Thought I'd got a handle on the headlights and all their issues on my 98. Had them apart so many times, can do it in my sleep now. Anyway, I bought a set of replacement metal gears from Brent Franken (awesome service and great gears BTW) and installed a new gear in the driver's side headlight (it was the one with the stripped plastic gear, haven't done the passenger side yet but already have the new gear for it). Everything worked perfectly after installation. Headlight goes up/down perfectly and quietly, normal. Anyway, tonight, did a bit of work on the console to fix a couple of "squeaks" then went to take the car for a spin to see how good a job I'd done of quieting down the squeakies. Well, lo and behold, the driver's headlight doesn't open. Tried several times and finally it did open. Then repeated attempts and wouldn't open, then finally opened. I opened the hood and gave a single tap on the motor with a rubber mallet and it opens first time. Close headlight, then it won't open until 3-8 attempts then it does finally open. Can someone enlighten me what might be going on here? Do I need to put the other metal gear in the passenger side to "even out" the load on the lights? From what I've read, the lights use a "load measurement" to tell when they're fully closed. Anyway, I'm a bit lost on why it doesn't work first time every time right now. I will figure it out, but some of you guys have so much more experience, thought I'd ask first. Thanks mucho!

 

Anyone with any thoughts on this?

 

I am not an expert on this subject and I have never replaced my gears on my 98. However, I believe that I have read that there are plastic stops that can be adjusted. Sometimes they either get out of adjustment or they need to be replaced. I wish I could be more help but if you do a search on the plastic stops you will find the information that will. Good luck.

 

Do the gears you bought have the rubber insert? Two different vendors, one uses the rubber insert, the other doesn't. Have heard some problems with the one without the rubber insert. Some think that the gear gets too tight without the rubber insert.

The headlight "black box", located near (under) the passenger side headlight senses the current of the motors, when the current peaks (motors hit their stops), it cuts current to the motors. When the plastic gear strips, there is no peak, thus they continue (often with a machine gun noise) until a backup timer overides, and cuts the current. Somehow when this happens, the motors get out of timing and sometimes they will come up when just the parking lights are turned on.

 

Yeah, I bought the ones from Brent Franken, they're the ones without the rubber inserts. After reading about all the rubber inserts found in pieces by others when opening up the motor, I thought it would be best to do away with them if not needed. If I may ask, what problems have you heard about when using them? My problem is that the drivers side (where the gear was replaced) is reluctant to open up. The light comes on but stays closed. Repeating the attempts to open eventually works, but sure would like to be rid of this problem forever. Is there any adjustment one can do the the black box settings?

Update: Last night I tried again to see how many attempts, when turning the headlights on, it would take to have the driver side open up properly. On the fourth attempt, the drivers side opened normally. I turned the headlights on/off for about 10 more times, and lo and behold, every time, the driver's side light opened normally. Still has me somewhat baffled as to why it's been reluctant to open and now it's working correctly. More testing to be done, going to check on the plastic stops as suggested above, but those don't seem to be an issue.

Update #2: Well, today, I cannot get the headlight to fail !! Works perfectly every time. Sheesh ! Going to go through the thing with a fine tooth comb and see if I can find anything that looks not quite right. I did notice one new thing, I hear a slight squeak when the light raises. That makes me think there might be some sort of binding in the linkage and that would explain the intermittant operation. I'll double check my install. I might have somehow slightly mis-aligned the motor when I put it back on. We'll see...