tunnelrat

Well my headlights work fine going up but when I bring them down the driver side motor doesn't stop when they come down and it grinding the gear. I have to unplug the harness and bring it down manually and then I can plug it back in. Anyone know what the issue is here ? Is it the motor or some sort of swich that tells the motor to shut off when the light is down ???? any help is appriciated Thanx Bill

dbartromvette

I had the exact same problem. It isn't the motor. You have a gear that needs replaced. You can buy the brass replacement gears or just go to napa and pick up a plastic replacement for like $15 bucks.

My thoughts were exactly what you were thinking. I thought it was a switch or something, but all the guys on here told me to replace the gear.

The install is pretty easy and straight forward. Search "headlight gear replacement" on here or on google.com and you will find instructions. I think it took me about an hour or so.

Good luck!

dgrant3830

Be very careful to observe where the spacers are when you pull it apart. It can go back together wrongly which will cause the rubber bumpers inside to jam things if one of the spacers is wrong.

02koolC5

Yes it sounds like the gears in the motor are stripped.Check this thread out, its great information. Knowledge is power... Post #2 and #22 is what your looking for.And welcome to this forum.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...l-in-here.html

cdkcorvette7

+1 for replace the gear. A lot of guys will tell you to replace with brass gears and they'd be correct in telling you that they'll last longer.

I wanted mine fixed ASAP and my local autoparts store had the nylon replacements in stock so I just threw those in since they were so cheap and ordered the brass ones for the next time. My first nylon gears lasted for over 80K miles so I'm thinking I'll probably never have to dig those brass ones out of the box...

As others have said; pay attention to how things come apart and be sure to put them back together in the right order. What year is your C5?

tunnelrat

My C5 is a 2001 and thank you to everyone's advice

cdkcorvette7

01-04 have headlight motors that are sealed (as opposed to bolted like the earlier units). After you break the seal you'll have to epoxy it back together.