One headlight pod staying up

[Finlandese]

After finishing my mass sacrifice of fuses, I am faced with another problem. The the pop up headlights work logically from the light switch and the flash function works too. Except that the drivers side (LHD formerly RHD) will not come down, either by the light switch or the flash function. It would seem to hint at the direction of the headlight motor itself. When driving the pod down manually, there does not seem to be any unusual resistance. Has anyone had a similar experience? 

Edited September 15, 2023 by Finlandese

[Finlandese]

A bit of lunchtime tinkering: Managed to get a small downward movement from the problem pod. It tries to get down but stops. This happened after using connector cleaning spray to the motor connectors. Must try harder... 🙂

[drdoom]

Jani you may have to get into the motor internals by the time this is sorted. It's possible there is a fault in the internal switching which is designed take over power supply for the partial rotation to subsequent position after a change of control switch state ( headlamp or flash ). If not too difficult, swap the motors side-side as that will indicate whether the trouble is internal.

Cheers

[Finlandese]

I took the functioning one off and hooked it up to the non-functioning side connector. No reaction at all. So, my problem seems to be with the power supply to the motor.

I have been suspicious of the change over relay connections, but the I should be able to drive the pod down withe flash function. 
 

If I drive the pod down manually and the reverse the upward movement when taking them up again, the pod will retract. So it is getting power for getting down. It’s just not doing it from the full up postion or goes down only a small fraction of the travel.

Edited September 16, 2023 by Finlandese

[Finlandese]

Silly f*cking me again... When I tried the headlight motor at first I connected only the three terminal connector, as that is the way I always have secured the pod motors, when working on that area. When I connected the two single port terminals,the passenger side motor worked perfectly on the drivers side.

So it was the motor, and after opening it, I found out the diode for the green and brown wire loose inside the diode. Next I need to figure out, is this a hen´s teeth diode, or one that I can find from any electrical component store here in Finland.. 

Thank´s Steve for your advice. 🙂

[Escape]

Good find! Always nice when you pinpoint a failure and know an (easy) repair is possible.

Any diode with an appropriate rating should do the job, it's only there to prevent a back feed.

[Finlandese]

The strength of the Lotus community, as that most owners work on their cars by themselves and are happy to share that knowledge with others. I write a column for a Finnish classic car magazine about maintaining my fleet, while not being a know it all mechanic. The purpose of this column is to encourage others to to do likewise. To not be afraid of getting their dream car.

I found this good write up from the wedge engineering. 

http://www.wedgeneering.co.uk/Headlamp horrors.htm

Off to buy a diode (or two) tomorrow. 🙂

[Finlandese]

Changed the diode, and now everything works perfectly! 🙂

Edited September 18, 2023 by Finlandese