yesterday i was coming back from my mom's in VA, and it's raining = lights on. when it eased up, i tried just the parking lights and the fogs, but my headlights popped up too. (off, but up). the pking and fogs still came on. turn the headlights on, they go on, and up like they're sposed to.

when i looked at it when i got home, the motor on the driver's side still turned for a good minute or so after i put JUST the parking lights on, after the headlights popped up. the pass. side still came up (both aligned, they didn't come up at diff. speeds) but the motor did'nt keep going afterwards. (know this isn't good 4 th emotor, but ....) i stopped the dr. side motor when the light came up, then put them back down again, and turned the parking lights back on and it worked. they didn't come back up with the other lights this time. but, when i tried it right after that, they came up.

am i gonna need another motor here or did i just fry a connection or something? everything looked tight. lotsa condensation behind that dr. light, but other than that everything was fine.

any clues????

possible causes: my stupid dad. i was looking at my spark plugs a while back, and he decides it would be fun to mess with the motor on that side, and he's sitting ther idly turning it when i came back to my car. i don't know if that made a difference, b/c that was a while ago and i hadn't noticed it doing that until yesterday. but, needless to say, i'm disappointed with my vehicle .

 

I wonder if it could be the lights switch itself. If you put full lights on, then quickly turn all the lights off and turn on the Parking lights half of the switch, the lights will stay popped up, the headlight bulbs will be off, and the parking lights will be on.

What year is your car? Lights were different, 3 wire actuators from 82-86, 2 wire actuators (headlight motors) from 87-92.

 

mine's a 92, and i'll be honest, i have no idea what your'e talking about with actuators or whatever =), as far as i knew, there was always 1 motor per headlight, i thought. anyway, it does do that thing you were saying where if i turn the switch quick, they still stay up. maybe i did that one time and it got stuck or something. pisses me off though, i'll bring my toolset w/ me when i come on Sat, and whoever feels like it can give me pointers. i'm just pissed cuz i hit a tow truck a while back, (minor, no insurance involved) and snapped off my OTHER headlight, and had to take that one all apart to put another bracket in. and now the "good" one is being stubborn!

 

The headlight motors are called "actuators" by GM... that's all. But that's why I think it might just be your light switch. I'm not that familiar with the 87-92 2-wire system, but I think there's still a relay per light... maybe one relay is shot. Hopefully someone has an 87-up Firebird on Sat!

 

DO NOT FLIP THE HEADLIGHTS OFF THEN QUICKLY TURN THE PARKING LIGHTS ON. THAT WILL KEEP YOUR HEADLIGHTS UP, THOUGH OFF. IF YOU WANT TO GO FROM HEADLIGHT TO PARKING LIGHTS YOU MUST TURN EVERYTHING OFF, THEN WAIT A SECOND, THE TURN YOUR PARKING LIGHTS ON.

WELL ATLEAST THATS WHAT MINE DOES.

sorry for the caps, it was too late before i realize caplock was on, and i'm not re typing

 

Now, when you flipped off your headlights were you standing in front of the car and if so did the lights see you do it?

 

LMAO at eric17422001

 

geez eric17422001, that's like a joke my DAD would make

lol, i don't know what's up w/ my lights (no pun intended) cuz they didn't USED to do this, didn't start till this weekend. i used to just push the parking likght on and they came on, no procedure required u kno? ehh, maybe someone can whip them into shape for me tomorrow

 

Let me get this straight....
You're a Girl
Who needs her headlights turned on
Miss you Maryland Women...

Personally...
You will discover that you may have either
left a bolt loose
or
a wire is chafed and it's grounding/shorting out during assembly movement.
You mentioned previous area of damage in front.
Retrace the wiring, you will probably find solution.

 

The bushings inside of the headlight that continues to run are bad
and all you need to do is buy one of the rebuild kits that are being sold by some people. I got mine from Rodney dickman's Fiero parts. I had the exact same problem that you have and as soon as I did the rebuild on the headlight motor which is really easy, takes all of about a half hour to do and that includes taking
the motor out and doing the rebuild and reinstall. But back to the reason why it does that just may be a way of telling us that something is wrong and the headlights need some maintenance.
Oh by the way in my many Parts yard runs I will always pick up spare motors and then rebuild them I now have three of each side. I would gladly trade a set for one for one good foglight for the passenger side of my 92 bird.

 

sounds like a plan, i'll look around for those rebuild kits y'alls are telling me about, but until then, i'll see what i can do about maybe a fog light 4 ya trudtilldeath246. out by mom's there's a MONDO junk yard = my new favorite spot to hang out on the weekends they've got about 50 acres of Virginia vehicles (which, as you know, includes our beloved ******mobiles). lemme see what i can do this weekend, i'll get back to you later.

 

Cool, trutilldeath, that's the same thing I told GirlovFyre at the picnic. The guy on there that makes the replacement bushings is "lonsal", find a message about it here: https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=131553