A little back story on my experience with doing this swap........ I originally had a 95 Cavalier and converted over to the 2000+ Cavalier headlights..... It was a pretty straight forward swap.... the car didnt even have DRL's from the factory..... and as i realized through alot of research, the 95 J-bodies have a different wiring system when it comes to the exterior lighting system.
So.... with that said..... this "how to" excludes the 95 year J-bodies as it is a little different than the 96+ J-bodies
Some of the faqs in this forum give you a good idea on how to do this swap... but they exclude a lot of details on how to do it the right way. It took me a lot of research through these forums to get all the info i needed to do this swap the right way... (by the way... my car is a 97' Cavalier that I converted over to 95-02 Sunfire headlights).
Disclaimer: As in using this information... you should have a general knowledge on electricity and a general knowledge on a vehicles electrical system. I am not responsible for any damage that may occur while doing this yourself. Be smart, take your time.... and dont take shortcuts. If you don't know anything about a cars electrical system, or have no idea what im talking about through this write up, for your own sake, don't attempt this.
Tools and supplies:
Soldering gun
Rosin core solder
heat shrink
heat gun (but a butane lighter works just as well)
electrical tape
Wire crimpers
wire cutters
Of course you also need:
Your vehicle
your headlight harness
new 9007 harness plugs (Advance Auto Parts sells a pair of high temp harness plugs for like $12, I highly recommend them)
"2" 5-prong relays (I used 2 drl relays from a j-body because they have wires coming out from the bottom making it a much cleaner harness, picture at the bottom to see what im talking about)
Before I go on further with this, I cant take all the credit for this. All this info wouldnt have been put together like this without the help of
Phil Mennitti and
Steven Wiggins.
This process uses two relays inline with the drivers side headlight harness...... the passenger side does not need a relay.
A lot of people run into problems with the turn signals acting up... to a dim headlight..... and non-functional drl's ..... these relays will solve this problem. As said above... the relays I used were the same relays used for your DRL's ........
The next diagram shows you how to wire everything up..... Like i said above.... this is where general knowledge of electricity and reading diagrams comes into play.....
PASSENGERS SIDE: With flat part of plug up,
Pink to the left,
Both Orange to center,
Blue to the right.
DRIVERS SIDE: With flat part of plug up,
Pink to the left,
Center to 30 of relay #1,
Right to 30 of relay #2,
Blue (in loom with the pink) to 87a of relay #1,
86 and 87 of relay #1 to Orange,
85 of relay #1 to Blue (in loom with Orange),
86 of relay #2 to Orange,
85 and 87 of relay #2 to Blue (in loom with Orange),
87a on relay #2 is not used.
Thats all there really is to it.... I highly recommend you use a soldering gun and heat shrink tubing to do all your connections, and rewrap your harness in electrical tape and wire loom.
I approve of this as a sticky teh jeffie has spoken!!!!
In Loving Memory of Phil Martin December 14 2005
Alexis: Dustin, you're ghey, lol. I am better. I have tits, and tits rule all.
my relays look like this...
did i do something wrong? my driver side low beam doesn't work anymore. drls are fine but low beam no go.
do i need a 00-02 harness as well?? help plz
http://www.myspace.com/fpsunfire
5 seconds to find another street...
Actually it was Josh Kichman of Auto & Audio in Dubois,Pa who figured this out for us. Thanks though.
^CLICK ME TO SEE HOW I BUILT EVERYTHING^ How To in Interior Forum
no problem.... as long as the name is mentioned in this post
and to fpZ24....
not sure what to tell you there.... i cant see exactly what prongs are which..... carefully go through the diagram and triple check everything.
I wish there was a way i could post pictures of each step but that would be pretty hard
well done Greg. good write-up!
If you have CF engine bay pieces, SELL THEM TO ME!
Built Not Bought
i pulled these out of a junkyard car so i'm gonna make another setup with new relays soon
or get a 2000 headlight harness...
http://www.myspace.com/fpsunfire
5 seconds to find another street...
great write up worked perfectly
i'm gonna check the fuses today. i hope i can fix my low beam being out.
*MSR 190 wheels not shown in sig.
http://www.myspace.com/fpsunfire
5 seconds to find another street...
all my lites works perfectly .. using the relays... but only when the fuse doesnt blow. i usually blow fuses when i hit a bump in the road. so my guess would be that i have some sort of fringe in the wiring somewhere ..
my 02 bumper ? lol no haha
go onto ebay .. thats where i got mine .. think theres one now going for less then 100 shipped and its primered.. i got mine shipped and primered for only 103
eh, i'm workin on a custom 99/02/05 bumper.
didn't really want yours. just post whorin' this month and stuff. lol
*MSR 190 wheels not shown in sig.
http://www.myspace.com/fpsunfire
5 seconds to find another street...
im still blowing fuses.. wires are fine. im guessing the relays are bad. i have water commin out of them.. how did you guys water proof them ?
ok i replaced the relays with new ones.. now i have no right high beems and i keep blowing my right headligh fuse.. the 15amp. it blows when i put the car in drive and my drls try to come on, this causes my fuse to blow. only way around without blowing the fuse is to make sure i have the headlights on before i put the car in drive . im lost where am i going wrong. if someone can walk me through it .. pm for my screename
i like this post but how would i do that backwards? i want to go from my 9007 on my 2000 cavalier to 9005/9006 to put some angel eye projectors onto the cavi. can you help me out with that. i got alot of car experiance alittle electrical but i do have electricians in my family so if you can give like a brief explanation of doing this backwards i would greatly appreciate it.
oh i forgot to mention the two replays wire up to the driver side. passenger side you dont need any relays
so what do u do with turn signals??
update: easier way to do this swap... go to the yard and pull the headlight harness from a 2000-2005 cavalier. the harness connects almost directly under the battery tray. make sure to be carefull not to brake the neg ground wire. also the harness comes with the wiring for your windshield washer motor.
I have a 98 cavalier z24. Could i just swap in a 97 sunfire gt headlight harness?
if you are still looking for the answer, i have done it on my 97, and i still have wiring diagrams
Ianyboy
give what is the work from the orangle wire blue wire and the pink wire please ....
I swapped in a 00-02 harness intop my 97 cavy for my conversion. Now i have a bright passenger side light and a dim drivers light when I turn them on. Any suggestions what can get them right? thanks alot guys.
