My drivers side headlight is sometimey. It will go up and down just fine about half the time I need it to work. Im starting to look into rebuild kits but Im noticing some comments on here suggesting that there may be an electrical issue at hand.

My drivers side has act up maybe 3-4 times max while the drivers has close to 2 dozen times.

I tried to check them today to see if the motor was turning when the light would not raise. Well wouldnt you believe that today was the day for them to work. I was out in the car a couple of times today and they worked as they should.

What should I look for as far as trouble shooting goes?

I want to nip this in the bud.

 

If you turn the head lights up and down manually with the **** and they work fine then the mechanical gears are good. the problem is likely electrical but the location of the problem is a time consuming issue. the best place to start is by cleaning all electrical connections( to include fuses and relays)

 

That is the case. I can turn the headlights up and down with the ****. I will go cleaning and see what that does for me.

 

Being able to put them up/down with the ***** doesnt always mean the insides are good... There is less torque and less speed when you do it by hand, so the bushings can sometimes stand up to that and let you put them up and down.

My VERY first thing to check would be the 3 bushings inside the gear housing. Those are almost always bad on these cars now a days. Even on the lower mile cars. A couple cheap rebuild kits from Top Down Solutions and they'll work as good as new.

It COULD be electrical...but of the thirdgen birds that Ive worked on/owned, its never been electrical, and they would act just as you are describing. Since neither of your thirdgens are 86 or older, you have the newer electrical harness with the pop-up module (vs. the relay system). Those are pretty solid circuits, and aside from cleaning some connections as duckman suggested, they are pretty reliable. My 87 would get lazy on one side. It would come up halfway sometimes, and ide go out and lift up on it and it would catch and go up. Or ide have to turn them up manually. Other days they would work perfectly fine. Rebuild kits are VERY easy to install, and they make the lights work quiet and perfect. I did the side that stopped working, and skipped the other side for awhile since it still worked. It eventually needed it also.

Just open the side cover and see if the bushings are intact...most likely you'll find a spoonful of dust in there that used to be bushings.

Let us know how you make out.

J.

 

great point I forgot about the bushings.

 

I did one years ago on an 87 formula and all I had to do was disassemble them and clean out the old glue,then I used epoxy to glue them back and they worked perfect.It only cost about $5 and some spare time.

 

I rebuilt my motors a few weeks ago and i found it it was not just the bushings. The connection from the headlight switch is a little testy. I have to push in really hard and to the right a little bit or they wont go down.

 

Oh it could def still be an electrical thing. But Ive yet to come across a thirdgen bird that didnt have the little bushings deteriorated to some degree, if not completely gone.

For $20 you get new bushings that should last the life of the car, gaskets, grease and hardware for both headlights. Its worth getting it, and taking the units apart and rebuilding them via the kit. Even if its not your root issue, it still most likely needs to be done.

But Ide put a small amount of money on those bushings being toast on just about every lazy headlight car.

J.