pop up headlights question
 

Working on the 914 last night and noticed that I have to manually raise the headlights, however, when I turned the lights off the headlight motors came on and lowered them.

Is this a sign of bad motors, or something else?


Brian Minson
9, The DIY Porsche Magazine
http://www.9magazine.com

I believe resistance in the system can cause this. One day one of my headlights just wouldn't raise, and when I did get it up, it didn't work on low-beam. After a little driving, it magically began working and the low-beam returned. I attributed it to some electrical gremlin. My point is I've seen a lot of rusty electrical connections but have yet to run into a bad headlight motor. I'd begin by fiddling with the fuses and maybe checking the headlight bulb connections. I hope it's as simple as that.

Brian,
When you select the headlights to the on position, pin 56K of the switch sends 12 volts to the "up circuits" of the head lights. The most common of headlight switch failures is internal burn out of pin 56K. You can fix this by jumpering a wire from pin 56K to 56. All will work as usual.
Phil