Passenger-side headlamp not fully lit

[Jessicasdd]

Hi All,

I came on here a year ago because my passenger-side daytime was acting funny and causing the light to not function at all and it turned out to be the wiring harness was corroded and falling apart inside the tape. Once I pulled it all out and reconnected the wires it was back to normal.

Now it is acting up again but it is a little different this time. This time the light only goes out completely if I let the daytimes come on. It will flash about 5 or 6 times and both lights go out and the Service (little wrench) light comes on. Auto Zone can't check it cause it's not the Check Engine light. If I get in the car, start it, and turn the lights on, the Service light still comes on but if you walk around the front of the car and actually look at the headlights the driver's side looks normal and the passenger's side looks really really really dim. Like just a little bit of light is coming through it. It is so little light that when you turn them on at night it looks like the headlight is blown from inside the car. When you get out and look though, you can see that it's on.

Is this problem stemming from that wiring harness like the last problem was?

Please Help!!!!

Thank You,
Jessica
2001 Chevy Cavalier - 4 door

[J-Ri]

I'd start by checking the harness, especially since you've had trouble there before. A lot of people will twist-n-tape or crimp the wires together. That's the wrong way to do it, they need to be soldered together and heat-shrink tubing shrunk over the solder. If you did not do it this way, remove the repaired section and replace it this way. If it's not causing problems now, it will eventually.

Just to clarify:
DRL=off/very dim
Low beam=normal
high beam=?

The DRL is the high beam, only dimmed, so check and post the status of the high beam. Also check for power to both high and low beam and for a good ground.

[Jessicasdd]

Quick note... I changed the bulb and the new bulb did the same thing. That's why I'm suspecting it's electrical. Does anyoe know if that wire harness can be purchased and replaced instead of just deigo rigged back together?

[Jessicasdd]

That's exactly what I did. I twisted and taped them back together. I thought anything was better than the bus seat tape they were already wrapped in. Can that harness be bought though? My car is in fairly decent shape and I expect it to last another 5 years or more if i can. It has over 150,000 miles on it and runs like a dream.

[J-Ri]

Well, the harness can be bought, but you have to cut out the section that you replace and solder in the new harness anyway, so it's just as easy to replace the single wire, and much cheaper. Properly done, a repaired section of wiring will look good and work exactly like the original. No "rigging" here!

[Jessicasdd]

Makes sense. Thought maybe i'd get lucky and there'd be a plug at each end. One can hope and dream right? LOL I probably won't get to that wire harness till this weekend but i'll come back and post my outcome. Thank god I saved my tool kit from ITT. Came with a soldering iron.

Thanks
Jessica

[Jessicasdd]

Like I suspected it was in that wire harness again. This time it was the orange wire. I was running it through my fingers feeling for abnormalities when I felt a hole in it. When I bent the wire at the hole it was all green inside. Corrossion. I cut that portion of the wire out and butt-spliced them back together and the light came right back on like normal. I even went back and spliced the part we fixed last year just because I had everything to do it. Then I wnet to AutoZone and bought the wrie harness covering and put that back on it so it really looks professional. Hopefully this will be the last time it gives me problems. Hopefully, but I won't count on it. LOL

Thanks Again
Jessica

[J-Ri]

Glad you found it. I would strongly suggest that you solder and heatshrink the wires that you've spliced, otherwise you'll keep getting problems with those connectors. They're a good emergency or test method, but not a quality repair. Is there anything sharp in with the wires? Wires don't usually corrode in the middle. It's also possible that someone pierced the wires to check for power at some time.