headlight problems

[Stevosupremo]

the headlights on my 2000 cavalier are crazy.
when the day running lights are on and the low beams.
the left side is dimmer than the right. when i flip the high beams on
they switch and the right side gets dim and the left goes bright.
does anyone know whats up.
thanks
Stevo

[curbie]

Something wrong in the electrical maybe? Just a suggestion. I'm not so sure...I once had a 2000 Chevy Cav. and never had that problem. Only time my lights went dim was when my stereo was hittin so hard, it drained the battery of juice. Had to get a dry cell battery to keep up!

[Three_Fingers]

Your drl's run on the same circuit as the headlights, most likely-or on an adjacent circuit.
Sounds like you have a bad ground on one or both of your headlights.
Usually when one circuit has a bad ground (causing resistance/dimming) by nature, that current will look for a better ground in a common circuit, like the one nearest to it if they share a coomon ground point-taillights do this all the time on most cars (you've seen when somebody steps on their brakes and one brake light'll come on and one taillight will eithrer dim or go out and it looks like a pinball machine would).
Remove and clean and reinstall any ground connections that are bolted right to the body or front radiator support and this should fix this problem.

[sweetwhiteCAV]

Originally Posted by Three_Fingers

Sounds like you have a bad ground on one or both of your headlights.
.

Definetly sounds like a bad ground...

[Stevosupremo]

hey thanks for the info. yesterday i cleaned the ground on the battery tray and there was another ground mounted under the battery tray(it was a little box with several wires going to it) i cleaned it and no luck. any suggestions on were some other grounds may be.
any suggestions would be great.
thanks
[email protected]

[blkcavi02]

i have the same exact problem with my 2002 cavalier. the one side is always dimmer than the other. please let me know if you figure anything out. thanks stacy

[bwtpwr]

hey for u cavalier guys check ur headlight harness where it connects to the main harness the connection is right under the battery box battery acid will leak n melt the connection n cause the preoblems ur describing to fix u need too buy both harnesses hope this helps

[randy78]

had same problem in 97 cavvy and i put in new light switch on clumn and all better, is 60 bucks at autozone they sell you the entire turn signal arm with cruise and turn and lights and everything unit

all better no problem with lights at all ever since but changing the switch is kinda a PITA

technically you should drop the column but damn you cant get to the upper column clamp bolts very easily at all and the stupid dash panels wont remove so i just rmeoved the column cover screws and fished around with the lower switch mounting screw with a pen magnet and flashlight and torx bit screw and small wrencgh to turn it with, it sucked and took about an hour but i got it without having to drop column and such


only two screws hold the switch arm assembly to the column in there and theres three wire harnesses in there that plug directly into the switch arm assembly but they arent bad,

its technically call a multi function switch assembly
if you ask for headlight switch or a dimmer switch youll get the same assembly either way cuz its all the same deal they will ask you if you haave cruise or not cuz of course its two different arms,

good luck

[Caper75]

Not Always a Switch. My 96 Cav started this 3 years ago, gets worse untill all lights are gone. Found out my headlight harness is rotting out. Every 6 months to a year I have to go searching for the breaks in wire. Casings aren't broken but the copper wire turns to green powder inside. Priced a harness at dealer $600 and no junk yards keep em. Pretty well have a rebuilt harness at this point