popup headlamp malfunction

[vinnyricci]

hello 8'ers. when i put my pop up headlamps on, only the left side popped up but the right side does not. the lights coming out of the headlamps work fine and come on with the headlight switch up but the right side won't pop back down after i flip the switch off. has anyone had this problem before or can tell me what they think could be going on. thanks

[Timm]

The most likely candidate is K39 - the headlight relay:

http://www.meeknet.co.uk/e31/Timms_B...lay_Finder.htm

It contains a PCB with a small amount of electronics and the relays - the joints on the PCB fatigue after a while and can usually be successfully re-flowed. The fatigued joints are not immediately obvious, so get out the flux and soldering iron and all will be fine afterwards!

[adwebinc]

Yes. It is typically the green headlight relays. The solder just get tiny micro cracks. Get someone to give you a hand and lightly press down on the pop up relay in the engine compartment relay box while they are operating the headlights. Sometimes you can get the solder joints to make contact to verify that's the issue.

If you are a DIYer, there is a write up in this forum somewhere on how to reflow the solder to correct the issue. Not complicated, but a bit of a delicate operation. Why would someone go to those lengths to fix a cheap little relay instead of replacing it you say? Well, unfortunately, these headlight relays for our cars (3 in total) are around $175 EACH!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[vet73]

Yep, at least $180 or so to buy new. It took all of 10 minutes to reflow the solder. I could not see any cracks or corrosion but reflowing immediately cured this problem. Try it!

[bdiefAZ]

We have had great results re-flowing the solder as well on 3 cars here in AZ