kurtb234

Having a problem with my lights......
To start, lights would not go up, or down...had mechanic check the car, and the motor was bad. I replaced the motor with a new motor, and the lights would go up, but not down. I then replaced thr relay with a new one, and the lights retracted about 3/4 of the way and stopped. Now they do not go up, or down...and when manuallly raised, they do not light up! HELP!!!

algie928s4

no idea, but will bump it up for you!

Alan

What year car?

There were headlight motor & relay changes in the 1987 S4 update. - Did you get the correct relay for the car and when you replaced the motor did you also get the correct model (again pre '87 and '87+) - did it have the correct connector to plug right in?

if you mix & match different parts they will not work. the relays are plug in compatible - but do operate differently...
87+ motors travel a half cycle to go up & reverse to go down, pre-87 motors continue another 1/2 cycle in the same direction to go down. Control gear is very different...

I suspect you have the worng relay.. you need:

928.618.107.02 for a <'87
or a
928.618.107.04 for an 87+

Rotate the pods up & down with the manual control on top of the motor (under the rubber cover) - do they go all the way up & down smoothly - full travel - without hanging up?

If not remove front wheels & wheel liners to check what is going on?

Alan

kurtb234

thanks alan. the motor is the correct one for my car. which is an '82. the relay i did get was correct for this year..it was purchased from 928intl.

Dennis Wilson

Have you cleaned the fuse contacts? checked your grounds? Checked the connection (4 pin) to make sure the new motor was plugged in correctly? Checked and lubed your linkage to make sure it has free movement and the circlip hasn't come off? My guess would be the 4 pin connector was plugged incorrectly.

Dennis

Alan

It really sounds like the parking mechanism. The motor only goes up when the lights should be on and is not yet at the up-park position - the lights won't come on until it gets there. This switch is in the motor and is part of the motor wiring & 4 pin connector. The rest of these smarts are in the relay.
check the part # on the relay to be sure - since it sounds like that change made it worse.

Meanwhile check your headlight motor fuse - not the headlights - seperate fuse for the motor - it may have blown due to the other issues. But I don't think that will make things work correctly yet...

Alan

John Struthers

Take a look under the hood.
Hood-up, look to the 2nd from the front fender lip mount bolt. Approximately, even with the lower 1/3 of the drivers headlight you will see a large rubber boot/cap positioned atop a cannister to the front of radiator mount/bracing.
Voila! this is an adjuster that affects the cycling of ye olde headlamp buckets.
May or may not be your problem.
Read about it in your owners manual.
I found it by accident when detailing the Weissach. Apparently, I rubbed/twisted it a bit too much.
Resulted in a partial raise and failure to lower when light switch was turned off.
It would cycle on occasion, but not correctly. One other issue I had with ill mannered buckets, involved low battery voltage.
Last odd item.
I read somewhere where the light switch itself could be the culprit.
Good luck, let us know what happens.

Dennis Wilson

Actually the brains in the early cars are in the motor. There are circular contacts that turn the motor off when it gets to a preset position. After some thought, it appears the motor linkage may have been installed at the wrong cycle. To check it, remove the linkage then run the headlight /motor though an on/off cycle. Reattach the linkage and it should be close. If it works, fine tune the linkage on the motor by setting the linkage so the headlights are their apex when the lights are on.

Dennis

Alan

Dennis you may be right about the linkage - a possibility to screw up the parking location and directions, although I'd still expect to be moving (somewhere) if the fuse is good.

The early cars and later cars are similar in that the position switches only are in the motor - however they operate a little differently as I noted. The drive circuitry is in the relay: no relay = no motor movement. The relay also decides to raise them whenever headlights switch is on but only turn the headlights on when the pods have reached the up position at which time the motor also stops.

The lights only go down when the markers go off.. so those items are the "smarts" I noted vs just the direct position feedback from the motor switches.

Incidentally the diagram on 97-125 of the manual that shows all this does not represent the internal connections of the relay quite correctly - 86M terminal actually also feeds to the electronic circuitry of the relay which is not shown on that diagram.

Alan

mjensen

I had a similiar problem with my 84, I found the problem to be inside the drivers fender, the wiring for the left headlight had a aspot that was rubbed through and green. Repaired the wiring and it's all good.

John Struthers

Dennis,
No arguement on the 'Brains' -full-up/full-down.
My point is that if the **** on the end/top of the motor driveshaft has been moved during cleaning fiddling around , what-have-you, then the 'brain' has been mechanically sidestepped.
And while Kurt may have other issues (wiring, relay, linkage, or, motor internals) I KNOW for a fact that I caused similar symptoms with Pattycakes' headlights and corrected the problem with the adjustment by manually turning the aforementioned motor ****.
Options, options....
Again, read about it in the owners manual.

Dennis Wilson

John,

You know what happens when you fiddle with them *****. Actually, I think that manually turning and removing the linkge will both reset the contact wheel at the right position. But, if the linkage was put on incorrectly when the new motor was installed, all the manual turning in the world will not get the lights and motor in sync.

Hey, I'm ready for another trip to Eureka Springs. Let's all meet tere and fix his headlights.

Dennis

kurtb234

Where are the springs! I have been playing with the relay, and found that if i jump post 30 to 56a i can turn the lights on. and if i jump power to 30a the light motor will run continuiously, (while the power is conected).

Dennis Wilson

Eureka Springs AR. That's in the Ozarks where they have some excellent roads to exercise our 928's.

Looking at the WSM it appears the 56 circuit is activated by the contact wheel in the motor which activates the relays to send power to the headlights (56a and 56b). The motor itself is also activated by the contact wheel (30b circuit) which activates the relay and powers the motor (30 circuit). Have you checked the 4 pin connector at the motor for proper connection (br/re=30b, wt/bl=56,gn/ye=86 and re/bk=30) and made sure the linkage is properly installed?

Dennis

John Struthers

Dennis,
I'm all for another Eureka Springs run.
They might not have the the best all around public road course but, then again, I can't imagine one better.
That's the only hunk of road I've been on where Pattycakes actually unloaded the front suspension.
Series of, tight left/rights with short up and downhills, sweepers, on and off camber horseshoes.
The best was after a bunch of that stuff an uphill cambered curve that suddenly turned into a tight, flat 'U', then back to a cambered downhill. AIRBORNE!
Jay, you still out there?
Kurt,
You have to be close by now. Keep pluggin away.