My headlight is stuck down ... and I just spent half an hour trying to do the following

1. Uninstall the headlight to replace motor
2. Unplug the headlight from its sensor (since its stuck in a position that is almost fully down .. it is draining the hell out of my battery). Unfortunately I can't even get the ******* plug off !!!

Help before i grab my pry bar!

 

pull the retractor fuse, manually raise the headlight????

 

pull the front bumper? raise the headlights manually, unbolt/pull off headlights, then unbolt the 3 bolts holding the motor in place, unplug harnesses and the motor should be in your hands. This is simple. Why are you having a hard time with this?

edit:

You still have the bumper on the car huh?

 

Don't need to remove the bumper. There's the plastic surrounds, there's 4 bolts holding the assembly to the rad support (and the arm that connects it to the motor) then 3 bolts holding the motor to the frame rail/rad support. No need to take the bumper cover off.

All of which are accessible once you raise the assembly manually.

 

i was thinking about that too but if he can't raise the headlights (which I assume he aleady tried) he won't be able to get to the top bolt for the motor. nor the bolts behind the lights.

 

He could just take out the FTP and stick his hand through there once he manually raises the headlight.

 

You're right in that case, but they should be able to be raised. Given the fact that he said they're still making noise I'm going to presume he still has power going to the motors, and when there's still power going to them the manual raise ***** won't really help. You only crank them 4-5 times before they un-do you're cranking by themselves. Once he pulls the retractor fuse he should be fine.

 

haha, my manly hands couldn't fit in the FTPs if my life depended on it.

 

Turn manual crank under rubber cover on bottom........get headlight up... 4 bolts to remove headlight assembly (there'll be wires and stuff holding it in.. unplug them).. Careful not to pinch your fingers in the mechanism. Pop the linkage off of the motor with a large flathead screwdriver. then unbolt motor...

 

isnt the retractor **** reachable from the bottom.....

 

but his posting led me to believe it wasn't working.

 

Yes.. under a rubber cap under the bumper. Reach under.. easy to get to. But takes like 100 turns to move it an inch.

 

i would have no problem if i was able to get my headlight rasied. i have pulled the fuse .. i ahve manhandled it ... and tried everything else. It's stuck in the down position so it makes it a pain in the freakin ***

does anyone have a picture of where that manually raise and lower thing is?

 

Here's the procedure.

Stick head under car.. look for small white ****...

 

also it may have black cover over it , but its right below headlights bro

 

yeah, as long as the black cover cap isnt on it , , but pretty much what micaheli said.

 

Yeah, I mentioned the black cap... thanks....

 

+1 to all of that. Find the raisey **** thing from the bottom of the car.

 

It's not so hard. Find the **** underneath to manually raise the light. On my car the **** fell off though! So I pulled it off the other side and put it onto the motor I needed to raise the headlight on.

Pull the relay and start turning. Remove the plastic shrouds. Now use a pliers or something to detatch the retractor ball joint off the ball.

The only tricky part it getting a wrench on the nuts to remove the motors. It can be done, but may take a bit of effort.

 

lol, but the thing is the headlights open up different, too. its pretty sweet though but nothing like my brothers s13. i do imagine its way harder too take tht **** off

 

finally got that ****** off and replaced it ... doesnt help when intercooler piping is in the damn way

anyway now i have problem ... i put the replacement motor in and it sounds like its going .. also feels like its going (if i undo the **** to much the headlight will bounce back up automatically) ...

However the headlight is not going up more then an inch ... wtf is up now sigh.

 

You guys were making this way too difficult. All you do is stick your thumb in a tailpipe and punch the back bumper. Pops the headlights up every time; makes the horn sound sometimes too.

But seriously, just reach down the side of the closed light and pop off the black lifter bar from one of its ball-and-socket joints, undo the two bolts behind the cover and the other two on the back side facing the air box / battery. Headlight comes right out after some fidgetting with the headlight plug when you have the room. I've done this maybe a dozen times now; can scratch up the back of your hand a little, but eh.

As for your headlights not going up far enough, sounds like the motor's had it or isn't adjusted right on the spline. Does it try to go through a full rotation, or just give up after an inch?

Edit: It's also possible you might have slightly bent part of the scissor mechanism. Those things are TUH-CHEE.

 

it tries to go up all the way .. but stops at an inch.

 

Everything's fine up to a dead stop, or sluggish trench warefare to gain the inch?