked for about 2 weeks because one time I quickly turned the lights off and back on and when i did it poped up. One day it just stopped again for no reason. Hate to change the whole motor because I know that it is good. Maybe lube might work but I doubt it. I think it has to do with the circuit overload system that is used to cut the motor off when fully closed or open. Someone please find a definative answer.
Same thing here. No noise but if I turn them off and then back on it will eventually pop up. Still haven't had time to try lube.

[billyb]

hi on the frame of the headlight there is a little white plastic stop for the rotating arm, if the plastic is gone or to bent towards the rear of the car then the mechinism gets jammed to far past the operating range of the cycle and cannot reverse it self. adj. the stop foward ( stout piece of metal) until it works, mine did the same thing and i just figured it out and it works fine.

[tajoe]

hi on the frame of the headlight there is a little white plastic stop for the rotating arm, if the plastic is gone or to bent towards the rear of the car then the mechinism gets jammed to far past the operating range of the cycle and cannot reverse it self. adj. the stop foward ( stout piece of metal) until it works, mine did the same thing and i just figured it out and it works fine.
I saw the piece you are talking about and it looks fine. I bent it forward a little anyway. I took a few tries to get the light to pop before I found it but once the light pops it pops every time after that so I have to wait to find out if that was the problem. Another thing I noticed while trying to get it to pop the first time is that there was no sound at all, like the motor wasn't even getting power. But like I just said, once it pops the first time it works like normal afer that.:thinkin:

[The Scientist]

If that is the case then when I manually put the headlight in a "non-fully closed" position it should pop up when I flip the switch. That is not the case. I still feel it's electrical.

[tajoe]

Billyb's suggestion still seems to be working today. No problems, the light popped up every time thou a little slower then the other side but it's working. Thanks for all your suggestions, if I have more problems I will take all your advice and repost if I still have problems. I still hope it's not electrical!:scare:

[timowen1]

I have a 94 Firebird with a right side headlight that goes up when turned on but when turned off it goes down then back up. I have to manually put it down by cranking the manual control. The light does look out of alinement.
What do you think is up?

[tajoe]

Ok it worked for a while now it stopped again. It even stayed up a few times when I turned the lights off. Any suggestions on where to start checking the electric? Any ideas on where to get a service manual?

[6sw00]

mines been doing it for a while only worked when it felt like it.. now it hasnt been working at all. im goin to try lubein it up tomorrow and ill get back to you.. i think i have electrical problems tho because sometimes my ignition switch wont work. everything else will go on accept the car wont start. this happens only once in a while but its still a big problem im scared of.. iv also noticed that when i have my lights on, left side manually, the blinker lights are sapposed to go off i believe.. recently the left one goes off and the right one stays on.. i want to take my car to a pontiac dealer but i dont want to spend thousands..

[6sw00]

so this is what i did.. as you can see in the pictures iv attatched, i took off the plastic protector and got the the motor wireing. when i disconnected it, there was a little bit of water in there. i dried it out and also sprayed the control arms with some wd-40. after it hasnt been working in a few days, it started working fine again. i used to not be able to even hear the motor running. i would suggest trying this befor buying anything. make sure the connections are clean. also in a the pictur that i have with the connector, there are sapposed to be 5 wires. it seams that one of mine has been broken. it is the end green one. if anybody checks this out please let me know if its important or not.. good luck let me kno what happens

[6sw00]

sorry guys, cant seam to get the pics up for some reason.

[The Scientist]

Thanks for trying 6sw00. I hope to spend a bit of time on my car this weekend and that is one of the projects I have scheduled. I will try to clean the connections and check as much of the wireing as I can then lube the mechanism. If I come up with anything new I will let you know.

[The Scientist]

Well, I finally got around to working on my light. I took of the black plastic headlight surround and disconnected the wiring to find a bit of corrosion but on water. I thought that I would try to clean the connections a little and sure enough it worked. I don't know how long it will last but it is working now so that was obvouisly part or all of the problem. If it happens again I will spend a lot more time cleaning the connectors.
Also, I have all 5 wires connected, so you may want to rreconnect yours.

[tajoe]

OK, now i am really frustrated! BOTH headlight are not popping up!!!!:brick: The motors on both don't seem to be kicking in. The lights come on but stay down. It really SUCKED driving home down an unlit road with NO FREAKING HEADLIGHTS!!!! I couldn't even see under the hood to figure out how to put them up manually, I never had to do that yet. I'll be figureing that one out tomorrow. I don't even want to know what it will cost to take it to the dealer. Does anybody have the manual on disk that they can send me a pdf of the headlight so I can try to figure this out. I almost bought the disk but I run a mac and I can only find manuals for pc.

[tajoe]

Well I broke down and went to the dealer. The actuators were all rusted so the motor was having trouble raising the lights. Finally the motors went and the control module shorted itself out as a result. At least that is what they told me. $550 for the module and labor and they want another $325 per motor to replace them. For $900 I got a one year warrantee that I will use to replace the motors and have the dealer go thru the rest of the car with a fine tooth comb. That's what happens when you buy a used car. Mine just happen to come from Oregon where it rains a hell of lot more then here in Az.