Headlight won't go down

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Themasteryeti
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Headlight won't go down

Post by Themasteryeti » Sun Nov 13, 2022 11:22 am

Yesterday I took my day light running bulb out to change it and mistakenly put my headlights down as I drove to the shop to buy another, so the headlight only half went down as it didn't have a fully circuit without the bulb (made it a real ballache to get the screw out to get the headlight cluster out after) but anyway so I changed the bulb and the headlight still didn't pop up (lights still worked tho) but as I drove up the road it decided to pop up to match the other but now just that one refuses to go down and I can't for the life of me work out why, I would have though with the other bulb back in it should work perfectly?
Don't suppose anyone has any solution for this? D:
1973 vw beetle
1993 480s

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Alan 480
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Re: Headlight won't go down

Post by Alan 480 » Sun Nov 13, 2022 1:52 pm

Themasteryeti wrote:
Sun Nov 13, 2022 11:22 am
Yesterday I took my day light running bulb out to change it and mistakenly put my headlights down as I drove to the shop to buy another, so the headlight only half went down as it didn't have a fully circuit without the bulb (made it a real ballache to get the screw out to get the headlight cluster out after) but anyway so I changed the bulb and the headlight still didn't pop up (lights still worked tho) but as I drove up the road it decided to pop up to match the other but now just that one refuses to go down and I can't for the life of me work out why, I would have though with the other bulb back in it should work perfectly?
Don't suppose anyone has any solution for this? D:
just wind the offending motor until it catches up, you need to jam a screwdriver into the 'catch' so over-rides the safety feature, you will hear the microswitch make as push the wee plastic flap down
Alan

480 ES 2litre 'Celebration' ? , C30 1.8ES, SS1

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Themasteryeti
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Re: Headlight won't go down

Post by Themasteryeti » Wed Nov 16, 2022 1:30 pm

Alan 480 wrote:
Sun Nov 13, 2022 1:52 pm
Themasteryeti wrote:
Sun Nov 13, 2022 11:22 am
Yesterday I took my day light running bulb out to change it and mistakenly put my headlights down as I drove to the shop to buy another, so the headlight only half went down as it didn't have a fully circuit without the bulb (made it a real ballache to get the screw out to get the headlight cluster out after) but anyway so I changed the bulb and the headlight still didn't pop up (lights still worked tho) but as I drove up the road it decided to pop up to match the other but now just that one refuses to go down and I can't for the life of me work out why, I would have though with the other bulb back in it should work perfectly?
Don't suppose anyone has any solution for this? D:
just wind the offending motor until it catches up, you need to jam a screwdriver into the 'catch' so over-rides the safety feature, you will hear the microswitch make as push the wee plastic flap down

Do you mean the wind up thing behind the poo up to manually move it?
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1993 480s

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jifflemon
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Re: Headlight won't go down

Post by jifflemon » Wed Nov 16, 2022 1:39 pm

So, I'll quote myself from another thread to save time but....
jifflemon wrote:
Wed Nov 02, 2022 11:02 am
So.... we have two separate bits to talk about.
The popup part and the light part. They're two separate bits

The popup part: If it's a car that hasn't seen much usage, then I'd pop the front nose cone off, remove the gas struts and then perform the Brinkie Winkie dance with the engine running (or the battery on charge).

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This is going to exercise the motors, running them continuously. They'll just pop up and down. I normally give them a 5 minute work out.
Removing the gas strut is advisable because they can seize with age (and are probably knackered if they've not been replaced by now).

Now, if you're saying the lights pop up but they fail to illuminate, then first thing would be a bulb check.
Your DRL's (the little "side light" next to the indicator) should have a BAY15D bulb, 4w/21w bulb with offset pins. This should be a full brightness with the ignition off, then dim to 4w when the lights pop up.
Headlamp bulbs are good old H4's.

If the bulbs are ok, I'd pop with lightswitch itself out (be brave, it just pulls out), Squirt the contacts and inside with some contact cleaner and work off/on for a couple of minutes. As 480's can be notoriously damp, the internal contacts can get furred up.
Testing the pop part via the BWD should be your first thing. The knob on the rear will wind the motor up and and down manually, if it doesn't you may have a faulty motor.

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Themasteryeti
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Re: Headlight won't go down

Post by Themasteryeti » Mon Nov 21, 2022 8:46 pm

jifflemon wrote:
Wed Nov 16, 2022 1:39 pm
So, I'll quote myself from another thread to save time but....
jifflemon wrote:
Wed Nov 02, 2022 11:02 am
So.... we have two separate bits to talk about.
The popup part and the light part. They're two separate bits

The popup part: If it's a car that hasn't seen much usage, then I'd pop the front nose cone off, remove the gas struts and then perform the Brinkie Winkie dance with the engine running (or the battery on charge).

Image

This is going to exercise the motors, running them continuously. They'll just pop up and down. I normally give them a 5 minute work out.
Removing the gas strut is advisable because they can seize with age (and are probably knackered if they've not been replaced by now).

Now, if you're saying the lights pop up but they fail to illuminate, then first thing would be a bulb check.
Your DRL's (the little "side light" next to the indicator) should have a BAY15D bulb, 4w/21w bulb with offset pins. This should be a full brightness with the ignition off, then dim to 4w when the lights pop up.
Headlamp bulbs are good old H4's.

If the bulbs are ok, I'd pop with lightswitch itself out (be brave, it just pulls out), Squirt the contacts and inside with some contact cleaner and work off/on for a couple of minutes. As 480's can be notoriously damp, the internal contacts can get furred up.
Testing the pop part via the BWD should be your first thing. The knob on the rear will wind the motor up and and down manually, if it doesn't you may have a faulty motor.

Managed to fix the problem! Turns out the plug for the headlight motor had a few split wires that kept touching and shorting out stopping it working!
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brinkie
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Re: Headlight won't go down

Post by brinkie » Wed Nov 23, 2022 5:22 pm

Wow, that is a new one for the list of "issues which make the headlight fail" :o
The left hand side popup of my car refused to go up after I've refueled this morning, I had some puzzling looks from other customers at the service station when I said "there it moved! no it was you pushing the cage" after some wiggling so it went up. And then having it going up and down several times to make it work for the rest of the day.
Robert.

Present cars: 1994 Volvo 480 GT 2.0i, 1999 Volvo S70 2.5 Europa, 2010 Volvo V70 2.0F Momentum

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