Ok, last week my left headlight would not come up, so I went to raise it manually and the adjuster was exremely tight. Once I losened it, the light came up by the switch and motor. After switching the light off, the motor tightened up to the extreme it was before.

Now, today I replaced the battery and as soon as I placed the positive lead to the batttery the headlight motor starts trying to close the headlight and won't stop turning. It makes a horrible sound as well.

I have read plenty about the plastic gears going bad, but I am not convinced this is my problem.

What about the headlight module or any other issue that might be causing this??????

Is there a limit switch / screw or anything like that?????

Any help is really appreciated.

Thanks,

Mark

 

It still sounds to me like the gears are stripped. The grinding noise can be quite dramatic. If its tight the wheel may have disintigrated.

What you're hearing is the gear trying to turn and not engaging with the drive mechanism.

Take a look at Leaftye's sticky at the top of C5 General. Run down to the headlight section and it describes the fix. There are also some How Tos in the DIY sticky on C5 Tech.

 

It is DEFINATELY the plastic gear.

For it to be the module, your headlights will not even come on when trying to open.

Do a search for brass gear, you will find 2 sources, Rodney Dickman and B Franker. Rodney's gears come with a new rubber bumper and have a 3 legged brace for later year C5s (to hold on epoxied lid), while B Franker's gears are all Brass and no brace.

Soon you can expect your headlights to come up when you turn on parking lights.

This is how they work. Your headlight module (seldom goes bad) senses current, when it senses a current spike, as when the motors hit the open or close stops, it turns off the power. This spike, where the gear keeps trying to turn, is what ultimately strips the gear, since the metal worm gear is trying to turn the plastic gear. It will then make a "machine gun" noise while it slips (with the stripped teeth of the plastic gear). Since there is no current spike a secondary/backup timer turns off the power. After a while the module "looses track" of the position of the headlights and starts opening them with the parking lights.

You can turn the plastic gear 180 degrees, but this is just a temporary fix, and may not work in all cases. Only about half of the plastic gear is used, this is why you can rotate it 180 degrees.

If your left headlights pops up (sometimes only half way) AFTER you put them down, this is a different problem. There is a TSB out on this that involves putting in washers and new bumpers. This is ONLY for the driver's side headlight.

 

and I might add the headlight wil stick and become hard to turn if the plastic stops are worn or missing...ask how I know

 

Raise the headlight and remove the surround. Take the nut and arm off of the motor and rotate the motor by hand until you can assemble it 180 degrees from how it was and try that. If it works better then you have a gear issue.

Peter

 

got a number on that TSB?

 

Thanks for the help everyone! ! !

I have pulled it apart today and will order the brass gear after Christmas.

See below for the details

 

I ordered the gears by B Franker and very happy with them. Solid brass, no rubber pieces at all. I will ultimately try to add the 3 legged brace too. I just found the cover to the right headlight gear housing up by the fresh air intake. I don't know what caused it to blow apart and how it ended up there but thankful. Good luck.