The past 2 nights I have had the good fortune of a clear unlimited autobahn while on the way to and from various 4th of July Activities. It was about a 20 min. drive each night and my average speed was around 150mph When I got there on Friday night my right headlight would not go down, fortunately I was able to get it down manually. When I left the next morning, they worked fine. When I was driving home tonight, I checked them out a few times, They worked fine before I got on the autobahn, but when I got off the autobahn, it would only go about halfway down (better than last night), but after a while at lower speeds, they worked just fine. I also noticed that they are not quite flush with the rest of the body when they are down.

I'm assuming that GM did not plan on them lights taking that much force and the motor or some of the gears are not strong enough to handle it. I know I could get it replaced under warranty, but the new one would probably wear out just like this one did. Are there any other options such as stronger motor? Also, how do you adjust the alignment on the headlights?

On a good note, I was able to get past 170mph twice today, for a new personal best of 176mph.

Thanks

 

Lancer, yeah, common problem. Not sure if the speed is a factor (never did those speeds). There is a metal gear you can buy for the motor if it's a 98 or younger (the later models have the entire motor sealed. You can tell if your applies by looking at the motor, you'll see (I believe) 3 x small screws. The other thing you can do is, inspect the gear and rotate the gear 180 so that the worn teeth do not engage the drive.

I suggest you do a search under tech tips archive; I know there is a gear out there. In fact you can search my strings under 98armyvette; you should find this discussion there and a contact for the guy who sells these metal gears.

Good Luck.
V/R
Joe :flag

 

Whenever I had problems with headlights going up and down and being aligned with the other one (meaning going up and down at the same time and being in synch with each other), it was due to the headlight control module. This module is a black box that is bolted to the RIGHT headlight and two wire assemblies plug into it.

It could be the motor/gears of the right light, but I would check out that module as its job is to control when, why, how the lights go up and down.

But if it's under warranty, have GM do the trouble shooting, give you a new part and/or fix the problem, and then they can tell you exactly what it was.