The right side headlight motor on my early 2000 Coupe (mfg August 1999) goes through a strange cycle, which eventually prevents the assembly from rotating open after multiple successful openings. When it finally reaches the stage where it won't open I lift the hood and rotate the manual deployment **** counter clockwise, which then allows the cycle to begin again and the headlight raises and lowers successfully numerous times, until it completes enough cycles to reach the failure point again. I have not been able to pin down exactly how many times it cycles through before it malfunctions. My best guess is 10 to 15 deployments before it reaches the failure point.

It is almost as though that every time the headlights open the motor is getting out of sequence by a small amount and eventually it goes far enough to cause a problem. Similar to a clock gaining or losing an extra second every minute, then eventually it adds up to displaying the wrong time. Reset it to the right time and the cycle starts anew, eventually requiring another reset.

Every time it fails to open and I reach for the manual deployment ****, it is "locked" as far as it will turn in the clockwise direction. Just a few counter clockwise turns to "loosen" it up and it starts to open normally. I was having problems with this side earlier in the year and replaced the nylon gear with a new brass gear kit.

Strangely, when it failed initially, the nylon gear was in good shape, but the rubber insert that fits inside the gear was destroyed. After the replacement gear and rubber insert were installed all was well for over six months, and then out of the blue this problem manifested without warning.

Although my car is a 2000, it was assembled with the older style motor assembly, which makes the gear change much simpler.

There is no noise, the headlight motor is not running when it doesn't open. It almost seems as if there is an internal switch in the motor winding (not the gear) that is not being tripped or activated at the proper time.

I checked the relay and all the linkages, no problems to be found.

This one is a head scratcher.

 

I had something very similar. Turned out, the motor/gear spacers, can be re-installed in the wrong location, for one spacer. Take it apart again and carefully examine where the spacers are in relation to where they can go. What happened on mine, my son replaced the gear but got one of the spacers in the wrong location. This caused the metal blades holding the bumper to ride up over itself...or something like that...trying to remember from memory. Anyway, the result is that it jams till you manually turn the **** which gets it back into position, therefore working again....till the next time.

 

I ran into a similar problem on my 98 when the plastic gear went bad and I replaced it with a brass gear. My driver side headlight would open and sometimes it wouldn't. I'd have to turn the lights on/off several times to get it to raise. I rechecked all spacers, linkage, connections, etc. Everything seemed to be in order. So I started doing some thinking. The headlight motor would go up after several attempts, so to start, I simply sprayed an ample amount of WD-40 on the linkage connections figuring there must be a slight bind somewhere. Presto... that indeed has fixed it permanently. Never an issue since. I guess the joints on the linkage was just dry enough to not allow easy movement. Lights work perfectly now for over 6 months since fixed. Can't hurt.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'll give these ideas a try, nothing to lose, but it sure is frustrating!

 

Okay CactusCat, you are King for today. I've been banging my head for a month, swapping parts, doing rain dances, throwing out Italian curses - all to no avail. A few well placed shots of WD-40 and the headlight cycled 70, that's SEVEN-ZERO, times without fail. Intially I tried 50 times, then closed the hood, did it 5 more times. Took a run down the road and randomly cycled through - worked every time.

I still may have a problem in the long term, but for now I'm confident I won't get in a situation where it looks like lefty cyclops driving down the road.

Kudos good sir, kudos.

 

Thanks for the flowers!! I know exactly what you went through. After fixing the dang thing, I drove my car for a month or more before I quit worrying about the lights working properly. I still had that doubt in the back of my mind every time I turned the lights on. Got confidence now that it'll work first time every time. On to other chores now... like cam, headers, etc.. haha

 

I had a small dose of reality last evening. Left the restaurant , started the car and dag nabit, the right headlight didn't wake up when I flipped the switch. One on-off cycle with the switch and it woke right up.

But at least now I'm reasonably sure it WILL pop up.

Yes, on to the fun stuff. Any ideas for fitting in a Nav system without performing major surgery on the center console bezel or blocking the main HVAC vent with a flip-up screen?

 

Of course, it will depend on your budget, but do a search for DoubleD mods (Dennis). He is THE MAN here on the forum on all that sort of stuff. Basics are you send your radio bezel to him, he mods it for double din size and returns it with or without a new radio that fits your C5. You can spend any amount you like. Get a nav radio, etc. No flip screen, its all in the dash. Just do some searches.