i just got my trans am a week ago. headlights worked fine, went up, went down, didn't grind or make any noise once they were down. yesterday turned them on and the passenger headlight just didn't go up. doesn't make any noise at all. do the motors just burn out like that? i've read all about the common gear problem but mine never made any noise, and it seems like if it was that i'd hear something moving at least.

also, the rubber cap that says "remove for manual use" or whatever, can i just pull that out the little hole and twist it or what? don't know how that all works.

thanks

I dont know if 4th gens will do this but on my 89 the headlights did the same thing. No noises they just sat there. I found I was not getting any power to the headlight motors and found the problem to be the dash switch. I took it apart and the contacts were no longer making the connection. A little adjustment bend and now they both go up/down like new.

Have you checked the headlight fuse? If that goes out they won't pop up. Also if the headlight control module/headlight door module goes out they won't go up either.

I do have a question, if you turn them on, even though they don't go up, if you look, do the headlights themselves come on? If the bulbs do light up it's something related to the motor, if they don't it's something causing power not to reach the headlights.

Also you might want to check to be sure that the pigtail connectors are good and clean and tight and that there isn't any corrosion build up.


As for the manual turn up knobs. What you need to do is pull those rubber covers off and then use a hex head screwdriver in the center hole of them to turn the headlights up. Once you start turning them you'll be able to see which way you need to turn to get them to go up. Once you've got them up replace the rubber covers to keep junk/gunk/dirt, etc out of the hex head hole.

yeah the lights still come on. forgot to mention that in the original post. once you pull the rubber cover off can you still get it back through that hole? seems like the rubber piece gets bigger at the bottom.

Since they still come on it sounds like the motors themselves aren't getting power, so it could be the motors themselves, the wires supplying power to them, or the headlight control/door module since if it was the fuse itself the lights wouldn't come on.

Yea you can get the rubber covers back on through that hole once you have them off. Sometimes you have to bend the end in a little to fit through the hole but it will go back through it.

You can take the rubber piece off and there is a little knob you can twist and it will manually raise the headlight, you wont hurt it as long as you put them back how they where before you use the electrical switch in your car...I had to use these when I redid my headlight motors(I used the $45 kit from Bfranker's website..., it worked like a charm)...I suppose if you try to raise it manually and it doesn't raise up, then it may just be the metal arm...

so do i manually raise it then turn the headlights on? and then manually close it then turn them off?

i'm gonna take a voltage tester to see if the motors getting any current tommorow.

What you need to do is this:

Manually flip them up and then use the headlight switch to turn on the lights themselves. To turn them off and close them do the reverse (turn switch to off position and then manually close them) or you can just turn the switch to the off position to turn off the lights and leave them sitting in the up position until you can figure out what is causing them not to flip up/down. It won't hurt to leave them in the flipped up position as long as you turn them off with the switch.


Another quick question: When you turn the headlights on do you hear anything coming from where the motors are? Any type of noise whatsoever, a hum, a clicking, anything?

nothing at all. that's why i found it so odd. worked fine one day, then the next day it did nothing at all. no noises.

welp since i'm home sick today i figured i'd go see if i could figure out my headlights.

took an allen key and manually raised the one that didn't work.

turned on the headlights, the other popped up, they both lit up. crossed my fingers and turned them off, they both went down. closed my eyes and turned them on...opened my eyes and whatta ya know? both were up. they work perfectly now. =)

all i did was manually raise them and jiggle around the wires. guess that's all it took to fix the bad connection.

really glad i never had to tell my dad about it. got the car a week ago and he got mad at me because i kept flipping the headlights up and down(it was actually only like 2 times, but he said i was gonna burn em out) sooo we're all good now.

Cool, glad that you got it fixed. It sounds like something was just hanging up somewhere and when you manually raised it whatever was hung up got unstuck. But I'd still check to make sure that everything is tight screw/bolt/nut wise and I'd also check the connectors to be sure they're all good and clean.

And I'm glad to that you didn't have to tell him about them acting up. You can say that for when something really goes wrong.

hahah. well now the headlight closes and makes the infamous GUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH sound.

guess i'm gonna have to get some metal gears soon. i'll do the free fix if it dies before i get em.

lol

Heck you can do the free fix now and that should fix the problem for quite a while, that is unless the free fix has been done before, then it won't help at all.

I know I done the free fix on my 99 about 3 years ago and the headlights are still working fine today. So try it, it might save you some cash.

thought i'd post this here since it's a headlight thread... i mentioned in my intro post that i'd done bfrankers gears in my headlight motors and they worked like a charm... well, they worked for a while anyway... the left one was the bad one but since i had two new gears i figured i'd do them both... last week the right one started the down/up routine when i turned them off... upon inspection i found that the case had split open and the down position stop had broken off! the epoxy didn't hold, and i used a lot of it. i pulled the motor, cleaned the old glue off and reglued it, then drilled 4 small holes around the edge and put little screws in, that was tricky... found a bolt about the size of the broken stop and made a new stop... gave the glue 2 days to dry and reinstalled the motor... when i hit the switch they went up, yay! then when i turned them off, they went down, and i heard a crack... the case had split open again and tore the screws out, Grrr! that's when i called RockAuto and ordered a new motor, should be here by Monday... the left one seems okay so far, but i figure it's just a matter of time... from scanning the forums i've found this is a common problem after the metal gear job.

I also sell headlight repair kits for the fourth gen Firebirds. Some customers experienced this problem of the case separating due to epoxy failure. I solved it by switching from the epoxy to a two-part urethane and using a metal t-shaped reinfocing piece that puts pressure on the case to keep it together.

The kits are TDS p/n 501310 nylon gear & bumper kit, $28 or the TDS p/n 500310 brass gear & bumper kit, $44. Both kits include the rubber insert that fits inside the gear and the t-brace previously mentioned.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions
top-downsolutions.com