Chrome_Rush Posted August 1, 2010 Report Share Posted August 1, 2010 ALright out of the blue im having a problem with my headlight doors. Last week I got home and shut off hte lights, the doors didnt close, neither of them. I turned them off and on a couple times and they finally closed. the next day I got in the car, hit the lights and they popped right up. When I got home I shut them off and nothing, they wouldnt move. I tried for 10 minutes clicking off and on, not a budge out of them. I checked the fuse link, its good, the relays seem good. I was messing with it today and occasionally the one on the right side will move a hair, and the one on the right side about every 20 cycles through on and off will do a full wink. So they are working intermittently. ITs hysterical when the right side winks. It will close all the way than immediately pop back up. The neighbor looked up and said "did your car just wink" lol. yes, it did. I doubt both relays would go haywire at the same time, and the link has full battery voltage on either side. IF it were a blown fuse it wouldnt work at all, so any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbrad511 Posted August 1, 2010 Report Share Posted August 1, 2010 Sounds like the switches need cleaned...both of them. The popup circuit is routed through the left and right side and either side malfunctioning can cause problems. Check this out.... http://starquest.i-x.net/viewtopic.php?t=1044&sid=ab1fdd918c41b26da9fd80fb3b979b9a Might also take a look at your fusible links, but I bet it's dirty contacts in the switches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikec Posted August 1, 2010 Report Share Posted August 1, 2010 Very common problem: the headlight ON/OFF switch stack has lots of sub-switch-assemblies inside it. Basically one set is for the lights themselves, another set is pop-up OPEN, and another for pop-up CLOSE. After a while, they need to be cleaned out. It could be the headlight switch side or the manual pop-up button on the other side... though usually it's the headlight ON switch. Try GENTLY pressing it - just barely moving it... wiggle it as you do. Often that'll retract the pop-ups until you fix it right. Remove the hood over the gauges, unscrew the switch assembly from the hood. Now look at the switch assembly:1: do NOT attempt to pry the buttons off. You WILL break them - they can NOT be removed from the assembly until the assembly is fully opened. It looks like you need to remove the buttons first - WRONG! 2: Look at the wire side of the switch. You'll see the wire bundle is zip-tied to a metal support post. Cut the zip-tie off. 3: Look at the corners of the wire side of the switch; you'll see 4 metal tabs gripping it - holding the metal body to the electrical panel. There is a 5th tab along one of the long sides too. Use a small screwdriver or pliers to gently bend these tabs up and back. 4: SLOWLY lift the wire side of the switch up. Watch for stuff sticking to it - contacts, springs, etc. Push those back down. You want only the wires and the back panel to come out right now. Don't lift the plastic switch case out of the metal shell either. There are flat metal pieces and a spring trapped in there... these metal pieces are what pop buttons OUT as you push others IN. The spring is on the very end of the switch - on the side closer to the light bulb... in case the assembly jumps apart on you. 5: Get a digital camera or good cell phone and take a pic of the switch guts before you do anything else - just in case. 6: See those triangular metal pieces riding in white chicklets? Those are the parts that move when you push the buttons... the triangles are the electrical contacts; the chicklet supports springs behind the contacts. Those springs get stiff when the internal grease dries up and acts like cement... so the contacts don't push hard enough into their counterparts on the part with the wires to make reliable electrical connections. Take each triangle out, one by one, and clean it with spray electronic parts cleaner (Radio Shack or electronics store). Use a soft pencil eraser to clean the copper contact pads, and the mating pads on the back panel part. Clean the springs too. Re-assemble using "dielectric grease" which is available from electronics stores and many auto parts stores. It's a type of grease that doesn't conduct electricity but it does lubricate and helps keep moisture away from electrical parts. mike c. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrome_Rush Posted August 2, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2010 yep if I just touch the headlight button lightly they open and close fine. guess im cleaning contacts, thanks for the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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