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I bought my firebird two weeks ago, and made this account to try and get some advice from others. Since I got the car, the headlight motors never raised the actual lamp, and rarely pulled them back down. The lamp itself turn on fine, but it is the motor that is the issue. I haven't pulled the motors apart yet to check the gears, however the manual ***** work perfectly so I doubt that's the issue. I've been told that the headlight control module is a common source of failure, so I pulled it from the car, and opened it to check the circuit board. However, I know even less about circuit boards than I do cars, so I was hoping some on this site could tell me if this is the issue. I'm assuming the bubbling is a bad sign, but I believe their is also a scorch mark, and there is what appears to be a glob of adhesive resting on the board itself. If this is the issue, can anyone point me in a direction to buy a new one? Thanks in advance!
I do not see anything in your pics that jumps out at me as a burnt trace, and the bubbling isn't unusual. The glue is just an assembler's oops, and isn't the source of your troubles either. I will enclose the wiring diagram for your headlight doors, and the first thing you shoulda done before taking anything apart was to get a voltmeter and check whether there is power on the brown and yellow wires of the connector that plugs into the module. In fact, the large orange wires should be powered at all times, and the brown and yellow should have power only when the headlight switch is on , check that those conditions exist and report back with your results.
The lower part of the last Image posted, looks like there has been some excessive heat...
or someone tried to re-flow that area and either got it too hot, or did not create a pool of flux to reduce the heat soak.
I was still able to manually raise and close the headlights even when the bushings crumbled to pieces. I would suggest opening up those motors and having new pushing kit from Top Down Solutions.
Fortunately those PCBs are about as basic as they could get.
Single-layer Board with early 1980s components that are all on the surface with visible Traces...
(not to be confused with actual SMDs =Surface Mount Devices) but Components that pass-through the holes in the PCB.
There could maybe be a few SMDs, I don't remember.
No schematic is needed as everything is completely visible on the Front side and Back side.
No BGAs (Pain in the ***) or anything small or fussy that would be repaired under a Microscope.
You are not likely to find a TV or Radio repair Business these days.
However a Laptop/ Cellular Phone Repair Business would make very quick work of that PCB.
I would not call a Business, and ask if they would repair the PCB...
Because as soon as you say it is for a Head-Lamp Module/ Motor on a Car; they are going to say: NO WAY!.
Just call places, and ask if they do Cell-Phone repair "On-Site"... and not sent to a facility somewhere else.
If someone says" Yes, we do "On-Site" repairs... then say: Great, I'll be coming by.
Once you are there, show a Technician the PCB that you need tested/ repaired.
He will probably smile or laugh at how simple/ basic the PCB is.
If there is something wrong with the PCB, they should know pretty quickly.
The components are old but basic...
and something that is a suitable replacement Component should be easy enough to find.
I do not remember what the PCB looks like...
But it is going to be mostly generic Resistors, Diodes, Capacitors, Transistors, Inductors, and maybe a Logic-Device/ Processor.
Good luck!
Last edited by vorteciroc; Sep 22, 2021 at 10:27 PM.
Saved these photos from a member here (I'm sure) (Cehbra?). Just in case you want to take a peak under the hood. (Does it tell you what kind of mechanical nerd I am that I saved these photos, and have the archived in a way that I can quickly retrieve them?)
I looked over the pictures of the PCB, but it's hard to really tell whether there are any broken solder joints from low resolution pictures. It is far more likely that the 3 plastic pucks in the motors are the issue and not the module, this is far more common for the age of the vehicle. I was able to raise my headlights with the *****, but the motors would not.
I would start by replacing the motors, or getting the service kit from TDS and refurbish your motors before you continue with the module troubleshooting
i see c5 module worked in 1989 firebird but i have a 87. i thought the module changed in 89?
I don't know. Maybe compare wiring diagrams in a Chilton's manual and see which year the pinouts and layout changed. Doesn't matter if it's correct or understandable, just matters if it looks different and that's probably the break year.
