Waddy2001

Update: over the summer I took the glove box out, exposed the BCM, fiddled with the wires but nothing. A month ago, I changed the battery. When I installed it, I was surprised to see the underhood light come on. Dash worked for a while so I know it's still in good shape. On reflection, I must have joggled either the negative or positive battery wires. Come spring, I'll revisit those to see if there is a loose wire somewhere. I'm willing to bet that this will solve my problem. Have a good winter, mates!

Good to know. Thanks, mate. There was an old post here about a guy fiddling with the ECM to get the dashlights back on, hence the wild good chase. Thanks to everyone for their input.

The problem of the dashlights isn't solved. I thought you wanted this thread to pertain to the original question: Where is the ECM located? That was answered but the secondary problem still exists.

Locating the ECM, done. Trying to get the dashlights to work. That is the problem. The original post was to find the ECM in case that controlled the dashlights. Might as well close this, as the problem has been solved, more or less. Thanks for all your help, crew.

On my 1988 Reatta, the coil pack was replaced right off the bat. That coil pack had like a gel on the bottom of it, like glycerin if you get the idea. That mechanic was good, worked on many classic cars and the coil pack was supposedly OEM. It failed last summer. My new mechanic replaced the coil pack saying, "It had all this gooey stuff on the bottom". The one he installed is all metal, the base has small fins on the surface. Has anyone encountered something like this? Unless the gel, which was quite thick, was silicone, it would never stand the heat. Just curious, nothing vital. The new pack is working fine. Thanks.

Turns out the wing nuts were loose, there was only one screw holding the cover up so I'm guessing the previous owner has already checked out the ECM. Other than jiggling connectors, what else should I be doing? Spraying contact cleaner on them? I don't want to pull the ECM down, it's so damn tight in there. After charging the battery overnight, I got the dash lights on this morning. No lightshow, just the dash lights then they went out. I have the battery disconnected while I'm jiggling things, that's probably safer, right?

Last two days you couldn't breath outside, hot and very humid. Much cooler now. I don't have a garage, unfortunately.

Update, sort of. I went to take the Reatta for a drive this morning. Dead battery, well not enough to turn the engine over but live enough to, guess what, show my half of the dash, the gas gauge side. The cassette deck also decided to spin. Very odd, I'd say but it gave me hope to know the dash isn't kaput. This week looks good to work on it as it won't be too hot.

Yes, tried that near the beginning of this. Thanks!

OK, that would be lot easier to change/check. I'll do that first if I can find a replacement. Thanks!

The dash used to be intermittent. There'd be a click, coming from one of the fuses on the other side of the center column, and the lights would go out. Then they'd come on again for a while, another click and they're out. To me that means that there is a connection problem. By dash I mean the speedometer/gas 'gage'/etc. The CRT works now and then, no touch just a display. I used to get the light show but after about two years, most of which was spent in storage, there is nothing. To be honest, I don't think it's the display itself, I think it's something before that. When it worked, the full diagnostic after the light show, showed nothing wrong. The intermittent thing has been going on since day 1 but I was too dumb to ask the previous owner what the problem was. I'll post back once I get my hands on the ECM and jiggle the connectors, contact cleaner too. Thanks for responding.

Thanks, Barney. I don't have a spare. This is a last ditch effort to get the dash working. It was intermittent for a long time then stopped working completely. The CRT works occasionally. If jiggling/cleaning the ECM connectors doesn't work, I'll get rid of the car. I love it, don't get me wrong. It's beautiful to drive but I've spent too much money on it already. I'll see what the wing nuts look like then probably try your idea. Thanks again.

I'm guessing you'd have to be a contortionist to get at this area. Thanks, all. I think I'm good to go now. Cheers!

I must be dyslexic. I read 'firewall', not footwell. Thanks.

OK thanks. So I have to take the glove box out, right? I think I tried that a couple of years ago with no luck. I'll see what I can do. Thanks again.

Hi crew. I've read here that the '89 ECM is on the passenger side, something like 'where the feet would be'. The repair manual makes it look like the ECM is behind the glove box. The Reatta Owner's Journal says it can be accessed from the engine compartment. All I want to do is get my dash working again and I've read here, I believe, that this can be accomplished by cleaning the contacts. I'm recently widowed, it's been six months, and I feel I'm now able to work this out. Any help I can get would be great. There was a link to a JPG on here for an '89 but that doesn't work now. Thanks in advance. I really appreciate any help I can get.

Absolutely correct, Kingsley. It was my fault all along because I didn't read the '1/4' socket part. Looking back, I think I was too stressed about screwing up those bolts and didn't read the directions clearly. Since I wanted the socket to be exactly the right one, my eyes say 8/32nds not 8-32. Apology from me.

Yes, that was the problem. I tried to delete that earlier post (out of embarrassment) but you caught it! When I took the driver's side apart, it looked to me like the plastic gear was solid but a phone call to Kingsley sorted that out. Once I got the plastic gear off, I could see where the rollers were. Strange thing is that a previous owner, there have been 15 or so, must have tried to fix this. There was grease everywhere and some of it had kind of jellied, hard little beads in places. I cleaned that up, put the rollers in and it went back smoothly. Tapping the shaft with a piece of firewood did the trick. I'll post pics of the red dots and the round hole in the crankarm later. Back to installing this now while the weather is good. Thanks for the tip, Ronnie.

I just rebuilt the passenger side today, driver's side on the next good weather day. I searched for 'red dot reatta' and this thread came up. To help future readers, I'll give some tips that would have helped me do the job faster and I'll explain the red dots as best I can. 1. The headlight covers, the things that are the same color as the body of the car, are held on by studs with nuts towards the front. When you're undoing the nuts, first step, the stud may or may not come out instead. Doesn't matter which happens. I had three studs out and one nut off. You didn't break something if the stud comes out. I would recommend not going crazy tightening these, the part of the cover that accepts the studs looks like soft and/or cast aluminum, maybe easily stripped. 2. The instructions I had called for an 8/32nds socket to remove the three nuts on the motor housing. Any math expert will know that this socket doesn't exist. The lowest common denominator is 1/4 so that's the size you use. I sprayed liquid wrench on the nuts, went to the tool store to look for an 8/32nds socket, had an epiphany and headed back home to get the 1/4 inch socket out. Edit: I misread the instructions. They clearly state that you need a 1.4 inch sockets. By then, the nuts were free and easy to remove. I don't know if the spray did the trick but the job wasn't as tough as the instructions made it seem. Maybe I was just lucky. 3. Since this was the passenger side, the shaft and white plastic gear were a real bu**er to get out. Put the motor in a vice and tighten the nut on the end of the shaft, the one you have to take off to get the top housing off the motor. MAKE SURE YOU TIGHTEN THAT NUT QUITE FAR DOWN THE THREADED END. Why? Because I only tightened the nut a few turns and pulled the thing off when I was tugging it with vice grips. This stripped the first few threads. I hope this doesn't affect anything but there are threads sticking out past the nut so it should be OK. 4. Once the shaft and white plastic gear are out, you should see the mess that the old rollers made. It's just plastic dust but clean it all out, use a toothbrush. Knock the gear against something to get the dust out of the inside depressions. 5. The red dots. Feel that end of the roller right at the red dot for the slight bevel. Hold the gear with the bottom up, reverse of the way it came out of the motor housing. Place the three rollers in the three spaces with the red dot facing up and precisely towards the small hole in the center. Make sure the rollers are tight to the outside of the gear. You're going to put the shaft through the hole, right? The bevels are there to provide a slope for the wider end of the shaft to push out against. If the rollers had a 90 degree edge, you'd push forever and not get the shaft in. The bevels work perfectly and it's a snap to get the shaft back through the white plastic gear. 6. Once you've greased the worm gear cavity, turn the black knob to spread the grease completely over the face of the metal gear. By doing that, you're insuring that the white plastic gear will get past the metal gear more easily. Remember the passenger side has the rim behind the teeth. Mine snapped in very easily so again, I'm lucky I guess. If I find anything different or crazy on the driver's side, I'll post about that in an edit here. My repair kit had two plastic grommets for each side but I can't see where these go. There is a similar grommet on the headlight assembly but it is just hanging in the breeze, nothing near it. Oh, the kit I bought came with a new snap ring and a new shaft nut plus the usual other parts. I don't know if I should put the name of the vendor here or not but they're in Texas, if that helps anyone track them down. Last few tips: If your headlight doors slam shut when you turn off the headlights, I'd bet that the rollers are on their way out. My '88's doors slammed shut then suddenly just stopped opening. If the motor isn't whining as it tries to do its work, your problem is electrical. If you open the hood then turn the manual opening knob while lifting up on the headlight cover, the lights will open and your job will be a breeze, more or less. If the doors don't open, I have no idea how you'd fix them. Good luck! Second Edit: Everything in the rebuild so far has been measured in metric, almost always 10 mm or the 30 mm Torx. The only Imperial measure is the 8/3nd inch socket mentioned above. It goes without saying, I hope, that you'll need a set of metric sockets and tools to do the job. Don't use an Imperial tool on a metric nut, even if it seems to fit. You'll only strip the head and be stuck with an even bigger problem. (Might sound like Captain Obvious but it's been done many times before, I'm sure.) Third Edit: Added photos showing the placement of the red dotted rollers. This is the driver's side motor. The white plastic gear has to be separated from the shaft assembly. Hold the gear in one hand and lightly tap the end of the shaft with a piece of wood. Don't use a hammer or anything metal. Third photo shows the rounded out holes, part of the headlight door problem. Fourth photo is the rollers that were in the driver's side motor. They look OK but the door wouldn't open. Someone had put a square washer over the rounded hole in some previous fix. Worked for a while, I guess. Finally, end of saga, the headlights work perfectly now. Thanks to all for the tips and information. By the way, the doors now sit flush with the hood of the car. The left one sat up a bit before so something wasn't closing right. If your doors are a bit cockeyed, maybe the motors need to be rebuilt.

Oooops, that's embarrassing. It sure doesn't look like steel to me but it seems it is. The color is very different as if the material accepts the paint differently, hence the fiberglass idea. No custom hood but maybe some body work since one of the shock/hood supports is white. No evidence of any other damage though. Anyway, thanks for setting me straight on that. Nicely.

OK, I thought of doing the same thing, getting a non-power antenna and trying it. I've got a Cavalier that I'm not using so maybe I can borrow its antenna for a trial. I thought there was something inside the antenna, not sure why, but your explanation makes sense. Thanks. On a side note, nice day yesterday so I thought I'd go for a drive. Started it up, no lightshow. Hmmmm. Drove off, lights came on after about three minutes with the corresponding click on the right side of the console where the fuses/relays are. Drove around a fair bit and the lights stayed on the whole time. I don't know if this gives up any more clues for you doctors of Reattas out there but it seemed curious to me. There's almost always a lightshow. The anti-theft was on, as far as I know, because I used the power lock button to lock the doors. Here's a tip for anyone who reads this, my hood was very dull. If you have a red Reatta, you know what I mean. Oxidized is the term, I think. That color is known for fading plus the hood is fiberglass as you know so it's like a double whammy. My son had a bottle of Meguiar's Ultimate Compound for some guitar project and suggested I try it on the hood. Wow, what a difference! I didn't do the whole thing, just to see if it worked and lasted. It has so far. I'll do the rest and some plastic on the lower back, below the bumper, which has faded the same way. (No affiliation with the company at all but it does work.) Wax on top, I guess, and then it will look brand new again. The difference is startling.

Thanks for the tip. My antenna works well but I assumed that something in it broke as it rolled out and in again. I was planning on disconnecting it and trying to find a signal with something else, just to see if anything came out of the radio. Even if there is a weak signal, I will check out a new antenna, maybe shorter, that isn't powered. I'll check out Barney's post(s) too. Shipping north to south can be a pain, as in Canada to the U.S. The antenna that's there now has enough black electrical tape around it to sink a battleship so someone along the way (15 owners) tried to fix things. I know the quality won't be there but a little staticky AC/DC might make my cruising more fun.

Thanks for the tips. The radio buzzes so I think it works but the antenna is probably shot. Used to be you could pick up an antenna for cheap at the local parts store but the big one here doesn't have any. I'll try a coat hanger or similar to get some stations then work from there. I tried a cassette but the gears just clicked and clicked even though the tape seemed to work with a pencil. I figure if it hisses or has static then the ground might be OK. Good lead though.

I'm pretty sure the photocell is bad/gone but as long as the lights work, I'm happy. I don't drive much at night since it's a summer car. It's light here till well after 9 May through August pretty much. As for the diagnostics...I'll have to study the manual. I can build computers, fix cars but programming a cell phone or doing the diagnostics might be above me. Hahaha.

I'm pretty sure the photocell is bad/gone but as long as the lights work, I'm happy. I don't drive much at night since it's a summer car. It's light here till well after 9 May through August pretty much. As for the diagnostics...I'll have to study the manual. I can build computers, fix cars but programming a cell phone or doing the diagnostics might be above me. Hahaha.