Don't stand pretty girls in front of the car and it will stop winking......

chris

 

i think thats called the sarah palin mod.

 

Thats too funny!

I like how you guys just start laughing at the end!

Andy

 

I was standing in front of it. Must be a female car with bad taste in men.

 

To Larry....... thanks again for posting a vid of my "winky".

To TheRadioFlyer.....Thanks for the disassembly procedure. I especially like the fact that I didn't have to remove the entire driver side Headlamp assembly to fix the 2 problems that where lurking beneath.
1) The plastic cover that is GLUED on over the nylon gear had popped off. This was a huge GM blunder when they changed from cast aluminum cover('97 to '99 models), which uses 3 screws to secure the cover, to a completely plastic housing for the motor/worm gear and nylon gear(2000 to 2004). The nylon gear will push against the cover, and it is only a matter of time before the pressure breaks the GLUE bond......and I don't care what kind of magic glue there is out there, it will not hold.
2) As per GM service bulletin, motor should be offset with washers so that the armature which raises and lowers the light makes better contact with the limiter tabs. There were enough customer complaints regarding faulty operation of the driver side Headlamp to issue this bulletin, and how to correct the problem.

I took some pics and added notes on what I did to fix both of the above design flaws, as well as how to eliminate the need for GLUE for the motor housing cover.
















Job Completed. Took me about 2 hours, but I move real slooooooooooooooooooow.........otherwise I get more "honey do's" when I go into the house !!! (-; Another benefit was that I could better align the body colored headlamp cover, as the folks at GM did a poor job on this as well. This adjustment is done by maneauvering the cover directly under the body panel to adjust/equalize the top/bottom/left/right gap clearance .


The following pic is out of sequence, but I did want to show the 2 critical pivot bolts that hold the light assembly to the..........car


Below are the only tools required for this job:



Take a look at the following picture. This is what you will never have to mess with again!!The "wrap tie" method will eliminate the need for GLUE, can be done without removal from car, and will surely last a very long time !! But if you like the GLUE method, here's a pic I found in the DIY section....

 

funny vid but a keeper post good luck with repair

 

If you could get it down to one wink then keep it. The Hooters girls will love that.

 

Another vote for the loose armature/chewed-up tab problem. I was able to get to the 10mm bolt just by taking off the painted headlight cover and the plastic fairing that wraps around the front of the headlight. Those plastic isolator tabs are $6 a pop at the stealership btw.

Good pics Mikec4 and Radioflyer... for some reason I never found those when I was searching the forum for this problem.

 

Did you also add the washers between the headlight motor and mounting bracket which in effect brings in the motor shaft to get better contact between the tabs and headlight arm ? This will put an end to the chewed up tabs..... $6 a pop !!!!! Dayum !! No wonder GM needs a bailout package....

 

I'm not sure if I will need the washers... I've had the car for a year with no problems, and then it started eating up the plastic tabs at the rate of like one per week. I was about to add in the washers when I realized that the armature was completely loose. I tightened it back up and it no longer has a problem. I think as long as the bolts are tight I won't need the washers for my particular case.

 

 

 

the power of christ compels you...............
the power of christ compels you...............
the power of christ compels you................

 

He did.......and the headlight deamon has been banished.....at least up to the point until the nylon gears strip...at which time the battle of good vs. evil will battle again

 

Great write up on the fix Mike!

 

 

Great write up!

Tag for latter.