Help With Strange Headlight Switch Issue
stlzed
03-03-2005, 08:10 AM
Have a '99 Regal GS that I love, but am having an odd issue that I can't figure out with the headlight switch. OK, the headlights automatically come on day or night when it's running & you either release the parking brake or put it in gear. That's fine & dandy, no problem with that. What I can't figure out is that I can't get the lights to TURN OFF while in gear. I work on a military base with gate guards, so we're supposed to dim our headlights to parking lights only when they check our IDs coming onto base, especially at night. But, I CAN'T DIM MINE!! From what the manual says you're supposed to just pull out the headlight switch knob to the parking lamp position while car is running & it should turn the headlights off just to parking lamps. Mine DOES NOT DO THIS, nothing happens, headlights stay on. The switch works fine other than that, if I start her up with parking brake on & use the switch I can turn the headlights off/on, the interior dimmer twist function works, etc. Would a burned out tail light bulb have any effect on this option, or cause that function of turning the automatic lights off/on not to work????? Please help if you can, quite an annoying little minor problem!!
regalfriend
07-26-2005, 02:11 AM
i have a 97 gs.... the lights are fully automatic...you have no control while the car is rolling, thats why you get a better discount from insurance, the only thing you can do is to hook up one of those lights in your aux power on passenger side and point it towards the sensor on the sensor on the dashboard to trick the system thinking its daytime
BNaylor
07-26-2005, 08:44 AM
I agree with Regalfriend. You cannot override the auto headlights by the method you described. A burned out tail light bulb will not affect your issue.
If its something that may eventually get you in trouble with the military police or that much of an annoyance, the only thing you can do (cheapest) to override auto headlights is pull the daytime running lights module fuse located in the passenger side dash fuse box.
HOWEVER, you will lose DRL and the auto headlight function. You will have to manually turn on or off the headlights as if it were a car without this option or feature. But you will be able to control the lights the way you want.
If its something that may eventually get you in trouble with the military police or that much of an annoyance, the only thing you can do (cheapest) to override auto headlights is pull the daytime running lights module fuse located in the passenger side dash fuse box.
HOWEVER, you will lose DRL and the auto headlight function. You will have to manually turn on or off the headlights as if it were a car without this option or feature. But you will be able to control the lights the way you want.
Mr_D
07-29-2005, 03:11 AM
I installed a headlight override switch on my 98 Regal LS and it works fine.
All I used was some sturdy wire (12 AWG will do) and one 15-20 amp switch, that's it. The switch gets installed inline with the headlamp ground wire and if you open the switch the low beams go out, that's all.
I found a concealed spot for the switch, made a little bracket, wired it up and it works exactly right. With the switch closed everything works 100% normally because it IS effectively wired the same as it was.
But with the switch open the headlights simply do not get a ground and they remain off anytime you want. All the other lights operate normally with the switch in either position, the ONLY thing it does is turn off the low beams.
There are seperate circuits than run the high and low beams. I choose to only interrupt the low beams. They supply +12 Volts all the time to the headlights through a 15amp fuse and turn on the headlights by connecting the ground via the headlamp switch or the DRL module if it senses darkness. You could also modify the daylight sensor but then you have a time delay to deal with and that would turn off all the lights too so this solution seemed best.
I installed the switch in the dark blue wire (circuit number 1201) right before it goes to pin A2 in the C201 junction block. This wiring block is located under the dash below the steering column. Circuit 1201 is called "Headlamp Output-Low Beam". You need to cut this wire, extend the wire up through your switch and then run it back to A2 after going through your switch.
The C201 connector has pin A1 to A17 located along the top. To get oriented here are the nearby connector colors.
A1 Pink
A2 Dark blue (this is the one).
A3 Yellow
A4 Blk
A5 - na
A6 Pink
A7 Grey/Blk
It would be wise to use a voltmeter and a test light to verify exactly how your vehicle is wired before getting out your wire cutters and soldering iron, maybe your's is wired differently than mine. To test if you have the correct wire, you could ground A2 and the headlights should turn on but a safer test is to verify that A2 supplies a good ground each time you turn on the headlights. It will appear to have +12 volts on it the rest of the time because the headlamp filaments are connected to +12v at the other end.
I did this over a year ago but I think the numbers are correct,
This solution worked fine on my 98 Regal, good luck.
All I used was some sturdy wire (12 AWG will do) and one 15-20 amp switch, that's it. The switch gets installed inline with the headlamp ground wire and if you open the switch the low beams go out, that's all.
I found a concealed spot for the switch, made a little bracket, wired it up and it works exactly right. With the switch closed everything works 100% normally because it IS effectively wired the same as it was.
But with the switch open the headlights simply do not get a ground and they remain off anytime you want. All the other lights operate normally with the switch in either position, the ONLY thing it does is turn off the low beams.
There are seperate circuits than run the high and low beams. I choose to only interrupt the low beams. They supply +12 Volts all the time to the headlights through a 15amp fuse and turn on the headlights by connecting the ground via the headlamp switch or the DRL module if it senses darkness. You could also modify the daylight sensor but then you have a time delay to deal with and that would turn off all the lights too so this solution seemed best.
I installed the switch in the dark blue wire (circuit number 1201) right before it goes to pin A2 in the C201 junction block. This wiring block is located under the dash below the steering column. Circuit 1201 is called "Headlamp Output-Low Beam". You need to cut this wire, extend the wire up through your switch and then run it back to A2 after going through your switch.
The C201 connector has pin A1 to A17 located along the top. To get oriented here are the nearby connector colors.
A1 Pink
A2 Dark blue (this is the one).
A3 Yellow
A4 Blk
A5 - na
A6 Pink
A7 Grey/Blk
It would be wise to use a voltmeter and a test light to verify exactly how your vehicle is wired before getting out your wire cutters and soldering iron, maybe your's is wired differently than mine. To test if you have the correct wire, you could ground A2 and the headlights should turn on but a safer test is to verify that A2 supplies a good ground each time you turn on the headlights. It will appear to have +12 volts on it the rest of the time because the headlamp filaments are connected to +12v at the other end.
I did this over a year ago but I think the numbers are correct,
This solution worked fine on my 98 Regal, good luck.
aperry62
08-10-2005, 07:33 AM
I don't know if this would be of any help but on my Chevy Silverado with Daytime running lamps I can turn them off by putting the parking break on the first click, just enough to get the parking break light to turn on but not enough to actually engage the brakes...I really don't know if that would help the problem or not...worth a try.
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