Hi all,

The headlights on my 2000 Sunfire do not work. I do not get hi, lo, or DRL at all. All other lights work. I looked at the two fuses in the fuse block and they look good. I also swapped in a new DRL to see if it would correct the problem and it did not work. I pulled the lamps and looked at the bulbs and they appear t be working as well. It seemed to take place after rinsing off the engine (while cold). The car runs fine. Any ideas would be appreciated before I take it to the dealer.

Thx!

Try cleaning the ground that is under the battery tray. Not the one on the tray, under it , on the frame rail. That has the ground for the lights in it. Clean the ground pack ring and the frame. You might want to take the end off of the ground pack, pry the top part off that is not black, see if all of the pins are clean. I have seen battery acid eat away at the pins causing excessive corrosion. You should use some die-electric grease for this ground because of the potential corrosion problems.
Im not saying this is exactly whats wrong, but Its a good start to finding the solution.


01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e

hi,

thx for the info. i pulled the batt and there is allot of corrosion. i cleaned it up. i cannot seem to remove the battery tray to get to the frame mounted ground you mention. is this correct? do i need to go underneath? there is also a large block with wires coming in and out on both ends that was up under the tray. it had allot of stuff on it as well. thx!

i found out how to get to the ground and i pulled the bolt and cleaned it and the ground connector up. i also cleaned the frame. i greased it and installed it. still a no go on the headlights. the DRL dont work either. is there another connection that i should look at?

just thought i would add this - i installed a new DRL but still no headlights or DRL. when i had her pull the lever to go between hi and lo all the marker lights and tail lights blinked along with for a few times but has now stopped. thoughts?

Wow you got some thing wrong. Is your service light that looks like a wrench on?
Any indicator lights in the dash that would tell you where to look next? You said that you installed a new DRL, are you talking about the relay in the fuse panel?

I have a diagram for an o1 cav in front of me, Im pretty sure they are the same.
In the dash fuse panel there is the DRL relay, a HDLP circuit breaker 15a, and a RT HDLP fuse 15a. The circuit breaker feeds the DRL relay which then goes to the lights. The breaker is the silver box looking thing. Pop that out and try a reg 15a fuse in the same place. If your other fuses are good I would probably point the finger at the High beam/ headlight switch. Especially since it does some funny stuff when you try to switch the high/ low beams.

If you want to test more, Check for 12v at pin B of the left headlamp,(dk blue) and go over to pin B of the rt headlamp (orange) and do the same. These should have power all the time. If the above fuses and drl are good , your going to get 12v on the B terminals.

If you get the 12v on the b terminals, ground the A terminal (dk blue)low beam, or the C term (pink) high beam, and the light should light.

If your good so far and can get the lights to work by jumpering wires. Your going to have to get to the HD lamp sw plug. Remove the bottom cover of the steering column. The plug your looking for is on the base of the lamp switch. Your looking for pins b and c. They both should have double wires in each , the B is pink and C is dk blue. these are the same wires that you tested up front with. If you apply the ground the same as up front and the lights work, you dont have any broken wires.
Your going to want to check the ground that feeds the switch now. look for pins E and A, E is BLK and A is BLK/WHT . These two should be grounded all the time. If you want you can jumper from e to c, and a to b, but not at the same time.. If your still making light, then the switch is junk. I have seen them on ebay before.


01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e

Wow! Thx for the great info. I will give it a go. There are no indicator lights on the dash that indicate anything is wrong at this time. When the problem originally occurred my wife was driving the car. The DRL indicator light blinked several times and then went out. Also none of the lights worked until after she "wiggled" the fuses. Right now all the other lights work on the car except the driver side front fender marker light. That bulb has been out for awhile however. I have not got around to replacing it yet. Thx again!

Ok I pulled the silver relay/fuse thing and installed a 15a fuse (from the horn). I turned on the lights with no effect. I turned them off and then on and the lights worked (somewhat) when I flipped to the high beams. The driver side was dim however. I turned the key to off and then back to ACC and the lights no longer worked. I also tried starting the car but they did not work. I put the horn fuse back in its proper place and yanked the silver thing so I can take it down and get a replacement tomorrow to try it. I assume this means that the wiring is ok but that I am having some kind of fuse or relay issue. Thoughts? Thx again!

Just another question about the headlamp switch in the steering column. You are referring to the turn signal assembly correct? The switch is part of it? When I do a search on the auto parts site I cannot seem to locate a "switch" just the entire assembly. I want to make sure of what I am looking for. Thx!

Yeah its the entire assembly with the turn, hazards, lights and cruise.

Did you try grounding the wires on the switch to see if the lights work?


01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e

hi again,


sorry for the delayed reply. i checked for power to each headlight per the insturctions. i am reading 12v on each side. the circuit breaker in the fuse panel clicks on and off for a few seconds then stop when the car is placed in gear which would cause the running lamps to come on. i started to take the cover off but it cannot get it off the column without pulling the steering wheel. is this correct? how should i ground the switch when i get access to it? thx for the great info and help!

there are 3 7mm screws on the bottom cover. you wont have to pull the steering wheel. If you have tilt your going to have to remove it by unscrewing it.
You may be able to just pop the top cover off to access the wires. It may be tight but you wont have to take the tilt arm off. the top cover just pops off, it is hinged on 2 pins toward the front of the cover so dont pry on the front , pop it from just behind the steering wheel.

I have a wiring diagram, I think I got the pins wrong when I was describing it to you earlier. Give me a min and Ill post it. It is for an 01 cav, Im sure its the same as the sunfire.



01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e

01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e

Check out both of these and see if the wire colors and pins make sense. The directions that I posted before are from the second diagram. I found the other one today.


01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e