So I turned on my headlights and the motors start to go up and down, up and down, up and down, while I'm driving. Luckily, I just turned onto my street when they went nuts. I pulled in the garage, shut the motor down and the headlight motors continued to cycle up and down, up and down. I let the car sit for a few hours and just tried to turn them on again and they did the same thing. Really strange!?!?

Has anyone ever run into this problem before?? I haven't started the trouble-shooting process and was hoping someone would had seen this before. I don't know if this is somehow related to the factory alarm system or not. Or, I have a bad circuit or chaffed wire somewhere. It's kinda hilarious at first, but the problem is at least consistent.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this before. Please IM me or post a reply here. Weird.... Just when you think you've seen it all !

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

I think it is part of the alarm because they go up and down when it goes off.

 

Yup that is definitely your alarm. My car did it once to me and then never again.

 

yes its the factory alarm. also the horn should beep with the lights. put the key in the drivers door and turn it to the left. you will see the red light on the consol next to the shifter marked security light up. turn key back to center and remove. it will shut the alarm off. turning the key right will activate the system.

Jeff

 

Ha! What did I tell ya ?

 

CPU #2 (which contains the alarm) going crazy. Mine did this because of a shitty aftermarket alarm install.

 

man id love for mine to do that when my alarm goes off! never even knew it did that from factory.....

 

It could also be a bad limit switch - tells the headlight motor(s) when to stop. I had that problem on my FB. I was able to adjust something (I don't remember what - it's been almost 16 years since I owned it) to fix it. However, if they're BOTH doing it, I agree with the alarm diagnosis.

Dave

 

Did you wash your car, ive heard of water seeping in and getting the wiring wet, in those cases the problem went away after the water dried.

 

No, i have had this problem, its your headlight relay. The internal contacts on mine were bad and it did the same thing. I switched out my retro relay with the tns relay and the headlights were fine, Just get a new relay and it will stop. Its not the alarm if it was, the blikers would flash, the horn would sound, and the security light would be on.

 

That figures.... The Head-light-Motors were the only thing freaking out.... the horn was silent and no blinker lights went off, Just the headlight motors.... going ..." boing, boing, boing..... " In fact, after a period of a minute or so it stopped as suddenly as it started....

Thanks for the suggestion... I'll let you know what I find.

 

i had the exact problem for 3 years... it was always the last thing on the to do list. i posted for help and didn't solve the problem after adjusting the track limits etc. i finally fixed it by replacing the motor assembly. not the relay in my case.

hc

 

I decided to call Ray Crowe at Malloy Mazda and see about ordering a new relay... and run my problem past him... figured he'd likely be able to tell me if this is a common problem with the FD or not, and if he's ever run into before.
Basically, he said yes. That His REX had a similar probem and that in his case he swappec out the KA32.... Retractor Relay.... located on the Radiator Core wall. He recommended that I Swap out the relays..... and see if this corrects the problem.... I did, and, it didn't.... the problem presisted.... so, I'm back to square 1. I'm guessing there's a short somewhere in that front area.

I did upgrade my headlights to HID's and wonder if there might be a chaffed wire under the headlight covers that grounding or shorting out.

I'll post my findings.

 

pull the tns relay, do not put anything in the tns slot, just the retro slot. If you put the bad relay in the tns slot and the good one in the retro slot it still acts retarded. Check again and see if it goes away.

 

you gotta bad ground somewhere?
i seen an fd do this with a bad ground.
the battery was located to one of the rear bins but the factory ground from the original battery location was grounding out causing the lights to pop up and down opposite to one another

 

The only way to stop the Retractor Motors from cycling was to pull the 30 Amp fuse on the right side of the battery, (mines in the stock location).... . Even with the relays removed the motors continued to cycle.... To avoid burning them out I pulled that fuse.... Looking at the fuse and working from the 120amp main fuse (closest to firewall) toward the front of the car... it's the next to last fuse. When its' pulled the motors cease working/cycling.

Like I said... this is pretty weird...

 

go over the work u did changing your headlights or put the old ones back in to see if the problem persists. anytime u mod/change something it is usually the candidate for a malfunction. thats why they say. "one mod @ a time"
then its easier to trouble shoot

 

It's actually kinda embarrassing, because it will honk at the same time as well.

 

Ummm, I agree with your statement. And, frankly, I wonder if a wire in the modded headlight HID upgrade is the culprit.... I plan to pull the headlight covers and go over the install to see if a stray wire has become chaffed or stretched resulting a a breach of the insulation....

One electrical engineer friend immedately said... "...bad ground". Ummm, the weathers supposed to warm up a bit and I'll see if he's right. I'll post my findings once I know for sure. This will likely happen to someone else as these cars continue to age.... and maybe I'll be able to help those folks out in the process...

Thanks forum for all your feedback..!

 

To the OP....Did you ever find a solution to the headlight issue you had. Mine is doing something similar but only with the driver's (left) side headlight. Last fall I cleaned all the factory grounds and extra grounds I put on....so I'm confident that they're good. And it's only the headlight that continues to flip up and down. No horn or flashing lights as you might expect if it were related to the OEM alarm system. Once it started, it seemed independent of the ignition key and light switch. Shutting either off had no effect. I also tried turning the dash switch on and off with no success.
Tonight everything was normal, but when I pulled into the garage, the left headlight started to flip up and down on it's own. Did this for about a minute but only AFTER I switched the lights off. I was getting read to disconnect the battery so the motor didn't get hot when it suddenly stopped on it's own.

Anyone else?

 

ok so i was reading this thread because my headlights r going nuts as well. mine started after i washed my car. and i saw someone post maybe water seeped into the wiring well its been about 5 hours or so and my headlights are still going nuts. any ideas? its just the headlights no blinkers and no horn

 

IIRC, it ended up being poor grounding on the core support behind the front bumper cover. Pair of white connector with ~5 grounds each held on by an M6 bolt

 

I have to bump this one back. I recently have this problem to my FD. After reading and searching around, i couldnt find the answer how to fix it. Can anyone tell me how to fix this problem? Now i have to disconnect the negative battery to stop this.

 

Is it one headlight or both? If only one side, it could be your lift motor. My car had this problem with the driver's side only, and it turned out to be the motor assembly (specifically, the limit switches in the motor assembly). Bought a new motor and fixed it. Pricey part, but well worth it to not have one headlight flipping up and down with a mind of its own.

 

They are both sides actually.