On my 92 if I'm running my parking lights and I turn them off I hear a light thumping sound towards the front of the car for a few seconds. Any ideas? Thx

Is there a rabbit, stuck in the area, that is afraid of the dark? darn noises. Turn up the radio or get loud pipes.

  Turning up the radio is my younger brother's way of "curing" strange noises coming from his car.  Hear no evil, see no evil, etc........

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best thing to do jed would be to have someone else turn the lights on and off and open the hood and see if you can pinpoint where the clicking is coming from. the control box for the headlights opening and closing is in the front left wheel well. could be as suggested a cross feed. let us know.

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the dynamic duo

c3vr life member #97

Parking lights only or headlights? jimmymack2011-05-18 14:34:51

 I had the same problem with my '96 LT4. When you turn on or off the fog lights the headlight motors wouls run for a few seconds. Also when turning on the headlights the motors would run on for a few seconds and made a sound of light thumping until it stopped. The cure I found (right headlight didn't open all the way) was to remove headlight assemblies and take the motors apart. Be sure to inscribe light lines on the brackets so they can be replaced with the correct position. There are only four bolts holding the brackets in place. Before removing you will have to turn the hand knob until the headlight is half open and expose the two philips screws on each side of the the covers. One on each side and two bolts on the inside and remove the covers. Then the four bolts to remove the assembly. Now the noise is caused by worn out bearings in the motors. The factory manual procedure is to replace the motors at about $400 each. The origional bearings are made of some sort of compressed grease. These dry out and turn to dust. The motors (now on the kitchen table) have a round section and these hold the bearings. Any of the aftermarket catalogs list replacement Delron bearings for around $1/ea. Take the motors apart and open the bearing area. It will be full of dust from the broken down grease bearings. Clean out the residue and insert three delron bearings in each motor. I coated mine with a light coat of grease. LIGHT COAT. Then reasemble the motors and reinstall. The right one is a little more diifficult because of the location of the pins holding the rotary arms. It took me about 3hrs for the whole job. My headlights now snap open and closed with no run on and when I turn on only the fog lights there is no sound. It's not as complicated as it sounds. I pulled my assemblies again recently to install Hella lights. Used the same scribe marks an everything fit fine. I did that over a year ago and its as close to a permanent fix as you can get. The Delron bearings should last for many years.  

they are also making bronze gears for the motors instead of the plastic ones.may want to consider installing them too.

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the dynamic duo

c3vr life member #97

 True bronze gears are available but are relativly expensive. After cleaning my plastic gears showed no wear after 15yrs and 60,000mi. The glass lens Hella lamps are about twice the weight of the origional headlights so in another 10yrs or so I may make the investment in time and money to change them.

this is one of the improvements you make if you can afford it. only way i would even consider it was if my gears were worn.

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the dynamic duo

c3vr life member #97

[QUOTE=bagpipedave] I had the same problem with my '96 LT4. When you turn on or off the fog lights the headlight motors wouls run for a few seconds. Also when turning on the headlights the motors would run on for a few seconds and made a sound of light thumping until it stopped. The cure I found (right headlight didn't open all the way) was to remove headlight assemblies and take the motors apart. Be sure to inscribe light lines on the brackets so they can be replaced with the correct position. There are only four bolts holding the brackets in place. Before removing you will have to turn the hand knob until the headlight is half open and expose the two philips screws on each side of the the covers. One on each side and two bolts on the inside and remove the covers. [/QUOTE] might be the same for other years but on my 90 the factory manual says to turn on the headlights so they open and unplug them. the 90 has 5 nuts you have to remove and i didnt have to remove the covers (until after i got the unit out). it also says when you reinstall them to make sure they are in the open position and the headlight switch is on then plug them in and shut the lights off. this step adjusts the opening and closing of lights. as i said this is for my 90, may or may not be the same for other years. eddie208902011-05-21 05:04:42

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the dynamic duo

c3vr life member #97

Thanks for the advice guys! The slight thumping sound occurs for a few seconds if I turn of the headlights or parking lights. If I do nothing will it lead to further damage?

 The noise will continue untill the headlights just won't rotate. Then it will have to be fixed one way or another! If they don't open when you're away from hom you can open them manualy with the knob on top of the motors. It takes A Lot of turns to open them.

mid america and ecklers sell the gear kit for you headlites.easy to follow instructions and this wil lsolve your problem.the headlites receive power when the sw is turned off and if the gears are worn,which i'm sure they they will growl until the relay relaxes,so rebuild them and your problem will go away.had the same thing on my 90 so i have the experience.

Thanks!

Dusting off this old topic, but I've noticed I'm getting a sluggish headlight, and I've also noticed when the parking lights are turned off the knob on top of both of the motors spin regardless that I haven't had the lights up (is that normal?)  So as far as the sluggish motor - am I looking at a rebuild?

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Most likely it's the nylon pins that sit in the little worm gear box that's integrated into the motor housing. You're describing the same issue I ran into a few years back. When I took everything apart, the original nylon pins were just a bunch of crumbs. Mid America, Ecklers, Corvette Central, etc all sell these for less than than 20 bucks. I''d start there before spending any money on the motors.

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Just finished replacing the nylon pins in both headlight motors.  Super doable job and like previously stated before I also found that when I opened up the gears there was just a pile of nylon crumbs!  They now work great and the motors don't just run and run after the lights turn off.  Thanks for everyone's help!

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now you can light 'em up figuratively and literally ! 

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