When I go to turn on my parking lights to so the gauges will light up, my headlight pop up. They dont turn on but pop up. Is that normal. I have never had a car do that before. The motors run for an extra. 5-6sec after they close. I know what they problem is, and will order the metal gears they weekend. Forgive the newbie here.

Bret

 

The lights should only pop up when you turn the headlight switch on, not parking lights. So I guess the answer is no it's not normal...at least that I've ever experienced.

 

My headlights do not pop up when only turning on the parking lights. Seems like yours are not behaving normally.

 

Mine (2002) do not pop up when I turn just the parking lights on. If I have the headlights on, and then go to the parking lights, then the headlights will stay up (but off). This is normal.

 

One or both of the gears in the headlight motors has bitten the dust. I copied this from the sticky at the top of the page.....

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...7&forum_id=103

Headlight gears
The gears in the headlight motor are plastic, and wear out over time. Ice, heavy Euro or projector headlights and twilight sentinal will cause the gears to wear out quickly. Fortunately a few years ago, Rodney started selling replacement brass gears, check out his website. Corvette America and probably a few other vendors now sell their own copy of his brass gears. Here’s a thread that shows how to replace the gears.

Replacement nylon gears are also available from Motormite Help!, part #42400 for $10-13. Src

To replace:
Quote:
Originally Posted by MyBlueC5
Src
Raise the headlamps.

Remove the screws that hold the plastic bezel around the headlamp.

Remove (3) 10mm bolts holding the motor to the headlamp assy. (one is a bolt with a nut on the end, the other two are just bolts)

Unplug the wiring to the motor.

Remove (3) 7mm bolts holding the cover for the gear.

Replace gear, reinstall.

Literally a 10 minute fix.

…it is completely unnecessary to remove the headlamp assy to pull the motor off to get to the gear.


Quote:
Originally Posted by pattymelt1285
Src
At first my driver’s side headlight would only come halfway up and I would have to get out of the car, turn the headlights on then manually pull up the light. After a few weeks it would not even go up or down at all. I decided to order some new brass gears. After much research I decided to buy them from www.bfranker.badz28.com

The gears from bfranker do not use the stock rubber inside the gear. Good thing, because when I pulled out the stock gear and it was fine! But the rubber bumper was destroyed! With bfrankers gears you don’t have to retain the stock rubber bumper. In this picture you can see the good stock gear on the left on the bad one on the right, also notice it broke the plastic tabs inside the gear that keep the rubber bumper from spinning:



Pic of the stock gear and stock rubber bumper:


Picture of bfrankers gear:


Installed:


Rodney Dickman's gear:


Installed with rubber bumper:


I would go with bfrankers, because with his gear it eliminates the rubber bumper. On 97-99 Corvettes the motor case unbolts with 3 bolts, but on 00+ they are sealed and with bfrankers kit he even includes the epoxy to close the motor case as does Rodneys. I am not ******* on Rodney’s gears, but I am just letting you guys know what else is out there. Bfrankers kit is $43 shipped for one gear kit, or $81 shipped for two. The install only took about 45 min and they work perfect now. More info and instructions for bfrankers gear can be found here:

http://www.bfranker.badz28.com/headlightfix/index.htm

The install is almost the same as the 93-97 Trans Am in the instructions.

Info for Rodneys gear:

http://www.rodneydickman.com/corvette.html

Patrick

 

I know my gears are striped and that is making them grind after a few. secs after they close. Are you saying the gears being being fed are causeing my headlights to pop when I turn the parking lights on?

 

Anyone have any idea's?

 

One of the symptoms of the headlight gears failing is that the headlight doors pop up when you turn on the parking lights. I don't know why it does this, but it does. Once the gears are replaced, it doesn't do it anymore. If you don't believe me - try doing a search on headlight gear replacement...

 

Thanks man. That is what I needed to know.

Bret