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2005 Cavalier headlights


killerbee812
10-04-2012, 04:24 PM
I have a 2005 Cavalier and the brights do not work. Dims and daytimes work fine. Looked for a bad wire in harness but could not find anything. Found another form and if i ground the center wire of the plug the brites come on, so it is suposed to meen the switch is bad. Ordered a switch but after installing this the lights just stay on even when off and no brites. The company sent another switch same thing no bright but lights just stay on. Any ideas?

Tech II
10-04-2012, 08:59 PM
Found another form and if i ground the center wire of the plug the brites come on, so it is suposed to meen the switch is bad.

Have no idea what that means....

Few questions......

In bright daylight, start car .....car in park.....manually turn low beams on......lights ok?

Manually turn low beams off, lights off? Put car in gear with brake applied, low beams come on at half brightness? Apply e-brake, lights go out?

Put car in park, e-brake released, manually turn hi beams on....do they come on? Does the hi beam indicator in the I/P light up?

killerbee812
10-04-2012, 09:41 PM
Another forum sugested that if you ground the center wire of the headlight and high beems come on then that meens the switch is bad.

Every thing else works but no brites. Low beams work, day time running light, and high beam indicator on dash all work as normal.

J-Ri
10-04-2012, 10:02 PM
According to my wiring diagram, that is incorrect. The center wire should have power to it at all times, grounding it would only blow the fuse. Even if you ground the correct wire at the bulb (which would be terminal C, the pink wire), you haven't ruled out an open wire between the bulb and switch.

To test the switch, remove the steering column trim and check for power on connector 1 (IIRC, there is only one connector, but that's how it's labeled on the diagram) terminal B. It should have two pink wires going into it. It should have power all the time. Now ground that terminal (should be able to back probe it) and the high beams should come on. With the connector plugged in and the high beams on (or commanded on), check for ground at terminal A (black wire with white stripe). It should have near 0 volts, but the high beams should come on at reduced brightness even if it is a few volts. If grounding terminal B turns the high beams on and terminal A is very close to ground, the switch is bad.

Primo auto
01-05-2013, 12:16 AM
1995-2005 cavalier no low beam headlight,but high beam works.No day time running lights come on when you start car.Changed multifunction switch,which is headlight switch,signal switch,hazard switch all in one switch.Easy to change switch,take covers off around steering column,there is one screw on top and one screw of left side.You can rotate steering wheel out of way and use 7mm wrench to take screw out.After I installed new switch ,I still had no low beams,So I checked the wiring.Wires in front harness between headlights had damaged wires ,corrosion and turning green.Spliced wires together, repair broken wires.low beam works after wire repaired.

Tech II
01-05-2013, 09:57 AM
There was a campaign that repaired the wiring harness due to corrosion.....but I think it only went as far as '03....

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