Stereo & Electronics - Headlight Opens When Locked...

All of a sudden when i unlock my car and lock it my head lights pop up and then close and when they close the driver side makes a noise for like 10 secs then stops...alsso when i just want to put my fog lights on ( so i only turn the switch to the middle) my headlights open!



WHATS WRONGE?

Headlight motor is bad. This is what they do when the inside gear strips. All trans ams and firebirds do this eventually!!

That is correct. You can pick up a gear off of ebay for relatively cheap. Instructions on how to repair the gear can be found HERE (http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/headlightfix/index.htm) as well as the METAL gears. If you don't want to ever deal with the problem again just get these bad boys. I might also suggest that when you do change the gears make sure you do every single thing he says to do, if you don't they will re strip. Buy everything he says to. Also, read through the 93-97 install guide, it has great pictures and since the motors are the exact same the information there is great as well.

okay thanks...i figured it was a short in some wires or somthing....

Metal gear alone won't do it. I've actually stripped Brent's metal gears just like the plastic ones. Not that it's not a quality product, has nothing to do with that!! It's the fact that the metal motor is attached to the plastic gear housing with nothing more than 4 bent tabs. Really crappy design because over time the tabs loosen up and allows the metal worm drive it's attached to move inside the gear housing. The gear are nylon plastic. Also a crappy design...metal worm drive against plastic. Now the worm drive moves away just enough to strip the gear. So you buy a metal gear that is 10x stronger than the plastic one, you squeeze the tabs tight against the housing, apply epoxy just to try and keep it from moving...it'll move eventually. This will again strip the gear...metal or not. I added one extra step to the metal gear fix...I added a small strip of plastic behind the worm drive that pressed it up against the gear. I also used a small thin washer as a shim to keep the gear from moving side to side as it does this as well. Not only did this fix the problem, I reused my stripped brass gear and haven't had an issue. I don't know if this would work with the plastic gear or not but it did work with Brent's gear perfectly. I used the other gear I had that I saved and did the same thing. Worked perfectly!! Just my 2 cents. I battled the gears for awhile before coming up with this.

looks like a job i really dont feel like doing after spending winter working on my car and getting her ready for spring..i thought i was done:(

I put metal gears in my passenger headlight and they caused a massive drain and my lights were dim. I decided just to buy a new one and it fixed the problem. So the gears may or may not fix the problem.

except for the noise, that would be cool, everytime u open the car, and the headlights open, its like its waking up.. hahaha

Actually that's exactly what it looks like...the metal gear got so stripped after awhile it only work sometimes. So when you locked/unlocked the car it would actually wink at you. New ones DO fix the problem, but remember your using the same type of motor that went bad...the new one will also eventually go bad. Now that I figured these out I think my fix will work well. There is no play in the housing at all and no play in the gear like there was before. Sad thing is the motor itself seems to work fine for a long time...it's just the gears and the way everything is put together that fail. As far as doing the headlight fix itself...it's very easy. Lots of people fix the motors without removing the headlight assembly and make it way harder. Removing the headlight assembly is very easy and opens up a ton of room for you to work with. The whole process shouldn't take more than an hour just make sure you clean the plastic well where your going to apply the epoxy and use alot of it. Then let it cure. IF you don't do those 2 parts well...the epoxy will fail and the housing will crack apart again. Then you get to start over...I did this as the car was a DD and I was so pissed. Took my time the second time and worked great!! Other than that it is not hard at all to change them out. Oh, don't use a flat head to try to pry them open either...it works but it is MUCH easier and less of a headache to use a sharp chisel. It pops it open easy and right on the seam. I've done quite a few of these not only on my car but friends also. Good luck!!!!