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My headlights won't go down? Please help
- Thread starter baynsac
- Start date
Re: MY HEADLIGHTS WONT GO DOWN? pLEASE HELP
no I didn't mean operating the button.
To be clear, normally when I pull the car into the garage with lights up I will turn lights off before engine, and the lights retract immediately.
But if I turn engine off before turning lights off the lights stop shining but they stay raised ... for maybe 20 minutes before they drop. When this happens, turning the car back on, toggling the controls or the headlight raise button make no difference, they stay up until the approx. 20 timeout.
The symptoms experienced by baynsac are exactly the same I believe, hence my comment that it may not be a malfunction ... i.e. perhaps it's a design fault (oops ... can't say that about our beloved NSX
)
no I didn't mean operating the button.
To be clear, normally when I pull the car into the garage with lights up I will turn lights off before engine, and the lights retract immediately.
But if I turn engine off before turning lights off the lights stop shining but they stay raised ... for maybe 20 minutes before they drop. When this happens, turning the car back on, toggling the controls or the headlight raise button make no difference, they stay up until the approx. 20 timeout.
The symptoms experienced by baynsac are exactly the same I believe, hence my comment that it may not be a malfunction ... i.e. perhaps it's a design fault (oops ... can't say that about our beloved NSX
)
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baynsac
Guest
Re: MY HEADLIGHTS WONT GO DOWN? pLEASE HELP
now it wouldnt go down at all even after leaving it up all night. I believe it has to do with the adjustment of the hood and headlights we did to line it better as the headlight rubs the hood on it way up. I am taking it to Ramon to get it fixed as well as my VRH that has a leak. Hopefully he can figure it out. Anyone have any other ideas?
now it wouldnt go down at all
even after leaving it up all night. I believe it has to do with the adjustment of the hood and headlights we did to line it better as the headlight rubs the hood on it way up. I am taking it to Ramon to get it fixed as well as my VRH that has a leak. Hopefully he can figure it out. Anyone have any other ideas?
Re: MY HEADLIGHTS WONT GO DOWN? pLEASE HELP
Maybe your car gets paranoid at night and keeps its 'eyes open' until it relaxes and goes to sleep. :biggrin:
Maybe your car gets paranoid at night and keeps its 'eyes open' until it relaxes and goes to sleep. :biggrin:
I know this is an old thread, but for anyone searching for a solution to this problem, I fixed mine. I found 4 cracked solder joints in the retractor module that mounts behind the driver seat on the firewall. Reflowed the solder and headlights havent gotten stuck up in up position since.
great stuff, I'll have to look at into this again, mine still do it !
Thank you. When mine get stuck in the up position, if I just put pressure on the plug that snaps into the retractor module, they go down immediately. I wonder if this is the same thing.
Yes i would say so. what happens is the pins on the circuit board that the plug connects to get cracked soldering. When you push on the plug, you are "wiggling" the pins in their cracked joints and making contact to complete the circuit. You can go in and resolder the pins and then not have to worry about pushing on it for a few years
I was hoping that my headlight issue would be easy. But nope, luck is not on my side. Two days ago (one of the first colder days of the year a couple weeks ago), my lights wouldnt turn on, parking lights were OK. Tried to turn them on again and they finally turned on after a few tries. On my return trip home I noticed the lights would only turn on after I turned the light on and turned on the light knob back 1 turn (turn it fully on, then back up 1 step). I got home and would troubleshoot this the next day. But nope, not with my luck. The car would not turn on, first time ever. I got the car jumped, and it started, yey.
Back to my issue, I noticed that red headlight was on in the console. Took the lids off the fuseboxes under the hood, both fuse #42 and #43 were fine (15A) as well as the nearby relays. Not sure whats next.
Not many posts on this topic besides another one from 10yrs ago but it never had a resolution. Was wondering what this could be, and hope it doesnt involve soldering. I guess I can manually turn the headlights up, but the headlights are no longer turning on. I just tried now and car wont start again. I think something happened since the day before the car wouldnt start. The lights are dim inside, I hear the relays as I start the car. I'll have to jump again tomorrow. Besides that it seems to be OK in the daytime (drove around for an hour), when headlights arent needed. Im not willing to risk it dying if I let it sit for an hour though. Seems something is draining battery too. No, I wish it was as simple as pressing the pop up headlight button, it no longer does anything.
Heres that other thread I saw:
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/109048-1991-Pop-up-headlight-problem-Any-suggestions
Found another slightly related thread. More mentions of replacing headlight motor. Had one last year before I sold it
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/56857-Headlights-go-up-but-they-don-t-go-down
Any ideas? Think any car shop can resolve this? Thanks NSXPRIME
Back to my issue, I noticed that red headlight was on in the console. Took the lids off the fuseboxes under the hood, both fuse #42 and #43 were fine (15A) as well as the nearby relays. Not sure whats next.
Not many posts on this topic besides another one from 10yrs ago but it never had a resolution. Was wondering what this could be, and hope it doesnt involve soldering
. I guess I can manually turn the headlights up, but the headlights are no longer turning on. I just tried now and car wont start again. I think something happened since the day before the car wouldnt start. The lights are dim inside, I hear the relays as I start the car. I'll have to jump again tomorrow. Besides that it seems to be OK in the daytime (drove around for an hour), when headlights arent needed. Im not willing to risk it dying if I let it sit for an hour though. Seems something is draining battery too. No, I wish it was as simple as pressing the pop up headlight button, it no longer does anything.Heres that other thread I saw:
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/109048-1991-Pop-up-headlight-problem-Any-suggestions
Found another slightly related thread. More mentions of replacing headlight motor. Had one last year before I sold it
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/56857-Headlights-go-up-but-they-don-t-go-down
Any ideas? Think any car shop can resolve this? Thanks NSXPRIME
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It may be a long shot, but easy enough to try. Disconnect and reconnect your battery, checking and cleaning (both) terminals in the process. It's not uncommon for high resistance to build up at the terminals due to dirt/corrosion resulting in poorly connecting terminals. This can be enough to prevent the car starting, and cause other electrical issues.
To reinforce [MENTION=16951]sparky[/MENTION] 's point, fix the battery problem first. You can't trouble shoot the headlight system without power.
Failed battery post connections are a common cause of failure to start problems on the NSX. The battery post connectors on the NSX are relatively flimsy and it is very easy to over tighten them which results in the clamps stretching and eventually making poor contact. The 'tell' that you have damaged clamps is that you can twist the clamp on the battery post. You can purchase battery post shims to try and get a tight fit on the clamp; but, the better plan is replacement of the battery post clamp. If the negative clamp is the one that has failed, replacement of the clamp and cable is relatively easy to do. If the positive clamp has failed, do a clamp replacement because replacing the complete cable is $$$$ and a lot of work.
Your battery may also be history. Just about all automotive batteries are maintenance free. Sometimes they die without much warning. I had a case where I drove the car to a store, everything was fine when I went in; but, I came out about 10 minutes later and the battery was stone cold dead. You can boost the battery to start the car and it will run; but, at that point it will no longer restart the car.
The regular Honda Service manual provides a trouble shooting input test for the retractable headlight control unit. The test should help you identify the source of the problem in the headlight system. In order to do the test you will need a continuity tester / voltmeter and being able to read a schematic diagram will be helpful. There are a pile of 'things' in the retractable headlight control system, all of which can cause problems. However, given that solder joint fracturing is emerging as a very common failure mode on a lot of the electronic control modules on early NSXs, I really would be inclined to pull the module apart and reflow the solder joints. If that 'easy fix' does not fix the problem then you need to run through the input test to identify the cause.
I can guarantee that 'any car shop' that does not have access to an NSX service manual / has never worked on an NSX will not be able to do this, or will take more time than required to fix it, or may break more stuff in the fixing process. Even if you take it to an Acura dealership, given that the NSX is now 27+ years old, what are the chances that they have an NSX qualified tech unless there are a number of NSXs in the area that get serviced at the dealership. Find out where the other NSX owners in your area (if there are any) take their cars for repair.
Failed battery post connections are a common cause of failure to start problems on the NSX. The battery post connectors on the NSX are relatively flimsy and it is very easy to over tighten them which results in the clamps stretching and eventually making poor contact. The 'tell' that you have damaged clamps is that you can twist the clamp on the battery post. You can purchase battery post shims to try and get a tight fit on the clamp; but, the better plan is replacement of the battery post clamp. If the negative clamp is the one that has failed, replacement of the clamp and cable is relatively easy to do. If the positive clamp has failed, do a clamp replacement because replacing the complete cable is $$$$ and a lot of work.
Your battery may also be history. Just about all automotive batteries are maintenance free. Sometimes they die without much warning. I had a case where I drove the car to a store, everything was fine when I went in; but, I came out about 10 minutes later and the battery was stone cold dead. You can boost the battery to start the car and it will run; but, at that point it will no longer restart the car.
The regular Honda Service manual provides a trouble shooting input test for the retractable headlight control unit. The test should help you identify the source of the problem in the headlight system. In order to do the test you will need a continuity tester / voltmeter and being able to read a schematic diagram will be helpful. There are a pile of 'things' in the retractable headlight control system, all of which can cause problems. However, given that solder joint fracturing is emerging as a very common failure mode on a lot of the electronic control modules on early NSXs, I really would be inclined to pull the module apart and reflow the solder joints. If that 'easy fix' does not fix the problem then you need to run through the input test to identify the cause.
I can guarantee that 'any car shop' that does not have access to an NSX service manual / has never worked on an NSX will not be able to do this, or will take more time than required to fix it, or may break more stuff in the fixing process. Even if you take it to an Acura dealership, given that the NSX is now 27+ years old, what are the chances that they have an NSX qualified tech unless there are a number of NSXs in the area that get serviced at the dealership. Find out where the other NSX owners in your area (if there are any) take their cars for repair.
Well, drove the car around for an hour, after jumping it. Looking at the headlights, they DO turn on. Issue is that the headlights assembly isn't flipping up. Trying to figure out how to get these to manually go up now. The car has been turning on fine last 3 days, I drive around each day now... I guess the recent events took place as I let the car sit for 2 weeks, which we know can cause some issues.
Thanks all
Thanks all
OK - progress.
There are probably fuses for the lift motors (hint :smile
There are probably fuses for the lift motors (hint :smile
As [MENTION=16951]sparky[/MENTION] notes, there are separate fuses for the retractor motors. That would be a good place to start; however, blown fuses tend to be a symptom with something else being the cause.
Thanks for helps . Manually flipped lights up, lights on, car starts fine daily. This was a daily driver for several years, that is not the case in the recent weeks.
Thanks for the clues and tips. If I get to the bottom of this, i will share.
Looks like I got to the bottom of it. I had been removing the relays as if I dont, well, the car dies every 2 days or so. Got old screwing them lights up every time I drove at night. But recently plugging in the relays suddenly just everything was working again. As someone had already mentioned, probably a relay. Getting some ordered now. Hopefully I didnt just jinx myself. But after getting a new battery (that I didnt need to), and paying $$$ for diagnostics to tell me my lights, relays, fuses, battery, and starter are all fine, reconnecting the relays (which I have been doing at least once a week now) somehow did the trick. We'll see.
. Manually flipped lights up, lights on, car starts fine daily. This was a daily driver for several years, that is not the case in the recent weeks.Thanks for the clues and tips. If I get to the bottom of this, i will share.
Looks like I got to the bottom of it. I had been removing the relays as if I dont, well, the car dies every 2 days or so. Got old screwing them lights up every time I drove at night. But recently plugging in the relays suddenly just everything was working again. As someone had already mentioned, probably a relay. Getting some ordered now. Hopefully I didnt just jinx myself. But after getting a new battery (that I didnt need to), and paying $$$ for diagnostics to tell me my lights, relays, fuses, battery, and starter are all fine, reconnecting the relays (which I have been doing at least once a week now) somehow did the trick. We'll see.
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