Has anyone ever had their headlight motor going up/down repeatidly in a loop? The passenger side headlight on my FD seems to be stuck in a loop going up and down up and down up and down. Eventually itll stay up or down. At first I thought perhaps it was hitting something otw down. Im still not 100% convinced it might not be, although I sure cant figure out what might be. Even if I use the "bring the headlights up for cleaning" switch it wont neccesarily force the passenger side to stop cycling and stay up. The drivers side is fine, which is making me think maybe its a relay faiing some where or something? Is there any electrical that might cause this? Help!

 

Are you LHD? Sometimes that issue sis related to the security system. It can some how be turned off by turning the key in a lock (not sure which one). If you have a lhd owners manual, it will be explained in there.

Otherwise the "stop" in the headlight motor might be worn out so it does not know how to stop going up and down. That issue has been discussed on this site. Perhaps do a search of the site.

Sorry, not particularly helpful.

 

plug the driver headlight motor into the passenger motor plug. save yourself a whole lot of time chasing wires and things when it could just be the motor itself.

 

If removing a headlight motor be careful you dont undo the wrong screws. The whole mechanism can spring apart.

This was a nube mistake I made early on.

P.s. it may seem hard to find replacement headlight motors, but it has been identified that there can be a replacement under some other part number. Again you have to search this site for the answer to that.

 

My left headlight has been doing the same thing (could be the contact plate in the motor – haven't had time to look at it yet): https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-gen-gene...-down-1148602/

 

Again, if you open up the motor housing bits are are gonna fall out all over the place.

 

Not if you remove the 3 screws where the contact plate is. The only thing in there is the contact plate...

Vince

 

If you are going to mess with the motor un plug it from the power. move the headlight up or down with the **** on the back of the motor.
It has to be a bad electrical contact, check the grounds by the front of the bumper. If everything looks good, test the relay,. You can switch it with anotherone there and test it. The relay is on the front of the car.
I once had that issue when i changed my battery, I removed the relay and but it back in and fixed the issue.
Let us know any update

 

Dont take the motor apart, it should be working fine, cause there are 2 springs pushing the carbon contacts and when you remove the motor, the springs might fly away and you might loose them.

 

Im not entirely sure Ive fixed it, we will see. It was intermintent for a long time. It hadnt done it in 6+ months until yesterday. When I started messing with it today it was doing it reliably. Now I cant get it to do it. So.... maaaaaaaaaaaybe?

Here is what I did / found out:
1. Removed the cover from the plastic housing and found the contact plate with 3 prongs. I cleaned the grease out and used a brillow pad style thing to remove any carbon build up from the surfaces
2. Inside of the plastic cap there is a very small automotive relay soldered in. Its a NEC MR301 relay. I am not entirely certain this isnt going bad. However you have to order them from China and wait for ever given covids disruptions to shipping. If it comes back I'll order one and swap it to see if that fixes it. I did find out that the electric motors really have NOTHING to fail inside of them with the exception of the plastic gear and this relay. So if your motor simply stops working and the gearing isnt stripped, replace this little $6 relay and you will be good!
3. I removed the tall housing from the motor. The previously mentioned springs are in here. I cleaned the contacts for the motors magnetics to work better. Im unsure this did anything but I did get to see how it worked.
4. I adjusted the up/ down stoppers on the headlight. Im not sure if these were just expanding slightly and causing too much force against the motor to make it "safety jump" back down back and forth. No idea, now they barely touch when up/down though.

Something might have fixed it, or not. We'll see!

 

Congrats!