Pinfield357

Any one ever had the problem that when you turn on your headlights that the left side headlight will turn on and come up but then just keep going up and down untill you either turn them off your you turn the switch so just bring the headlights up.

And its only one the Left side the right side just comes up and stops like it is supposed to. Also it does the same thing when i turn them off. The motor will just keep bringing the light on the left side up and down untill i hit the switch to just leave it in the up position.

This had been getting progessivley worse over a couple of weeks it started out but coming up going down then coming up and staying there. But now it will just keep doing it untill the battery dies even with the ignition off.

any ideas?

Pinfield357

anyone have any ideas? is there a switch or sensor that tells the motor that the lights are up the whole way and to shut off?

HAILERS

Early 86/87 have two headlight retractor relays that ARE NOT a part of the headlight motor.

One relay is located on the left side of the engine bay, the other on the right side. Both relays are bolted to the bulkhead behind the headlight assy's.

They are four socket plugs on the relays. THe plug should have a red/yellow wire, a red/blue wire, a white/green wire and a black wire.

LIke I said, some cars have the two relays .....some don't.

The idea here is to swap the two relays and see if the problem travels to the other side of the car.

Pinfield357

so im going to have to remove the headlight assemblies to get to these relays?

ill give it a try and if the problem moves to the right side then its the relay. but what if it does not?

HAILERS

Nah. The relays are mounted on the engine side of the bulkhead. You have to remove the afm/filter assy on the right side to access that one. Maybe the battery on the left side, I forget.

Pinfield357

i was looking at it today because the problem is getting worse. Now even when using the switch that just controls the light positions it keeps bouncing up and down. but all i can see in those locations are the wiring connectors. the are about 3 inches long round and are white in color and have 4 wires in each. There is no was to swap these with out cutting them out of the harness.

Also i was looking at the Lighting System circuit Diagram (page 15-49) and it shows a relay for both motors but it looks as if they are internal parts of the motor and when looking at the motors themselves this may be the case.

The 4 wires run from the main harness to the white connector through the bulkhead and then into the top of the motors both sides are identical

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

classicauto

iTrader: (3)

trace the wiring back from the headlight motor, there IS a relay along it. In my 87 TII there is only 1 and its on the right side, but by the sounds of this problem I would say its a relay of some description and I KNOW there is at least one for the headlight motor itself.

I wonder though how it could be doing this with the key off? Has someone attempted to do some kind of ghetto sleepy eye mod? or a ghetto shine-through-FTP's mod?

Pinfield357

nope no ghetto mods here. but you can do the same with your car, you can just walk out turn on your lights and they will turn on and come out with out a key in the car. Thats how ppl leave thier lights on and kill the battery.

Ive only ran into one older car that would kill the lights when you shut the car off and it was my brothers old AE86

i did follow the wires from the motors through the bulkheads to the white electrical connectors then into the wire loom i didnt see a relay at all. i even took the FI resister pack out ot see if there was nething under it but nothing the wires run near it but make no electrical contact anywhere

HAILERS

Later cars did not have the retractor relay as pictured in this jpg of where the left hand one is/was: https://www.rx7club.com/forum/attach...chmentid=84700

And gabbed about on this thread: https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...eadlight+relay

No relay? Then bad retractor motor for you, I suppose.