greatwhitekc

On my 84, strange situation. The other night, the headlights went up only 1/2 way and didn't come on, so I drove home in the dark (not very far). The next day I put it in the garage with the lights still 1/2 up. I came back a few hours later and couldn't get the car started, the battery was basically dead. So I decided to manually put the lights down. While turning the **** to put the lights down I noticed the canister (where the lights motor is I think)under the **** was hot, very hot, like a frying pan. After putting the lights down I came back a few hours later, the battery was dead but the canister was cool. So I'm wondering if the lights motor is now burned out. I'm going to charge the battery Friday and try to get it started. I thought I should pull out the relay for the headlights, just to be sure. After checking the Search, I couldn't find situation like that. Any thoughts?

A question, I understand the Bosch Copper plugs are better that the Platinum plugs, but what about the Bosch Silver plugs? Any thoughts?


Thanks again for your help everyone.

MainePorsche

One thing to check from the scenario you presented is if there is an obstruction to the movement of the linkage arms off the headlight motor or obstruction to movement of torsion bar. If headlights only went up half cycle and the motor was hot using amperage, something was obstructing - think this was why battery was dead. Manually bring headlights all the way up and all the way down confirming free movement.

Add: Also quite possible your motor is now damaged.

Alan

It's likely you motor burned out - but it could have just killed the battery before then - even so it may be damaged.

You likely had a mechanical issue limiting pod travel (check to find what). The motor will continue to drive once started until it reaches it's stop point. So until fully up if commanded to go up by light switch on headlight mode (w/ ignition on) OR until fully down if commanded to go down by lightswitch in off position (w/ ignition on).

If it is halted before the stop position it will consume lots of current and get very very hot...

Pulling the motor fuse is the wise course of action if your motor stops in an odd location. Then you can also try to rotate the pods by hand (though clearly that won't work if there is indeed a mechanical issue).

BTW the early motors (pre S4) and late motors are different and work differently (not compatible) - but not in a way that changes this diagnosis - even the newer types can suffer the same fate if mechanically obstructed.

Alan