[flash]

crap - how did that happen?



check your battery cables and main ground



note on headlights: they won't go down with the key off

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[rxter]

The "known" good fuse that i used was for the imstrument cluster. Never even occured to me that would be a problem. Guess thats why i dont try to feed my family working on cars. Soon as i looked up posts with the airbag light issue i knew. Doh!

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[flash]

i'm going to upgrade to the pro version of the durametric this week - i'll be able to reset you then

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[rxter]

Ordered the relay from Sunset. $101 in Germany. 50 available. Being a commodities trader I was thinking that perhaps I should order say, 50 and corner the market. I hear that demand in China is forecast to be very strong...



What makes a relay go anyway? Too much heat or too many cycles or is it a mystery?

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[DaveN]

I would generally go with too many cycles or poor design. Every time a relay operates you are arcing current through a set of points. That creates minute pits and carbon and over the years the build up will eventually become a variable resistor. Sometimes it will work and sometimes is won't; tapping on the case with a screwdriver handle fixes a lot of these problems temporarily by agitating the contacts.

Poor design comes in to play when a designer uses a relay from a parts bin that may be a common part for other processes (like VW and Porsche) that does not have the voltage or current ratings that are really required to do the job properly. Always a cost saving measure.

There are also back EMF issues related to failure as well but I think this is low on the list.

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[flash]

yeah - given the location, and how subject that entire box is to temp change, and how many "issues" we see in there, i tend to think it is cycles as well

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[rxter]

Put the new relay in today. Took 4 weeks to get here. Lights down. Joe is happy.

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[rxter]

Just saw a used one on ebay for 5 bucks - figures.

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[joeh944]

[quote name='rxter' timestamp='1289083534' post='100748']

Problem: Both headlights stuck in up position.



Symptoms and observations:

All lamps work

No motor sounds at all

Linkages under the headlight look really clean - very little gunk.

Pulled relay - looked really clean. Sprayed off with dielectric cleaner stuff anyway.



History:

Right side headlight would not go down all the way. I have a bra on and it was getting a little stuck. No big deal. I'd just cycle it again and it would go down.

Turned on the car today and popped the lights up like I always do backing out of the garage. When I turned them off the ligths stayed up.



Relay?

[/quote]



Same problem/symptoms as above. Sorry if I'm missing the obvious...where is the relay? Thanks.



Joe

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[flash]

fuse box. the chart on the lid will tell you which one.

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[joeh944]

I checked the label on the fuse box lid before posting my question. Pictures of my car's fuse box label are below. Fuses 16 and 37 (not visible in my pictures below) are clearly marked as protecting the headlamp motor circuits. However, none of the relays have a similar label to indicate it is part of the headlamp motor circuit. Relay G17+G18 is marked as "control unit light combination" - is that the one? If not, is someone able to identify the appropriate relay? Thanks.



Joe

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[rxter]

I think that's right. I'll check it when I get home tonight. If I get home tonight - traffic sucks.....

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[JTP]

Last night I saw that the passenger side light stayed up after I shut her down. I turned on the lights again, both lights come on and go up but only the driver's side goes back down. I can lower the passenger side light by just pushing it down. Does this seem like a lube issue? I'm going to try opening it up and see what's going on.

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[kzem1]

check the headlight relay.  I had the same issue a while back.

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[94SilverCab]

Simple trick is to unplug and replug a couple of times...

 

Jay

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[Langley968]

^{Mine did that once after I had washed the 968 with a pressure washer (or "water blaster" as a Kiwi friend of mine would say!). I unplugged the wires and plugged them back in and the problem was gone. Must have been a drop of water in the contact.}

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[JTP]

Finally got a chance to dig in and see the issue. The pivot for the headlight was just a little tight so when the motor retracted it left the headlight assembly up. There was a distinct squeak as the light went up also. It was a pain getting a can of lube under the light assembly but managed to grease up the shaft assembly and now both lights go up with no squeak and both retract smoothly

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[jthomson]

Soooo, I had the same problem. Left light up, right down-no lights. Working on it just now I was trying to hand crank the right light. It did NOT wanna move. So I really gave it a turn and something fell into the pan below the light. I felt sure that I'd broken something. I released the light and wedged my fingers in and managed to raise it. Peering down into the well, I saw my problem. Two dried up walnut shells. They must have gotten caught up in the mechanism somehow. Anyway, praying I hadn't burned out the motor from repeated tries, I gave it a shot. Everything works as it should! Lucked out, I did. Although I noticed the shell and that ring that goes behind it are in pretty bad shape-lotsa cracks. Anyone have a good repair? Epoxy?

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[MLB]

I sure found it hard to repair those pieces with epoxy. They just fall apart if you remove the screws. I would consider trying to clean up the surfaces really well without disassembling anything, then carefully Epoxy the cracks as a way to help hold things together.then maybe try to take it apart but I wouldn't.

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