Lazy left headlight question Options

[tbil]

Anyone come across this one before? Left headlight comes up about 15 - 30 seconds after switch is pulled. Other light is up immediately.

No mechanical binding and swapping the relays makes no difference. Ground wire and attachment points look good. Motor going south?

Thanks for any thoughts..... (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/screwy.gif)

[aircooledboy]

huh (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/idea.gif)

When it comes up late, is it while you are moving? In other words, if the car is sitting in your garage and you pull the switch, does it still come up late? I can't imagine anything that could cause what you have described other than a bad connection/broken wire.

On further review, the play stands as called. . . . .I mean, if it only happens when you are moving, it could be the motor getting jarred by a bump. In my autoglass days, we could usually coax a bad door window motor back to life temporarily with a couple sharp, light whacks with a BFH.

This post has been edited by aircooledboy: Oct 12 2005, 11:51 AM

[tbil]

Good thought. Guess I need to go back through the wires and will try wacking the motor a few times. The delay is the same though, doesn't matter if the car is moving or if the engine is running or not.

[lapuwali]

Does the left motor move more slowly than the right motor, or does it just wait a bit, then pop up?

If it moves more slowly, I'd suspect you have a bad ground connection to the motor somewhere, and thus low voltage across the motor. If it moves at the same speed, just delayed, I'm baffled.

[Brotherbob]

His goes up slowly and mine goes down slowly!!headlight that is (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif)

[startsw/p]

Check for voltage drop between motor connections and battery and ground, to do this you need to spin start the motor by hand until the park position picks up and runs the motor around.... or you need a helper to toggle the switch, while you get readings. If that's not the case, try running the motor over and over and see if it clears up, possibly just bad brush contact. If that still doesn't get it, assuming you've switched the relays side to side, and tried pulling the headlight switch in and out like 20 times to clean the contacts, try a used headlight switch. Good luck. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/beerchug.gif)

[grasshopper]

mine does that too.....wierd. Now the right headlight wont even go down.... stuck in that position (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wacko.gif)

[SirAndy]

QUOTE (tbil @ Oct 12 2005, 10:03 AM)

Thanks for any thoughts..... (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/screwy.gif)

check the arm that goes from the motor to the headlight ...

disconnect the arms on both motors and see if the motors run in sync.
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wink.gif) Andy

EDIT: oops, typo! meant ARM. the ARM that goes form the motor to the light ... (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wacko.gif)

[tbil]

Thanks everyone, really appreciate the ideas. Had jumped to the conclusion that it must be the motor or wiring. Think it's actually the contacts in the switch now. Roughly 15 push and pull cycles of the switch and it's working much better. Will yank it this weekend and clean the contacts. Almost never drive the car at night, haven't used the switch much.

Thanks again.