Hi there, i have a 1979 308 GTS. last autumn a guy reversed into my front bumper, no biggie, into the shop and out she came. since then the front headlights bobb / shake up and down continuously, at a much higher frequency than the road movement. They also work themselves lower and lower within a minute or 2 and sometimes one collapses completely then pops back up. it took an age to get it in and out of the shop the first time, is this something i can fix at home, if so how? any ideas would be appreciated, thanks.
Take a look in the 308 section where there should be threads about headlamp adjustment Its also worth removing checking and re-inserting the relay controlling the headlamp motors If you're lucky its just a loose screw but I don't know for sure
Disconnect the battery first, then take a look to see if the body shop left the up/down levers loose. If that is ok then check any wiring in the front, especially grounds. Body shops often have trouble dealing with electrical stuff or so it seems here given the number of miswired headlights on cars on the road. Gerrit http://dino308gt4.com Have you hugged your car today?
Right, this is how it went. Firstly replacing the relays didnt do much. Getting a birdman fusebox did. I didnt realise just how unstable the old fuses are. going over a decent roadway bump is almost guaranteed to unseat a few fuses, if only momentarily. The best thing about the fusebox is you have (relatively) modern glass fuses that are firmly clamped in place. This stopped the headlights fully retracting and popping up over bumps. i was also amazed at how much crud had collected inside the old fuseboxes. the car felt better under the throttle from what was clearly a better spark, headliogth are brighter and the windows were quicker. Guys, get a new fusebox. That said problem was more mechanical. one worn and one missing bush under the lifting levers. i spent some time playing with these, and just ended up wrapping one in tight cloth tape until i get around to ordering a new set from ferrari.
I don't think the fuses are the issue but rivet which holds the conductive bits together. Poor design destined for failure, the rivets hold the electrical parts onto a plastic holder. In time, the plastic shrinks the tiniest bit under the compression and the when parts are no longer held tightly together the resistance goes up ever so slightly, causing IR heating at the junction those conductive bits. Voltage comes in at #1, bound to #2, then to #3, where the constant 10 or so amps of the fuel pump agrivates the problem at 1,2,3 rivets. This causes the plastic at 1,2,3 fuse top to shrink even more, raising the resistance even more and soon the heating, evidenced by discoloration and the added resistance is enough to drop the battery voltage several volts to all components on that fuse which affects virtually everything on the car. Yes, all 308s are candidates for an attack of fuse-block-itis.
