kj217

the headlight on the driver side of my 99 C5 coupe is not popping up,,

what could be the problem and how to fix it?

runner140*

Do you hear a grinding or rapid popping noise?
Can you turn the round wheel on the headlight motor to manually open the headlight door?

Get back to us with the answers.

kj217

no grinding or rapid noise,,
i will try to manually open it and let you know,,

dgrant3830

I had this happen the other day to my '99 on the passenger side. I rotated the **** so it went up a little. Then turned on/off the headlamp switch so it went back down on its own. Then turned it on again and it was working normally. Since its already got a brass gear and was making no noise, I'm thinking a dead spot on the motor winding.

Plasticman

I sometimes have to turn the headlight switch on 3-5 times to get my right light to pop up. No noise, or other issues. Seems to only happen when I have not used them for extended periods.

And of course, it always works when I have time to look at it........

Plasticman

kj217

i just switched on/off several time until i got it popped up
but the one on the driver side is slower,,
what now??

lucky131969

Khalid,
I can send schematics if you want to troubleshoot. Just need to know if you have twilight sentinel.

kj217

i will really appreciate it,,
twilight is off,,

Cratecruncher

My driver side gear just started breaking up recently. I could tell because when I switched off the headlight with the hood open I could see the manual **** continue to spin a second or two after the light was all the way down. When I took the gear cover off the rubber damper was all broken up in pieces allowing the motor to spin without the gear turning. The gear itself was fine.

Someone corrct me if I'm wrong but, I believe the headlight module sends power to the headlight motor until a current threshold is exceeded. Once that limit is met, the module cuts off voltage.

Since Power = (Voltage X Current), current spikes when unusual resistance (like binding) is encountered during travel up or down. My headlight would only go up halfway under motor power. When I tried to raise it manually I could feel the linkage bind about halfway up. Going down the headlight would bind also but not as bad because of the assistance of gravity.

Check your gears if you don't have brass yet. Check for binding either way by raising and lowering the headlight manually.

Plasticman

No binding, no roughness, no noise, and manual **** spins nicely (comparing the one side that does not always come up to the other that always does). Over 2 years of ownership, and this has only occurred twice.

Frankly, just think (in my case) that there might be an initial binding of the manual **** or shaft over a long stretch of "not being used". And perhaps a current shutoff circuit that is a tad too sensitive.

Plasticman

lucky131969

fmvette9

Had one headlight occasionally not pop-up on my 02 and wanted to update this older thread with my fix:

Symptoms: One headlight will occasionally not pop-up
1) Headlights are bright, and motor and gears are good
2) Turing motor **** on sticking light one or two turns allows light to function again for a few days then it starts sticking again
3) Takes more effort to turn motor **** first quarter to full turn, then effort decreases

Initially I checked the white hard plastic bumper stops as mentioned in some other posts, and found three. Two mounted horizontal to stop the lights when opening, and one mounted vertical inside the light mechanism which stops the lights when closing. (heard there were 4, just could not see the fourth) They all looked in good condition. I lubed all of the joints in the headlight but that did not fix it.
Taking a flashlight to the one mounted vertically, I could see an indentation on its top vertical edge where the light mechanism contacts it. It is a small surface area. I took the bumper stop off and flipped it 180 degrees so the "fresh" bottom side was now on top. That fixed it.

Apparently, as the light settles down into the indentation of the bumper stop, its takes more torque from the motor to un-stick it than the motor can supply.

One can also swap a vertical mounted bumper stop with a horizontal mounted bumper stop, as the light contacts the horizontal bumper stop on its long side.

My other side was developing the same indentation, so I flipped it also. Takes 2 minutes when you know the issue.

striper

I'm going to continue this thread. Initially my left headlight wouldn't open. I installed the brass gear from Rodney Dickman and that solved the problem for a long time until....... the light started sticking closed again. I would manually loosen the screw on the back of the h/l motor and it would work okay again. I found that the plastic stop blocks would indent and turning them over would fix it. However eventually they would indent again, rendering them useless. I'd have to manually loosen them again but eventually that didn't work anymore. I put Rodney Dickman's improved plastic stops which I thought finally fixed it. It has now started doing it again. I called him but he had no more ideas. He suggested possibly changing the h/l module. I am hoping for a more permanent repair. BTW, all problems have only been on the left headlight. The right side has never given me a problem, not even once, so I doubt the module is really bad. And the left side works fine once you loosen the screw on the back.

fmvette9

After a few weeks since I rotated the bumper stops, it started sticking again. Comparing my sticking passenger side to the driver side, more force was still needed to start turning the motor. I then re-read the thread, "headlight-gear-fix-highly-pictorialized", which is a great thread on the subject.

I decided to go with the rotate the plastic gear 180 degree concept. After I rotated it, there is now no additional torque required to turn the motor. It is as easy to turn from the start, as after a couple of turns. So I am hopefully good to go until that side of the plastic gear wears. My theory is that even thought the plastic gear was not worn enough to cause the rat a tat, , the wear was causing a misalignment with the worm gear.

Note: I removed the bezel, painted top cover, then removed the 3 10mm hex nuts and three 13mm bolts to remove the whole mechanism from the car and into my air conditioned house (heat wave) to work on it. Factory manual procedure with pics at corvettecentral web site. Took 10 minutes to remove, and 15 to put back.

poo23

I just got my 99 out the shop today with the same problem. They check it out & told me I needed a LH Headlight Motor. Fixed it right up. I took it to Vette Nuts. They specialize in nothing but Corvettes, C5 & C6 (maybe more) Here's the site vettenuts.net Thanks guys.

GCG

There is a TSB that calls for shimming the driver's side motor. You can play with some washers until you get it right, or you can get a set from Rodney Dickman for $2.75 here.

GCG

Here you go:

Keyman57

Why “for now” ? BeCause the **** to rotate the motor on my drivers side is MISSING! And I had to rotate it with a long nose pliers (which i didn’t want to do), the Rubber Boot is MISSING Too. Wonder if I can order one? Thanks so much, glad to contribute. I’m just starting to work on my C5 2004 Silver bullet myself, still a junior though. Drivers pop up headlight motor with missing **** and cover boot. C5 2004

TommySierra

I have a similar problem on my new to me 99 convertible. I used a 3mm Allen wrench to loosen nut. It will pop up after loosening nut but after a few cycles it seems to tighten itself up. I have a new motor ready for install.

Lucifer90

Have anyone here had there headlight stuck closed and removed the cap and found out there was no **** ?