85fortheDrive

Well, after ten months of being double mortgaged, we learned yesterday that we have a bid on our "old" house. News of this spread quickly to the garage, where the OB suddenly fails to properly behave with respect to his headlights.
It's like the damn car knows when you might have some discretionary monies available...

The following symptoms have all been seen at some point in the past few days:

1. Headlights do not pop up all the way, but turn on.
2. Headlights retract fully, but stay on (even after the car is shut off and the keys are removed - love this one)
3. Headlights pop up fully but do not turn on.
4. Headlights turn on at various points during the popping up of the cannisters.
5. Headlights get excited when handled. Er, wait, that's a different set...

At the suggestion of Tyson, I've removed the relay and tried to clear away some of the corrosion on the soldering and spsprayed some electrical contact cleaner around the coils. The symptoms persist, though not always.

I can't imagine that these symptoms mean anything other than a faulty relay, but I thought I'd just get confirmation.

Thanks folks.

Tim

Mrmerlin

I wasnst really undestanding the soldering part , anyway I would suggest that open the relay and clean the connections inside it, from your description it sounds like dirty contacts make sure that water isnt leaking into the CE panel from above ( the blower box)

sharknoob

Next time the lights turn on but dont pop up give the motor a tap could be sticky switch in motor if they pop up then i would check the internal switch

Alan

Tim - I'd be ignoring the relay and fixing the motor... its related to the track connections based on the symptoms - sounds to me like the relay is already working fine... Clean the contact tracks & spring terminals - sounds like the diodes are fine.

Alan

85fortheDrive

Where is the motor for the headlights? I'll gladly pull it/tap it/lube it or whatever it takes. Alan, you know better than anyone about the electricals, but I was almost sure this is relay related.

Thanks.

Alan

in front of the radiator drivers side with rubber boot over the top and a **** underneath. In this case with these symptoms is 80+% likely to be the motor connections...

Its always possible it the relay - but in the case the relay may be doing exactly what it is supposed to...

There were some detailed diagnostics for this that I posted recently (possibly on Pelican) you can monitor the connections as you wind the motor & pods up & down by hand - If you pull the headlight relay you can even monitor it without disassembling the motor - if the motor contacts check out then its the relay...

Otherwise disassemble the motor and take a look...

Alan