Headlight trouble
Thread Starter
2nd Gear
Joined: May 2020
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Headlight trouble
85 corvette. Only one of my headlights go up but then it doesn’t go back down. The other one will go down automatically if I manually put it up. Any idea on what the problem is. Seems like such an odd problem. Gears in both motors look good so that’s not the issue.
Instructor
Joined: Oct 2018
Posts: 225
Likes: 81
From: Vancouver, WA
85 corvette. Only one of my headlights go up but then it doesn’t go back down. The other one will go down automatically if I manually put it up. Any idea on what the problem is. Seems like such an odd problem. Gears in both motors look good so that’s not the issue.
Unless you take it apart, you can’t tell.... I’ve had similar failures in my 85 and 88.... The 85 had one of the mounting screws back out and block the headlight from fully opening. Easy fix. I just screwed it back in... The 88 had a stripped gear. I determined that by taking it out. I installed a rebuilt headlight motor unit with metal gears.
Safety Car
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 3,953
Likes: 550
From: Mission Viejo CA
The '84-'87 headlight motors are entirely different than the '88-'94 motors. So you need to be careful when getting advice from anyone (or YouTube) that doesn't know that fact!
The good news is that the motors aren't dead! The bad news is that it may be dirty limit switches inside the motors, or it could be bad relays. I'm going to guess dirty switches, but here's a link to a guy with similar problems, and a few suggestions. Try these and report back.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c4-tech-performance/4406660-86-headlight.html#post1601571603
The good news is that the motors aren't dead! The bad news is that it may be dirty limit switches inside the motors, or it could be bad relays. I'm going to guess dirty switches, but here's a link to a guy with similar problems, and a few suggestions. Try these and report back.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c4-tech-performance/4406660-86-headlight.html#post1601571603
Drifting
Joined: Nov 2015
Posts: 1,709
Likes: 328
Finalist 2020 C4 of the Year - Unmodified
I'm not a fan of replacing the worn gear with a metal gear. Reason, the gear is the first point of failure. Eliminate that, what's the new point and how much more to fix? 
