Hi,

I am having a problem with my headlights popping up. Most of the time when I turn my headlights on, all the lights come on but the headlights will not pop up. I can open them manually with no problem. Sometimes when I am driving down the road with the headlights on, one may pop up then later, the second one may pop up. Sometimes only one will pop up and the second never will. Occasionally neither will pop up even after a hour or so of driving. About 20% of the time the headlights work as they should.

The headlights always go down when I turn them off. When the headlights are up and I turn the switch off the headlights park properly. If I try to immediatly turn them back on, they may or may not pop up. There dosen't seem to be any ryme or reason to this problem, totally intermittant.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

While you could verify this by measuring the voltages at your motors I suspect I know what your issue is. The contacts in the motors which control which direction voltage is applied are basically spring loaded. Its actually a very delicate piece of copper thats bent and works sort of like the button on the metal lids you see on glass jars. Unfortunately, over time they lose there springyness and will tend to stay in the position they are 90% of their lives (in the down position).

 

OK. I'll check my voltages first (Power on-lights not working). If I have proper voltage I think what your saying is there are fingers inside the motor that hit a cam or a plate and these fingers have lost their resiliancy. Usually fingers like that can be bent a little to fix problems. If not, do you know where I can get an electrical rebuild kit for these motors?

 

Unfortunately these contacts are not really repairable nor is there a replacement available. Its really a convoluted set up. Basically, the armature itself is allowed to slide back and forth once the headlight hits a stop. This action actually moves the contacts. Unfortunately someone at GM thought it was a good idea to open the contacts by pressing down on them harder till they sprung back instead of just pulling the contacts away like any other sort of switch/relay I've seen. If you take it apart youll see what I mean.

I have fixed one by tearing the contacts out and moving them to the opposite side so they worked like any other relay (breaks contact by pulling the contacts away) but this is not particularly easy or straight forward.

Also one other thing it could be now that I think of it, as I mentioned the armature slides back and forth when it hits full open or closed. Over time this can form a ridge on the armature and when the brushes hit the ridge they will actually roll to the side and may not actually make contact any more. This is easily fixed.

 

Fiero's can provide a replacement motor.

 

Mine did just what you mentioned. Lights would come on, but not pop up occasionally. Did all those checks Rolling Thunder suggested and come to find out it was the 16 dollar switch on the dash, go figure. I replaced it and wella, fixed.

 

This is most likely your issue. There is a box on the firewall that operates both motors. This is the Headlight Control Module. There are solder joints in here that break over time. It slides out by pushing it towards the passenger side. It takes quite a bit of force to get it to budge.

For the longest time I had bad bushings in my lights so they didn't pop up, but both of the motors operated. By the time I got around to fixing it, only one motor worked. Found out using a power probe that it wasn't getting juice, and the HCM was shot. Took it apart, re-soldered the broken joints, and my lights work flawlessly now. You can try tapping the box with the headlights on, if one comes up, you know that's your problem.

 

The original poster has an '86 model with the early style motors. Completely different design from what is on your car. Great advice though for anyone with an '87 or later Firebird.

 

new to firebirds, my problem is opposite , lights go up but passenger side will not go down ? can you help please . also is there a way to manually close . thankyou ron . ps its an 86 standard firebird

 

I just fixed both mechanical headlight assemblies (pucks) and neither would open. After seeing your post I tapped the module and both lights are working fine now. I guess that I should take it apart and do some soldering. Thank you!

 

I don't know if broken solder connections would respond to tapping on the module. Like all parts, some modules might fail, but most don't, and mine is the original and has always worked. Yours sounds like the plugs might be loose, and if they've ever been unplugged, then odds are even better that they're loose, even if they don't look or feel loose. There's zero slack in the harness for those two plugs, which might make them seem tightly connected. So before you take out the module, I'd suggest looking hard and close at the connectors. Maybe unplug them and re-plug them in to make sure they're fully secure.

I had that problem about 20 years ago. For a long time, one headlight wouldn't pop up until I hit a bump, or if I slammed the door. Or if you're familiar with Fonzie, sometimes slapping the fender would do it. How it would happen depended upon my frustration at the moment. Then one day, not even looking for it, I noticed one of the connectors looked a little crooked. It was plugged in, but not straight, so it wasn't secure. I unplugged it, which wasn't easy because there is, like, less than zero slack for those plugs, then I pushed it in straight until it locked into place, and I've never had a problem with the headlights again.