OK, I did something wrong. I had a the left head light that would pop up after closing and exersized the TSB fix. When all done, I wished, the head light pops up when off and down (closed) when on. Just the opposite of what it should be. I didn't think I changed anything that would have effected this. I can screw the motor up and down but it just does it again.

Is there an easy fix or did I somehow get the stop backwards or ???

Help.

Thanks, Highlander

 

Same prob here ..only mine worked for a month after i fixed drivers side!!!!Still lookin for help with mine!

 

Ever hear that the water in a toilet rotates the opposite way south of the equator? well maybe you made the change south of the equator, and now north of the equator, the motors are rotating the wrong direction.
3 fixes... First take car back south of the equator and uninstall, bring it back up to america then make the install.
Second, sell the car to someone in australia, for them its correct.
Third, on second thought there are just 2 fixes after all. GL sir.

 

Ever heard the phrase "Crack Kills" ?.........

 

Its a pretty simeple fix but i can't remeber right now which cable to swap in the plug harness of the light, the one that is at the fender. Each one of those wires does something and and the one that goes to the motor all you have to do is switch them. I will get the specific wire once i have a look at the car, but the idea is since it is an electric motor by changing the current you will change in which direction it turns.
Hope that helps for now, but will try to get more info on the right two wires and how to remove them.

 

This will fix in which direction the light goes either up or down when you turn the lights on or off. You need to disconnect the plug from the headlight that is on the fender. Then find on the harness on the light side the rubber tube with only 2 wires going out the other one should have 3 i think. After you find the 2 wires you will need to remove them from the harness and put them back in in opposite position. For example the one at the edge to the spot before the edge and the one on the 2nd to the edge to the edge. In order to get them out of the harness you are going to need an stiff thin wire, that you can push in on the inside of the harness either on top of the pin or in the center of the pin to unlock it and allow it so come out. This will cause the motor to do the opposite. Hope that helps . Let me know if it helped.

 

Are there any other good looking Vettes nearby? Could be winking?

 

I reviewed several previous problem issues in the archives last night till wee in the morning.One of the suggestions was to clean the connections as well as the grounds on the fender wells....presto....my prob is solved ...for now..However ,I still think I'm going to change the headlight control module which is also a "problem child" for us C5 owners......

 

you're right, I rebuilt a motor, drove me crazy after a grueling reinstall that it was 180 out of sync, I'd forgotten how I fixed it, finally noticed I'd got the wires backwards! I'm sharing this with another guy, thanks for such a great description. You might enjoy this tidbit from another postl, detail re wiring of C5 lights.


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The dealer is correct in one way. The BCM does control the motors but I don't think its a computer issue from what you've described.

Someone posted a guide on how to troubleshoot headlight motor issues. I'd give him credit but I didn't note who posted. Worth checking the connections as a first try if both headlights are affected.

First thing to check is the Headlight Actuator CONTROL module located under the passenger headlight on the front of the passenger wheel well wall. It translates the ON/OFF signal from the headlight switch/BCM to a RAISE/LOWER signal to the headlight doors.

Here's how the control module works. If you look at the headlight connector just behind each headlight (5 wires total). 2 are for Headlight Open/Close, 1 is for Low Beam, 1 is for High Beam and 1 is Ground for Low/High.

The 2 Open/Close wires are Lt Blue/Dk Blue for the Passenger Side, and Lt Green/Dk Green for the Driver's side.

Take the Driver's side for example, both the Lt Green and Dark Green wires always have +12V in steady state. If you have a DVMM, verify that both these wires are providing +12V even with the car OFF. Since they're both at +12V, the motor has a net voltage of 0V across it so it stays where it is.

To Open the headlight, the Dk Green is momentarily grounded by the control module (i.e. +12V on the Light Green, Grnd on the Dk Green). Conversely to close the headlight, the Lt Green is momentarily grounded. The control module may not be doing that either because it's faulty OR posibly the connector could be having problems. The first thing to do is try to access the control module and remove/reseat the connectors (there are 2 connectors, one on each side of it). You may be able to squeeze your hand under the passenger headlight when it's up but it's tight so the best way is to remove the access panel under the bumper and reach up.

 

Hey Guys.......I too have this problem after removing the headlight motor for repair. I can't figure out WHAT THE HELL I did to make this happen. There are no wires to get backwards. I too figure I could clip the two wires and reverse them....but it does not tell me WHY this happened. Guesses? I thought maybe I reversed polarity on the motor during the takedown and rebuild? Can that be done? I have seen magnets do that after being struck hard.......

 

i have some info for you to try, will update later.

 

Same thing happened to me yesterday,had the motor apart for rebuild and when installed it was not in sync.Don`t know why either other than it has to do with the polarity of the magnets.At any rate switched the two wires around to the motor and it works fine.

 

 

here's what i've discovered.

sometimes when the door lamp closes, the motor will turn the hinge assembly too far and instead of hinging towards the front of the car, it will hinge toward the rear.

this will cause the affected door to pop up abot 1/2 way when you turn the headlights OFF. it also causes the affected door to pop down when you turn the headlights ON. the scissor action of the hinge is doing the opposite of what it is supposed to be doing.

what you need to do is manually twist the **** that raises the door until you can get the hinge to face towards the front of the car while in a down position. just keep twisting it while it's down and it will eventually start to come upagain.

once it's starting to come back up, go ahead and pop up your lights on the light switch and they should be operating normally.

for reference, i had to do it THIS MORNING because i was having the issue and now they're working normally again. for me, it's a mechanical issue and not an electrical one as others have mentioned above, but YMMV.

 

The post that says manually crank the lights to the down position and then keep cranking until they start to come up again is right on the money. A two min fix...THANKS

 

I have the same issue with my 2004 Z06,
I just used the manual adjust as you suggested and BINGO!I have ordered a set of Rodney Dickman's stop bumpers since they showed signs of wear. THANKS for the tip!!

 

I have the same problem with mine. I had to replace the nylon bushings on the motor, everyone does, it's a wear item. The motors are a different design right to left. On the right, or passenger side, the motor cover is taken off, but also the motor, which has the worm drive in it which drives the gear wheel, has to be released from the house so that the nylon wheel could come out. I made the mistake of taking the whole motor out, which lets the magnets come out of their positions on opposite sides of the motor. The magnet are attached to thin wires. When the magnet come out of the positions, it's impossible to see which is one phase and which is the opposite phase. When I reassembled the motor, I guess which magnet went where. I think I guessed wrong. The options of fixing...

I think there are two options to fix the phasing. 1- take the headlight assembly off the car and open the motor and try again, and continue to reposition the magnets until I get it right. It could take several attempts because everytime there I take the motor apart, the magnets are blind to the assembler. 2- I have heard that the green and grey wires control the phase of the motor. This are the colors of the wires that also go to the headlight motor itself. The proper way to do that would be do de-pin the contacts from one side of the connector, and then re-insert the pins of one side of the connector into the opposite hole. The result is that the green wire would connect to the gray wire and vise versa. I'm tempted to try this. If I can get them headlight motors back in phase with one another, that would solve my issue. After servicing the nylon gears and replacing the 3 nylon bushings and re-lubed the gears and the bushings, the motor spins the headlight assembly effortlessly and quietly. That part of the "job" went perfectly. I think the trick on the righthand headlight assembly is just to loosen the motor assembly so that the worm drive can move slightly away from the gear wheel and it can be take out to clean the bushing debris, replace the bushings, and re-lube the entire assembly, and of course re-assemble the motor back together. It's not rocket science, but I think there are little tricks to the "job" that can ensure the magnets don't leave their phased positions.

Does any of this make any sense? You can reply back to me if you have any questions.

 

I just fixed this issue on my car. The headlight lifting arm that connects to the headlight motor was 180 degrees off. The little nub is not the part that is supposed to contact the stops. It doesn't make sense to me either, but it fixed my issue. The nub at the bottom of this picture should be pointing toward the back of the car, not the front.