My cab seems to be half asleep...

[elford_tim]

LHS headlight is stuck in a \'halfway up\' position - lights themselves work, though.

Any suggestion where I should start looking to check if it\'s a case of burnt-out motor?

[Brett]

Does it move freely on the hand winder? (Power off of course)

[grinder]

dont speak to me about headlights - im slowly getting very intimate with them !!

1 - check you can wind by hand ( remove retractor fuse )
2 - if its stiff - then wind it up and spray with wd40

if this fails then let us all know and we can think of something else to do

Stu

[elford_tim]

Haven\'t had the chance to poke around underneath. Will try to do so on the w/e and check back.

[grinder]

will take you 5 mins tops

mine was really stiff - ended up with a 19mm socket ( or 18 mm ) and a rathcet to move up - wound it up and they sprayed with LOTS of WD40 - seems to be OK now

[elford_tim]

Main problem here is that I don\'t fancy lying under the car in the dark... Job for the weekend, methinks.

[grinder]

if your crouch at the front - put your hand under the bumper and place it under the headlight

you will either feel a round dial or a rubber cover - if its the cover then remove it

then wind away - you will tell in 2-3 turns if it tight

if this was me - i would be out checking so that im not thinking about it all night !

Stu

[elford_tim]

Finally managed to get the rubber boot off - looks like my little discussion earlier this year with a French kerb bent the arm that holds the bottom of the wing, hence all the plastic underneath got rearranged a tad. More work for the bodyshop, great.

Anyway, using grinder\'s socket/ratchet trick I managed to extend the headlight fully up. It\'s noticeable that the operation goes lose/tight/lose/tight when winding it up and down. All joints are currently soaked in spray grease. I\'ll give that a bit more time to soak in and then work it up and down a couple more times to check if it behaves now.

[grinder]

the socket idea is great - got mine working fine !

[elford_tim]

Some more spray grease (on both headlights) and it\'s going up and down again on the motor. However the passenger side one is a lot slower and I still need to wind it up using a socket - I can wind it down fine by hand. Not good.

I also noticed that the little rubber strip in front of the headlight has gone AWOL on the passenger side - my guess is that the lack of this part allowed a lot more crud into the h/l mechanism, hence the stiffness.

Oh well, at least it\'s coming up all the way again...

[grinder]

just keep working it and see what happens

humm if you keep winding in the same direction it goes up and down - so im wondering why yours goes up and not down on the motor when the direction is the same ?

[elford_tim]

It does go up and down on the motor again now. What I meant was that it goes down easily and smoothly on the knob if I twist said nob in one direction but it doesn\'t go up very easily if I turn said knob in the other direction...

[grinder]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

[elford_tim]

Well, after having the spray grease soak in a bit, the two headlights now seem to be going up and down a lot smoother. Pity that the car had drained the battery while I was away, otherwise i could\'ve gone for a drive now

[grinder]

ha ha ha they joy of rotary ownership eh matey !!

im surprised that it drained soooo much power - but if its been stiff then its probably used a lot just trying to move one

just be thankful that they work ( unlike mine )