Headlights-wiring harness

[Fabe01]

Hi everyone,

As a personal favour to me, please read the below email and forward to
EVERYONE you know that owns a Pontiac Sunfire.

This is a legitimate request for GM to recall all Pontiac Sunfires with
faulty headlight wiring. After speaking with GM personally, they say there
is no reason for a recall unless more people send in a complaint. Here is
the link to do just that.

http://apps.gmcanada.com/app/GMCanad...256F98004FA6E3

GM Canada,

I've come across quite a few Pontiac Sunfires, year 2000 and 2001 that seem to have been sold with faulty headlight wiring, mine included. There are approximately 300 or so complaints about headlights, where there are a various number of instances involving headlights ranging from no driving lights up to no highbeams, and ultimately no headlights at all.

Upon inspection of the wiring harness on my specific car and my friend's
car, we discovered that the headlight wiring harness was designed to fail.

It turns out that within the plastic casing, the wires are wrapped with
'Duct tape', allowing for inevitible failure due to corrosion, caused by the
installation of wiring wrapped with an unsafe tape. If you want to fix this, you have to re-build your entire wiring harness, and I guarantee you that once it is done, you will never have a problem with your lights again, aside from the usual bulb replacement.

I had repaired my wiring harness once already but didn't bother to replace all the tape, only the pieces where there WAS corrosion, well, it has once again failed in that I was driving at night and went to switch to my high beams because I saw a deer, and upon pulling the high beam switch, all front lights went out completely and I almost went off the road.

So that is a clear indicator that ALL the 'duct tape' should be replaced with a good quality electrical tape, (securely)...try to insure that there is no corrosion on the wires before taping them back up.

I am not the only person with this problem, and feel that the wiring harness should be a legitimate recall.

I checked with the dealership here in Smiths Falls and they are saying that the wiring harness is roughly $600. Clearly I am not going to pay $600 for a wiring harness that will prove to be faulty, in turn causing an accident, in turn meaning a multi-million $$$ lawsuit towards GM for not recalling the vehicle model years in question.

I will be forwarding a copy of this email to each person that I have heard
from who owns a Pontiac Sunfire with faulty headlight wiring.

Please let me know if anything can be done about this.

[sunfiregirl_96]

i have also sent a complaint to GM..mine is a 96..probably no luck on any kind of recall for me but there are so many of us who seem to have the same problem no matter what year of 'fire we have.
i have been through the wires from one end to the other, there is no duct tape on mine, but constant problems are ridiculous.
I dont know how much more i am willing to spend on the headlights, frankly I am getting pretty damn annoyed.
I have replaced everything from the relay to the combi switch inside and the 'fire still has a problem with the lights. I still have to give the combi switch a damn hard whack just to get the lights back on most nights and i hate it because I know I'm going to have to replace the combi again eventually from hitting it.
anyone else with different suggestions would help us out a bunch
(besides me almost busting my hand again on the switch...)

[herbsch]

[hello Fabe01

[herbsch]

Hello Fabe1

-i May Have This Problem.my Check Engine Light Came On This Morning On The Way To Work.i Stopped In At A Gm Dealer And He Found I Have No High Beams.the Computer Monitors The High Beams As Part Of The Day Time Running Lights.
I Have Not Had A Chance To Look At The Car Yet.where On The Car Is This Wiring Harness Located? What Does Rebuilding It Involve?

Thanks For Your Help.it Looks Like You Saved Me $600 For A New Harness + Labour

Herbsch

[herbsch]

[quote=herbsch]Hello Fabe1

-I found the problem.There was a loose filement in one of the third brake light bulbs.This ended up causing various intermittent problems: 1)no drl's 2)no low beams 3)drl rapidly flickering on/off as the bulb filiment had intermittent contact. 4)no high beams. I checked and did not find any duct tape in the wiring located under the battery tray as mentioned in one of the other threads.The car is a 2001 Sunfire with the 2.2 auto and no AC. (92,000 km)

Herbsch
Mar 26 2005

[Fabe01]

Hey,

Glad you got it fixed.

I had actually taken my entire harness out and went through it inch by inch and replaced every bit of tape and literally greased all contact points (where the wires connect to each other) put it all back together and now I have no problems with my headlights at all.

It's a big problem with the Sunfire's and Cavalier's...the headlight wiring is so freakin' cheap/flimsy. You know, I have a 1978 Buick Lesabre, and EVERYTHING still works on it, well, except the air...they don't make 'em like that anymore!

If you have any questions or info to share, let me know.

I hope more people complain to GM though!

See ya

Fabe

Originally Posted by herbsch

Hello Fabe1

-i May Have This Problem.my Check Engine Light Came On This Morning On The Way To Work.i Stopped In At A Gm Dealer And He Found I Have No High Beams.the Computer Monitors The High Beams As Part Of The Day Time Running Lights.
I Have Not Had A Chance To Look At The Car Yet.where On The Car Is This Wiring Harness Located? What Does Rebuilding It Involve?

Thanks For Your Help.it Looks Like You Saved Me $600 For A New Harness + Labour

Herbsch

[herbsch]

Hello Fabe01

-the Fix Did Not Last Long.the Problem Is Back.i Noticed The Drl Relay Would Click On/off When Going Over Bumps Causing The Drl To Flash. Then I Had No Drl At All.i Jiggled The Wiring Under The Battery Tray And Now Everything Works Again. The Problem Must Be In The Wiring Although I Did Noy Find Any Duct Tape There When I Checked Before Finding The Loose Filement In The Thied Brake Light. I Will Have To Go Over The Wiring When I Have The Time.
Thanks
Apr 5 2005

[2000 sunfire]

Originally Posted by herbsch

Hello Fabe01

-the Fix Did Not Last Long.the Problem Is Back.i Noticed The Drl Relay Would Click On/off When Going Over Bumps Causing The Drl To Flash. Then I Had No Drl At All.i Jiggled The Wiring Under The Battery Tray And Now Everything Works Again. The Problem Must Be In The Wiring Although I Did Noy Find Any Duct Tape There When I Checked Before Finding The Loose Filement In The Thied Brake Light. I Will Have To Go Over The Wiring When I Have The Time.
Thanks
Apr 5 2005

Help!! My DRL are screwed too. What do I do? I bought a new light bulb because i thought that was the problem but no way, its in the wiring. Its a 2000 sunfire, i called GM reported the problem, but Im not sure how is the best way to fix it inexpensively. when i start the car a go to put it in gear the light icon flickers and the service light comes on. Any ideas for someone whe know little about cars.

[sunfiregirl_96]

I'm still having problems with mine too... but..again a list for all you guys to go through ...
1. Check all the bulbs in the front, and the back..never know 1 bulb makes them all go out..just like Christmas lights..replace any if necessary.
2. Check all the wires from the bulbs in the front all the way through until you hit the firewall on the car...check relays and fuses while you are at it. It could be something as small as no contact at any point on the wires. Relays are cheap to get at any junkers. Any little bit of wear on the wires can also cause the lights not to work.
3. CHeck your combi-switch inside the car. (It's the handle that you use to turn the lights on and signal with) I have to give mine a tap whenever my lights go out. I have had it replaced once ($300CDN for me ) Sometimes they dont quite make contact in there either or they come loose or something.
IF you arent realy sure what it could be, you can apparently take them in to be diagnosed at some places in the States I dont know bout Canada, I think Can. Tire will do it, but for a small fee..you know Can. Tire..nothing is free...lol
If all else fails, check through old posts, I'm sure I posted a few about my lights and there are others that could help you out...

[sunfiregirl_96]

By the way...for the ones that dont know much about 'fires...
just a l'il tidbit for ya to know...any 'fire made between '96-2002 are pretty much the same, very few mods to the original design...so things are pretty much the same whether she is newer or not..we all are having the same problems with them....and from what i found out with mine the parts are pretty much interchangeable too
doesnt seem to matter for the headlights or any other problem we are having whether it is newer or not also, I have heard of some with 2004's that have pretty much the same stuff going on with theirs..
so much for GM making a better 'Fire for us...
seems the only difference is the engine (2.2 and 2.4) and whether she is stick or not, or 2 or 4 doors...thats about as far as the differences go...

[herbsch]

-i cleaned 3 grounds in the area of the battery.one is actually under the battery tray and hard to get at.At the moment the flickering drl,service engine light on and no high beam problems are gone again

Apr 8 2005 94000 km

[herbsch]

-the same problems are back again

[djwright4341]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one having this problem. DRLs don't work at all; high beams don't work; but dash light indicates high beams at all times when key is on. I'm trying to get at that wiring harness but the wiring harness runs between the frame rail and the washer jug. How do you go about getting the stupid washer jug out? I can see a bracket running over it with a bolt on one end and one of those stupid plastic things on the other end behind the left headlight, but removing the bolt didn't seem to loosen the jug up any. Please don't tell me I have to remove body panels just to get at it. (Engineers should be required to actually work on the cars they design!) My battery tray seems to be welded to the frame as I can't see any bolts holding it on, so I can't easily get at the wiring harness that way.

'97 Sunfire SE
96000 miles

[herbsch]

-I hope I now solved the Drl/low beam problems.There are 4 taped wire splices under the washer fluid bottle.One of the wires was broken.I untaped and cut all 4 joints and resoldered the joints and used heat shrink tubing over the joint.The wire splices were quite corroded.I had to splice in a 4" length of new wire at 2 of the joints.Do one joint at a time to avoid crossing the wires.I wrapped everything with $4/roll good quality electrical tape also.On the 2001 ,remove the 2 bolts to remove the head light assembly. To get at the washer bottle take off the front plastic inner fender liner.You will then see 2 bolts that hold the washer bottle.There is also a ground bolt under the battery tray that is very hard to get at that must be removed to allow moving the wiring to get access to the splices.There is also 1 crimped splice behind the right headlight which looked ok but I also resoldered and taped it.Washer fluid is corrosive and spills will damage the wires.The total job took about 4.5 hours.

[sunfiregirl_96]

Thanks herbsch for finding the problems with the wiring and passing on the info to the other drivers...
I unfortunately wont be needing the info anymore..my hubby wrote the bitch off today, he drove it into a pole...nice...and I just put over $600 into it this week, I just got it back from the garage today.... oh well.....maybe i'll get another 'Fire