So I get to work this morning, its still dark, and turn my headlights off, the PS goes down but the DS stays up. No problem, I just close it manually. When I leave work this afternoon, its still dark, I turn the HL's on and the PS comes up, the DS comes up, but then the DS goes back down. So I turned the switch off and the DS comes up, the PS goes down. They're flipflopping on me.

I've been noticing recently its been taking at least twice to get the lights to come up so I'm thinking the headlight switch is going bad. I replaced the gear in the drivers side some time back. I accidently stripped it out, never mind how , I just did it and put in a brass one so that wouldn't happen again. Other than that, they've been working fine.

There were no codes and all the lights work fine. BTW, its a 2000. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

 

Its tricky to diagnose some of these headlight problems from a distance

This is an old post and I cant remember who posted or I'd give him credit. It might help as I dont think you have one of the normal problems:

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. The fact that one headlight stayed up during the process indicates to me it's not the switch.

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. It appears that the control module was not doing that either because it's faulty OR possibly 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.

 

I appreciate your help. I followed those directions and they were right on. I checked the dk green and lt green wires and was getting battery voltage (12+/-) and when they opened the appropriate voltage dropped off and vice versa. I was still getting the flip flop, they would both open and the lights come on but when I went to close them, they both closed but the drivers side opened back up, no lights on though. I reset both connectors on the control module to no avail. I even swapped the connectors left to right and it was still the same. The drivers side kept popping back up. I was finally about to give up and manually shut it and while I was doing that, noticed the **** kept turning so I thought maybe I stripped the gears, again, the brass one I installed a few months back. As the light closed and I kept turning it, I noticed it started opening back up so I turning it till it finally wouldn't turn anymore and the light was fully open. I then operated the lights many times and they worked flawlessly. The only thing I can think of is somehow the motor kept turning the gears the wrong way when they opened/closed? I dunno but they work now...again, thanks for your input. A bunch of gremlins is what I think...I had something wierd with the wipers last year. They would park about halfway up. When they operated, they were fine but when I turned them off, they would move up to midway on the windshield. I took everything apart and couldn't figure out what was wrong. I put it all back together and they started working fine....