why are my 355 headlight going up & down when car is turned off | FerrariChat

why are my 355 headlight going up & down when car is turned off

Discussion in 'Technical Q&A' started by mw10980, Jun 4, 2004.

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  1. mw10980

    mw10980 Rookie

    Apr 15, 2004
    2
    #1 mw10980, Jun 4, 2004
    Hello I have a 95 355 spider and I have been having problems with the headlight motors running consistintley when car is turned off. One day I came back from work and saw the lights were going up and down, up and down, up and down, thay were going crazy. I turned of the main power to the fuse box because it is the only way to stop this. I have called some dealers thay advised I clean and check my conections so I did I cleaned and greased my conections with dielectric grease to keep moister out I even waterproffed all conections with shrinkwrap tubing. I have been having this problem for about 3 months now and find out that the light motors will start acting up when I wash the car, infact it will only act up when I wash the car. I have checked all wires and conections and dont see what is trigering this problem please if you have had this problem before or know if there is a switch of some kind I should replace please let me know.

    Thanks for everyones help and talk to ya later.
     
  2. vincent355

    vincent355 F1 Veteran
    Rossa Subscribed

    Apr 8, 2003
    6,325
    Wine Country
    Full Name:
    Vincent
    #2 vincent355, Jun 4, 2004
    Do you have an alarm on this car?
     
  3. mw10980

    mw10980 Rookie

    Apr 15, 2004
    2
    #3 mw10980, Jun 4, 2004

    Yes it has a unco alarm but I it was not working when I bought the car I bought car wrecked and fixed it.
     
  4. f355spider

    f355spider F1 World Champ
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    May 29, 2001
    17,937
    USA
    #4 f355spider, Jun 4, 2004
    Try disconnecting power to the alarm, and see if this helps. My mechanic has said he finds all sorts of light, horn and door lock issues from poor alarm installs. Good advice from Vincent to start there....
     
  5. Miltonian

    Miltonian F1 Veteran

    Dec 11, 2002
    5,966
    Milton, Wash.
    Full Name:
    Jeff B.
    #5 Miltonian, Jun 4, 2004
    Just taking a quick look at the relay diagram for my 348, I see that there is one "control relay for actuating headlamp lift", one relay for "LH headlamp lifting motor" and one relay for "RH headlamp lifting motor". So if both headlamps are going up by themselves, it would seem highly possible that the first of these relays might be bad, or you are getting a false signal to this relay (assuming that the 348 and 355 systems are the same). All three of these relays have the same Bosch part number (0332204101). Do the headlamps ever come up by themselves when you are driving, or only when the car is shut off? (Edit: it only happens when you wash the car). Still quite possible that the alarm system wiring could be screwy, if it is hooked into the lights.

    It shouldn't be necessary to turn off the power to the fuse panel. Just unplug the relay.
     
  6. ernie

    ernie Two Time F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa Owner

    Nov 19, 2001
    22,575
    The Brickyard
    Full Name:
    The Bad Guy
    #6 ernie, Jun 5, 2004
    It sounds like you could have a short somewere in the wiring. As the others said have a look at the alarm system. Better yet just take it out altogether. Then if that doesn't fix the problem get into the wires. The wiring for the head lights can be accessed from under the car. You will have to take off the pannels on the bottom that run from the front bumper to the wheel well. Once you have those off you'll be able to look up and see the connections for the head lights. There should be three of them one for the motor, one for the head light, and the other for the flog light. They are simple two prong connections. They just pull apart. There will be a male and female connection on each connection. Make sure that those are clean and making good contact. Also there are covers that are supposed to be clipped over the connections. Check to see if they are on. If they aren't that could be what is causing the lights to go up and down when is is getting washed. There isn't anything to stop the water from getting in that area. The only thing that is protected is the actual motor to lift the lights. They sprayed them with a sealer. If that doesn't fix the problem you will want to look at the relays that are inside the trunk area. You will have to take off the top liner of the trunk to get to them. Underneith the cover should be a diagram of were each regulator is located. After you find them look to make sure everything is hooked up proper, and that no wires are touching. The other place you can look is on the actual headlight switch on the stearing column. To get to it you will have to take off the instrument pannel housing. There are two screws that hold it in place on the bottom corners of the housing. Take those off and then lift the housing up. That will make it easier to take off the column cover. Next from under the column you will need to take off the six screws that hold the cover in place. There are four that hold the cover together, and two that hold the cover to the column. Remove the four screws that are on the outside bottom corners of the cover. You can then try to lift off the top of the stearing column cover. If you need more room then you can take of the two screws that are in the middle and remove the whole thing. After you have that off you will be able to see the switch for the lights. Look and see that the wires are hooked up properly, and that the switch is functioning correctly. Hope I was of some help.
     

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