Well, I am sending this out to help others and probably myself should I forget! So, I've owned my 90 VNT since Feb 1990, I had a pop up headlight issue many years ago, bout 15 give or take. I remember opening un the relay box, on the 90's its under the drivers side dash. Anyway, I couldn't remember what I did to fix it but I resealed it so Fast Forward to November 2015 and my cars been in storage 9 years, Yes 9 years. So taking care of the little bugs, all seems finally fine and then with my car in the Hanger while I am working on our company plane the Alarm goes off, Headlights pop up, hmm , Alarm resets but then quickly goes off again. The Parking lights flash when it goes off but doesn't pop the headlights up, not the way I wired it. Anyway, I take a look, put the alarm in override (Off). Puzzled, thinking my Alarm has issues. But my door locks are acting erratic, vibrating, hmm. So I pull the BCM, slight corrosion of the pins and plugs, I clean them, lock issues resolved. Put it all back in. I reactivate the alarm, no issues. I figured the vibrating locks caused the alarm to trigger and I was right, Clifford alarm, its sensitive.
Now my headlights still won't work?!?!? Still stuck up?? Make matters worse the wiper delay won't work either, but I hear the relay clicking in the BCM for the wiper delay while the wiper does work in slow and fast, doesn't in delay, just hear the clicking. So back to the BCM and a wiggle of the plug while the wiper delay was on, and relay clicking and the wipers come back to life on delay so I recleaned the plugs yet again. What a pain, this time a brass soft brush and scrubbed it clean again and a lot of contact cleaner! So now that's working (wipers) but headlights still not working (Up and Down).
SO I head for the Headlight relay box, I unplug it and the power lead on the connector and relay box was green! I clean it, thinking I found the problem but after a very thorough cleaning still nothing! I take it apart again, and pull out all the rubber urethane, resolder everything, still nothing BUT I hear the relays clicking when they should but I also hear another relay, that's when I remembered!
There is another relay in the relay box mounted to the left and just above of the drivers feet! I started to pull the relay when the pop ups started working! A pain to get to but I pulled it and reinserting it several times which would clean the contact points and pop ups work again. Same thing I did 15 plus years ago after I opened the replay box , concealed headlamp module, and found nothing, then resealing it! I just forgot what I had done!
So, lesson to this, a bad connection due a dirty corrosion plug, can go off all by itself with no one even touching it! Check all the connections, clean really well, spray lube, clean again, I'd use some dielectric grease such and Dow Corning DC-4. Last, I did a search, Google, Yahoo, to refresh my memory, which obviously I've lost some, and I found no mention of the relay located in the relay panel where all the relays are located for the pop up head lights. All I could find was the Headlight switch issue on the 89's and older, Relay box issues for both the 89 and earlier and the 90's, As well as Check the BCM and that was it. Nothing on this other relay. If BOTH pop up headlights go out, you hear the clicking , I'd check this relay.
I did have a rubber drive that's inside the pop up motors shear off once, old and dry rotted but that's another story, the head light popped up half way and then stopped or would go down half way and the stop!
I hope this helps others and myself should I forget!
UPDATE,
It went out again, lights went up and stayed up! After looking at the Schematics , the relay that I wiggled previously were to power the lights, nothing more. So, I could hear the relays clicking in the Head Light Relay box, figured the BCM was sending the signal or the relays wouldn't be clicking. Thought possibly dirty/worn relay contacts points as I cleaned the connectors that were dirty and re-soldered the relays.
So I ordered a second BCM from Arizona's Parts Marty, as I didn't have a spare and was hunting one down anyway. I also searched all over for the Headlight relay box in the dash over the drivers feet. Arizona had one, used, but can you believe I found a NOS one in the original box in all of places on Frances ebay site?!?! Well, the BCM came in first from Arizona, popped it in and same results, headlights didn't work. Then finally the NOS Headlight Relay Box arrived from France and $110 Euro's later. Popped it in and was good to go.
I have the P/N (Part Number) for the internal relays in the Headlight relay box. Its a Potter & Brumfield relays P/N T90S5D12-9-02. They are available on line but with Lead times of 8 weeks or more. I may order at least a dozen , repair my old box and see if anyone wants their box repaired as well.
I hope this helps others! Thanks NAJ for the Schematics!
Now my headlights still won't work?!?!? Still stuck up?? Make matters worse the wiper delay won't work either, but I hear the relay clicking in the BCM for the wiper delay while the wiper does work in slow and fast, doesn't in delay, just hear the clicking. So back to the BCM and a wiggle of the plug while the wiper delay was on, and relay clicking and the wipers come back to life on delay so I recleaned the plugs yet again. What a pain, this time a brass soft brush and scrubbed it clean again and a lot of contact cleaner! So now that's working (wipers) but headlights still not working (Up and Down).
SO I head for the Headlight relay box, I unplug it and the power lead on the connector and relay box was green! I clean it, thinking I found the problem but after a very thorough cleaning still nothing! I take it apart again, and pull out all the rubber urethane, resolder everything, still nothing BUT I hear the relays clicking when they should but I also hear another relay, that's when I remembered!
There is another relay in the relay box mounted to the left and just above of the drivers feet! I started to pull the relay when the pop ups started working! A pain to get to but I pulled it and reinserting it several times which would clean the contact points and pop ups work again. Same thing I did 15 plus years ago after I opened the replay box , concealed headlamp module, and found nothing, then resealing it! I just forgot what I had done!
So, lesson to this, a bad connection due a dirty corrosion plug, can go off all by itself with no one even touching it! Check all the connections, clean really well, spray lube, clean again, I'd use some dielectric grease such and Dow Corning DC-4. Last, I did a search, Google, Yahoo, to refresh my memory, which obviously I've lost some, and I found no mention of the relay located in the relay panel where all the relays are located for the pop up head lights. All I could find was the Headlight switch issue on the 89's and older, Relay box issues for both the 89 and earlier and the 90's, As well as Check the BCM and that was it. Nothing on this other relay. If BOTH pop up headlights go out, you hear the clicking , I'd check this relay.
I did have a rubber drive that's inside the pop up motors shear off once, old and dry rotted but that's another story, the head light popped up half way and then stopped or would go down half way and the stop!
I hope this helps others and myself should I forget!
UPDATE,
It went out again, lights went up and stayed up! After looking at the Schematics , the relay that I wiggled previously were to power the lights, nothing more. So, I could hear the relays clicking in the Head Light Relay box, figured the BCM was sending the signal or the relays wouldn't be clicking. Thought possibly dirty/worn relay contacts points as I cleaned the connectors that were dirty and re-soldered the relays.
So I ordered a second BCM from Arizona's Parts Marty, as I didn't have a spare and was hunting one down anyway. I also searched all over for the Headlight relay box in the dash over the drivers feet. Arizona had one, used, but can you believe I found a NOS one in the original box in all of places on Frances ebay site?!?! Well, the BCM came in first from Arizona, popped it in and same results, headlights didn't work. Then finally the NOS Headlight Relay Box arrived from France and $110 Euro's later. Popped it in and was good to go.
I have the P/N (Part Number) for the internal relays in the Headlight relay box. Its a Potter & Brumfield relays P/N T90S5D12-9-02. They are available on line but with Lead times of 8 weeks or more. I may order at least a dozen , repair my old box and see if anyone wants their box repaired as well.
I hope this helps others! Thanks NAJ for the Schematics!
