Headlight popup problem

ernestedward · 03-12-2005, 01:31 PM

I've had this problem since I got the car but recently it's gotten somewhat worse, and I have time to fix it so I'm looking for some ideas. Basically the headlights come up about half way, the driver side one gets stuck, and they slowly work their way up and then pop up the whole way. Don't want to burn out the motor, plus, it's very annoying. Here are some pics for illustration of the problem:

So from what I can tell, the car was involved in a minor front end smash up, and the sheet metal was hammered back into place, but didn't line up perfectly. As you can see, the bolt holes on the front lip were cut out... The headlight is impacting pretty severely (not just a scrape, but not entirely stuck either) on the bottom right corner. Should I get in there and try to hammer it out? How hard is it to remove the headlight assembly to get a clean look at it?

strath44 · strath44's Garage

Could be one of the p-up light lift bars has been bent or similar hence why it is very slow then speeds up. Try undoing the bolts for the lift mechanics slightly and see if a move in position helps. I would do a bit of fiddling first before taking a hammer to anything it may make it worse. Also this is very sore on the motor, try putting them up manually (via the knob on the motor under the rubber cover) stop turning when it stiffens or jams and have a look at the works! Access is pretty poor all round unfortunately!!

ernestedward · 03-12-2005, 02:52 PM

I took these pictures today, battery disconnected raising it manually. This is about where it gets hard to turn. Let me clarify - they raise normally, hit this point, drag across the sheetmetal, get past it, and raise normally to the proper height. When you say "bolts for the lift mechanics" do you mean the 6 mounting bolts for whole headlight bucket?

strath44 · strath44's Garage

Ahh not sure need to have a look - going by memory at the side of the nose/badge panel there is a metal triangle with 3 (10mm?) bolts, changing the location of these triangles moves the lights position slightly maybe enough to help?? will try and find a pic.

strath44 · strath44's Garage

Sorry pics I have are at the wrong angle in the eng-bay. Sounds like a hammer will be needed after all, the lights are fairly easy to take appart to a point - however I know 3 bolts on each side are inside the wheel arch (saw them today) not sure if they have to be removed to take light out, if they do they might be a pain!

ernestedward · 03-12-2005, 03:44 PM

Yeah I know the 3 bolts you're talking about, if I could move them even a little that would work, but I don't know if that's possible for a variety of reasons. The fact that the sheetmetal is definitely bent up makes me thing that a hammer is the only real solution, unfortunately. Just wanted to check with others before I started whacking away...