suddenly headlight adjuster motor turning and klicking all the time?

Hello,

the right headlight adjuster motor suddenly after the hibernation started to turn and klick when it hits the "up" position. It does not stop in final position any more. You see the headlight housing moving.

Did this happened to somebody before? Suggestions on how to fix it?

Bernhard

darock said:

Hello,

the right headlight adjuster motor suddenly after the hibernation started to turn and klick when it hits the "up" position. It does not stop in final position any more. You see the headlight housing moving.

Did this happened to somebody before? Suggestions on how to fix it?

Bernhard

Click to expand...

same problem for me. How do we fix it?

Semi - educated guess because I don't have direct experience with this. First off, check both the head light retraction relay and the headlight cut relays. The cut relay could be stuck closed. The relays are the easiest things to check.

Check out the operation of the retractor control unit. This is fairly involved and is described in 23-174 of the electrical section of the on-line service manual.

Last, if everything else checks. The headlight retractor motor has a parking circuit in it similar to windshield wipers. When the headlight is fully up, the parking circuit should cut power to the retraction relay and send a signal to the control unit. The fact that the retraction motor continues to run suggests to me that the parking circuit might be faulty. That is a pain because testing requires removal of the retractor motor as per page 23-184 in the on-line service manual electrical section.

The driver's side headlight no longer has any resistance as well. Not much on this in old threads. The linkage may be broken or loose?

S2G-Unit said:

The driver's side headlight no longer has any resistance as well. Not much on this in old threads. The linkage may be broken or loose?

Click to expand...

Just to charify. I am not talking about the mechanism that opens the headlights. I am talking about the one that adjusts the light itself. how far it shines.

Bernhard

darock said:

Just to charify. I am not talking about the mechanism that opens the headlights. I am talking about the one that adjusts the light itself. how far it shines.

Bernhard

Click to expand...

ok thanks. Creating new thread.

darock said:

Just to charify. I am not talking about the mechanism that opens the headlights. I am talking about the one that adjusts the light itself. how far it shines.

Bernhard

Click to expand...

Are you talking about some feature that exists on the 2002 and later models? I know zip about the specifics of the 2002 and later specific features.

There might be a difference in the accessories the cars had depending on where they were delivered to.

My car is a 1992 HONDA NSX European spec and I have an electric powered headlight adjuster. I can adjust my lights from the cabin.

Bernhard

Interesting. Must be a non North American market feature.

In the adjusting unit the motor keeps running causing the geared wheel that actually adjusts the headlight to run out of its thread. This is the clicking sound.
I think the reason the motor keeps running is on the circuitboard.
I found that the two capacitors are bad, one clearly damaged.

Ordered new capacitors and hopefully this will fix it.

Old Guy said:

Interesting. Must be a non North American market feature.

Click to expand...

Correct it's a european spec feature.
It could well be the capacitors causing the issue, i've seen one motor fail altogether before.

Replaced the capacitors but that didn't fix it.
Had the circuit board checked out and they replaced one of two IC's. The second one they could not identify.
Little progress is made; the adjuster stopped turning. Still the unit does not respond to the switch so this unknown IC might be the key.

Is there anyone who can identify this 6-pin IC no 3 ?

If the caps are going out they are prone to damage other parts as well on the board esp. ICs. What values are the caps?

The capacitors are 33muF / 25V.
IC2 = TA 8050P
IC3 = ??

Where is this board located exactly? What to dismount to get to it?

Is there an NSX electrical trouble shooting manual for the Non North America versions of the NSX? If so, that might give you a place to look for details on the headlight adjuster.

Being a North American, I clearly have no experience with the headlight adjusting mechanism; however, that metal thing next to IC3 looks like it might be a slide potentiometer or a switch. Does it engage with or ride up and down on the worm gear portion of that white nylon gear? If so, the operation of that 'metal thing' may bare inspection since it may be acting as a limit switch to tell the motor to shut off. Just a suggestion.

I've one headlight out to replace the caps before they fail.

They are very small, mini, hard to get in the correct size. Besides a cheap one I've found two better ones which cost 10x more than the cheaper one BUT in only the two sizes:
- 22muF, 32V (or 20V)
- 39muF, 16V : https://www.distrelec.ch/de/alumini...&page=3&origPos=992&origPageSize=25&simi=99.9

Take the cheaper one or the better quality with slightly different values?

Not sure what they are exactly doing...

What are the dimensions? Digikey has some 33 micro F, 25 volt capacitors in 6 mm length, 3000 hr , 105C.

https://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/united-chemi-con/EFL-250ELL330MF05D/565-4402-ND/5824605

$0.5 Cdn each or buy ten for $0.35 each and do a friends car also. Cost of the Caps will be insignificant compared to the postage!

Thanks, After an extensive search I've found some these: https://www.conrad.ch/de/panasonic-...-25-v-20-o-x-h-63-mm-x-54-mm-1-st-443519.html

The required size (not to be exceeded) is about 6x6 mm.

I'd guess that I'm the first and only one to replace them in advance in Switzerland.

Just a heads up, the capacitor you linked is a surface mount device, not a through hole mount. The caps in the picture of the circuit board definitely look like through hole mounts. You could probably make an SMD fit; but, it would be a hassle, particularly since equivalent through hole capacitors exist.

I've already used that type of cap. I've just bent the pins straight, removed the black socket and soldered it to the board, finito.

New ones.

Hi Thomas,

goldNSX said:

New ones.
View attachment 153875

Click to expand...

i noticed their specs to be only 20v and the originals are 25v...
is it ok to use these lower voltage ones?

i have currently here one to repair for a local friend... the caps are busted.

EDIT: can you send me a image of the back of the circuit board?
in this board, the IC2 has 2 legs soldered together, and i need to know if it's
supposed to or if someone already messed with it.

Thanks,
Nuno

EDIT: just got to their specs, they're even 50V.

Good luck fixing it. The IC is prone to fail if the cap fails. I hope you can solve it. Please report back. In some European countries, the headlight adjuster HAS to function. It's not available separately AFAIK. You have to buy a new headlight unit which is discontinued (again AFAIK) and some second hand dealers try to make gold out of used units...

Please send me your email and I'll send you all pics.