Hey, all new to the board. I'm 17 and finally purchased my dream car took me a year to save up but I got it! A 1989 GTA with an L98 under the hood, it's auto obviously and has T-Tops Its a beautiful car, but like anything it has had it's problems... First when I got it home the car overheated and the fans stopped working and the gauges went out, now the fans are on a relay under the dash so I manually have to turn them on and off, so I fixed that by putting in a couple new fuses, then in the process of fixing that the car started having a missfire and idle problem but I fixed that by replacing wires and plugs and cleaning the IAC and Distributor and rotor and eventually doing a test on the injectors, turned out to be a fuse.... But the one consistant problem this car has had is the headlights... They do not pop up and down I have to pop the hood and turn the motors. Now is there a fuse for them? if so where is it located? I have taken out the driver side motor and opened it and it looked new, the other motor was working the same as the drivers side so I didn't bother digging for it..... The module I took out and tested and I got the passenger light to come up but now it doesnt come up. How do I go about fixing this? I really don't wanna dish 1,000 dollars for 2 new motors and a module..... Any help would be great

Thanks Chris

 

Headlight Control Module (HCM) would be the 1st thing i would check. Do a search on this website or youtube and you'll find out all kinds of stuff. you can get refurbished ones for around $60 or luck out and find one at a junk yard for about $15. The solder points break down after time. That is the main cause of the module not working. I re-soldered mine and it has worked every time after.

 

If i took a picture of the inside of the hcm that might help cause i dont know if its wrecked or if its still good

 

don't see the pic, but it wouldn't do much good anyway (you need an extreme magnifying glass to detect defects). There are 5 contacts on one side and 4 on the other. Just put a drop of solder on each one (lightly). If that doesn't fix it then there are bigger problems. To make sure that is the problem. Turn the headlights on (at the switch on the dash) if the lights come on but don't pop up. use something like a screwdriver and tap on the HCM casing. If they pop up when you do that, then you know it's the HCM. pm me with more questions. =)

 

It's been suggested that these fuses under the dash could be the culprit. No harm in checking right? Do the head lights come on but don't pop up, or no power at all?

 

headlights light up but don't pop I can never find the headlight fuses where are they??

 

to the right of the steering column. The black box in the pic is the door chime.

 

by the hazzard light chime box?

 

Do ur motors make a sound when u turn them on?

 

dont think so they dont pop up but if i turn em by hand they come on the drivers side one is a little wiggly so im thinking it will need to be changed but the passenger one is fine

 

i dont have any headlight fuse spot anywhere or any thing.... Help

 

Hmm, Only thing i can tell you then is to get under the dash and check any and all fuses you see or find. It's a cluster F^@! under there but you'll find them eventually. The pic i posted is from a '91 so it might be in a different place... IDK.

 

I hear that man! I have seen them in that spot before! I am looking I go my fuse box and random freakin wires goin f'in everywhere but its so tight under there, its drivin me nuts I will have to check more and more

 

Be aware that your 89 GTA will need a module from a 87-89 model year car. It looks identical to the one used on 90-92, but is different and will not work for your car. Actually the 90-92 model year cars can use a module from a 90-2002 car. 87-89 often will have a white sticker on it, while the later ones will often have a blue sticker. But there are also yellow and orange stickers too. If you open up the module you'll see a date code indicating the week and year it was made. Yours may have a bad module or the wrong module.

Lon

 

okay I'll check that if it is the right module which it should be because its never been changed than I want to fine these goddamn fuses and change em and then add a new module

 

any one know where the 2 fuseable links are located?