Technical Headlight motor noise

[Austin09]

I have a constant noise coming from my left headlight. The dipped beam bulb blew the other day and when i was looking at it to check i noticed that when the headlights were turned it there was a motor noise coming from my left cluster which didn't stop.
From what i've read up its the headlight aligning motor which is set to the country the car is sold it. Once the headlight is moved to the correct position the motor cuts out. Unfortunately this isn't happening on mine so for now i've taken out the fuse to prevent the motor from getting burnt out.

I will replace the blown bulb tonight but i can't see where the motor is and how i would cure this problem. Just wandering if everyone elses carries on making a noise after the headlights are aligned correctly or whether i have a connection problem or something.

Thanks

 

[Ffoxy]

I have a constant noise coming from my left headlight. The dipped beam bulb blew the other day and when i was looking at it to check i noticed that when the headlights were turned it there was a motor noise coming from my left cluster which didn't stop.
From what i've read up its the headlight aligning motor which is set to the country the car is sold it. Once the headlight is moved to the correct position the motor cuts out. Unfortunately this isn't happening on mine so for now i've taken out the fuse to prevent the motor from getting burnt out.

I will replace the blown bulb tonight but i can't see where the motor is and how i would cure this problem. Just wandering if everyone elses carries on making a noise after the headlights are aligned correctly or whether i have a connection problem or something.

Thanks

Left headlight... from the drivers seat or standing in front of the car? If its the drivers side thats the easy one to do, remove the wheel, inner arch, slacken off and pop back the washer bottle and you can get in OK.

Passenger side on a UK car is a tad more difficult... some remove the bumper.... You might find the motor is running constantly because it has become disconnected from the reflector / light unit & needs fixing back in.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

You'll need to replace the motor.

Here.

 

[Argonought]

I've also noticed that simply adjusting the lights up and down a bit with the dash control can sometimes stop this noise before selecting '0' again.

Obviously if one of the headlamps doesn't move then you have a problem that needs sorting anyway.

 

[mzhussein]

i had this problem so i investigated further!!

such is the construction of the lil motor that: the motor turns which pushes the white thing out which tilts the headlight, how does it know how far u say? well on the other end of the white thing (which is threaded and sits in a threaded collet coupled to the motor) is a holder which grips onto a lil pole, which sits on a resistive track. now my guess is the 3 levels correspond to three resistance levels, and it judges the position byt he resistance value.....

the cause of the porblem you have is that the little stick attached to the resistive track has broken off, so according to the resistance values it aint moving, so will continue to turn....mush bad ness, as eventually the white thing will leave its collet and is impossible to get back in without mangling it.....

long story short, get a headlight from scrappies for £20 and do a swap, cos the motor from fiat will make you cry...

 

[Bolty]

I have this problem also. Crikey, what problems don't I have?! Its seems that after 100k these things all go tits up!

 

[mzhussein]

lol ive only done 45k!!!!! and my problem list is a thing of beauty.....

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

long story short, get a headlight from scrappies for £20 and do a swap, cos the motor from fiat will make you cry...

Be lucky to get a headlamp unit for £20 lol.

How much do Fiat charge for them?

 

[Davren]

Be lucky to get a headlamp unit for £20 lol.

How much do Fiat charge for them?

£130 for normal headlamp, £160 for headlamp with foglamp, £846 for gas discharge each, mine.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Sorry, ment motors

 

[Davren]

Ahhh.... just the motors. Filament headlamps £69 each, gas discharge headlamps £62 each.

 

[mzhussein]

redcorn breakers in north london, depending on the guys mood, headlights (with covers motors and bulbs) range from £20 - £35

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Ahhh.... just the motors. Filament headlamps £69 each, gas discharge headlamps £62 each.

I might have some spare though luckily

Might be worth taking old motors apart first though, as I'm sure its just PCB surface corossion that causes the wineing issue.

 

[mzhussein]

yeh. i think corossion caused a short which caused the white thing to break the stick on the track....the corossion was UNBELIVEABLEcompletley caked.....

 

[Austin09]

Wow thanks guys i didn't expect anywhere near as much advice as that!!
It is on the passenger side sorry i should have said. I managed to change the bulb just now without removing the wheel arch lining and yes the noise is still going on.
The drivers side noise stops after a little while and i've tried changing the position from 0-3 and back again but no luck. It sound like the motor is turning with no connection so it does seem that yes something is broken

I'll take the wheel arch lining off now and have a look at the motors and hopefully come back in an hour or so with pictures. I am not too bothered about having the headlight adjustment feature so long as the motor doesn't keep turning and burns out the fuse!!

I take it the easiest thing to do right now then is to remove the whole light cluster to access the motor?
Thanks

 

[Austin09]

Actually i've decided to do it at the weekend now. The motor is definately turning but i would suspect that one of the white plastic parts has broken so i'll call fiat and a few breakers tomorrow. Is the easiest way to take the headlight cluster out to remove the bumper? Or could i remove the battery tray easily?

There was me thinking i'd save time just changing the bulb without taking anything apart and now i've created a new problem!!

 

[Davren]

To remove the headlamp, you have to take the bumper off. The fixing screws and retaining clamp are behind it.

There have been several threads mentioning that some Ford cars use a similar motor that can be used for the Stilo with some modification. If you use the Advanced Search to search for "Ford Adjuster" and limit the search to Stilo section, you should find which model Fords and what modification is neccessary. It may be easier to find a Ford one in a breakers.

 

[mzhussein]

the easiest way to get rid of the noise till u can fix it is to unplug the thing, can be doen without any strange contortions, dont get headlights off fleabay, they seem to all think there all made of gold and charge likewise, find a large breakers like brantwood or redcorn and theyll charge as if its just another car.

 

[Austin09]

Ok thanks. Is it a hard job to change the motor over if i went down the route of getting a new motor? Or should i just search around for a complete passenger side cluster? I have fog lights in mine and there aren't any like that on ebay anyway

Cheers

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Sounds like you need a pair of replacement motors.

Ok thanks. Is it a hard job to change the motor over if i went down the route of getting a new motor? Or should i just search around for a complete passenger side cluster? I have fog lights in mine and there aren't any like that on ebay anyway

Cheers

Light unit out, and 2 screw as per my previous pic's

Better off getting replacement motors. Used mine from sister broken mk3 Panda headlamp units.

Most 'used' lights have fogs as they were fitted as standard on UK spec Stilos (except those with factory fit HID's) as far as I'm aware. New units for sale tend to be where people have incorrectly brought them in the first place.