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| Left headlight down machine gun noise! (Page 1/2) |
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John W. Tilford
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OCT 31, 07:18 AM
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This dark morning turned on headlights. Left stayed down. (Reminded me of last year and replacing the headlight control module to fix.) I opened the front hood with engine running and right headlight up and tried to crank up the left headlight with the manual knob. Knob acted weird, like not connected to gear. I continued turning and it clicked loudly. Left headlight was still down but light was turned on. Right was up and on. Got in car. Turned headlights off, right went down. Turned lights on, both went up. Great! As a test I turned them off. Both went down but the left then and now makes a horrible, sounds like gear stripping, non stop noise when it's all the way down. Turning the headlights on raises both, noise stops. When both are down turning the ignition off does not stop the left light loud noise. Drove home with headlights up and pulled into garage. Left the engine running. Did the same tests, same results. Disconnected battery. Engine continued running. Same left light noise when turned headlights off.
More weird: with headlights down & off and noise going, turning on only the running lights (pushing only smaller right side of the switch) the noise stops. With the noise stopped by turning on the running lights I disconnected the battery.
Fiero now sitting in garage, battery disconnected, lights turned off, no noise. Just touching the + red connector to the matching battery post starts the gear-stripping, tiny caliber machine gun noise.
Help!
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John W. Tilford[This message has been edited by John W. Tilford (edited 10-31-2024).]
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82-T/A [At Work]
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OCT 31, 07:34 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by John W. Tilford:
This dark morning turned on headlights. Left stayed down. (Reminded me of last year and replacing the headlight control module to fix.) I opened the front hood with engine running and right headlight up and tried to crank up the left headlight with the manual knob. Knob acted weird, like not connected to gear. I continued turning and it clicked loudly. Left headlight was still down but light was turned on. Right was up and on. Got in car. Turned headlights off, right went down. Turned lights on, both went up. Great! As a test I turned them off. Both went down but the left then and now makes a horrible, sounds like gear stripping, non stop noise when it's all the way down. Turning the headlights on raises the right , left stays down, noise stops. Turning the ignition off does not stop the lights on (as one would expect) or the left light loud noise. No noise with headlights up. Yes, they both go up. Horrible noise from left headlight assembly when headlights down. Drove home with headlights up and pulled into garage. Left the engine running. Did the same tests, same results. Disconnected battery. Engine continued running. Same left light noise when turned headlights off.
More weird: with headlights down & off and noise going, turning on only the running lights (pushing only smaller right side of the switch) the noise stops.
Fiero now sitting in garage, battery disconnected, lights turned off, no noise. Just touching the + red connector to the matching battery post starts the gear-stripping, tiny caliber machine gun noise.
Help!
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Hi! What year Fiero do you have? 1984-1986 have a different motor from 1987-1988. I only know about the 87-88 motors... but they are rebuildable. There are sacrificial nylon bushings inside... which are meant to break or be destroyed (at least that's my understanding) if the motor receives any kind of significant resistance, rather than destroy something else (like the bucket, etc.). These eventually wear out over time anyway, and need to be replaced.
This is what you need if you have an 87-88: https://rodneydickman.com/p....php?products_id=231
... it comes with new gaskets and bushigns.
But... looking on Rodney's site, it looks like the 84-86 motors are also rebuildable!
https://rodneydickman.com/p....php?products_id=230
I did not know this!
Either way, you need one of these kits... and you might as well do both motors while you're at it.
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John W. Tilford
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OCT 31, 07:38 AM
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John W. Tilford
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OCT 31, 07:50 AM
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82-T/A,
I just ordered Rodney's rebuild kit with all gaskets. Thank you for the link. Probably need to install anyway.
BUT, is this machine gun/stripping gear noise a typical symptom?
I noticed with the left headlight in the down position turning the manual knob clockwise gets only clicks. Turning the knob counter-clockwise does raise the headlight cradle.
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82-T/A [At Work]
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OCT 31, 07:53 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by John W. Tilford:
82-T/A,
I just ordered Rodney's rebuild kit with all gaskets. Thank you for the link. Probably need to install anyway.
BUT, is this machine gun/stripping gear noise a typical symptom?
I noticed with the left headlight in the down position turning the manual knob clockwise gets only clicks. Turning the knob counter-clockwise does raise the headlight cradle. |
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My guess is that the nylon gears broke into big junks, and they're getting caught up in the same place and creating that consistent machine-gun style noise. It's been a LONG time since I've head one of these headlights go bad, mostly because my 87 has been in storage for 14 years, but I do recall one of them making noise as it was failing. It would go BAM BAM BAM BAM... and then "catch" and go up... and make a couple more banging noises when it finally got to the top, haha...
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Vintage-Nut
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OCT 31, 08:14 AM
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John W. Tilford
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OCT 31, 08:15 AM
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82-T/A,
Thank you againl!
Might be a while before Rodney's rebuild kit arrives but I'll return to this post to report the results.
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John W. Tilford
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OCT 31, 09:16 AM
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Vintage Nut,
Cute video. I'd hire that cheerful young lady. My 51 year old son certainly couldn't do as well.
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cliffw
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OCT 31, 12:57 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by John W. Tilford:
Vintage Nut,
Cute video. I'd hire that cheerful young lady. My 51 year old son certainly couldn't do as well. |
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Another happy cheerful young lady.
Her Father is 82-T/A [At Work] who posted information for you in this thread.
Both amazing women who could run mechanical circles around many men.[This message has been edited by cliffw (edited 10-31-2024).]
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82-T/A [At Work]
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OCT 31, 01:09 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by cliffw:
Another happy cheerful young lady.
Her Father is 82-T/A [At Work] who posted information for you in this thread.
Both amazing women who could run mechanical circles around many men.
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Haha, thanks Cliff, I appreciate it.
Yeah, I was really impressed with Lost But Not Forgotten daughter's repair of those headlights. I remember seeing her much younger, and of course she couldn't do anywhere near those things at the age he started her in... but in that one, she was fully engaged, more or less did it herself with only a little bit of help from her dad. Very impressive.
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