When I went to go turn on my headlights tonight in my 2001 sunfire, the high beam indicator came on, but I don't have any lights, low or high. I had an extra switch so I swapped it out, but the problem stayed the same.

Any idea what could be wrong? I know these cars are prone to corrosion in the harness. I haven't checked that yet, but It's really clean and has never been driven on salted roads. I'll look at the harness for problems tomorrow or saturday. In the meantime of anybody can give me any other ideas I would appreciate it

Checked the fuses... they are all good. DRL don't work, but they haven't for a long time. I'm not longer getting that fast flash to let me know that the DRL's aren't on. I don't think that has anything to do with it, but I'm going to replace the DRL relay tomorrow, just to see if I can get at least that much to work

little help?

I know this might sound a little simple but have you checked the bulbs? I admit it'd be odd for both to be out at the same time but some times simple is the answer.

If they check out fine I would get a miltimeter and test the connection points from the switch to the bulbs. That should help narrow down the problem.

I have an extra bulb, I'll try it this morning. I seriously doubt that's the problem, but like you said, it's worth a shot, especially when my DRL's are not working

New bulb, no change

Getting power to the fuse block and the switch, but not to the headlights

Changed DRL relay, still no lights at all

I'm going to look at the junction block near the Drivers front wheel tomorrow morning to see if i'm getting power that far

Let me know if anybody has any other ideas

5-speed or auto? Looks like you're on the right track, let us know what you find out at the junction box.



"In Oldskool we trust"

It's an automatic

Ok, today I was pulling into my garage, and just for the heck of it I turned on my headlights. and of course, they worked.

I'm pretty sure the problem is between the switch and the junction, but if the problem is intermittent, it's going to be hard to find and correct

bummer, well at least you're narrowing it down more. I'm not sure if you had a Chilton's manual so I took a picture of the wiring diagram for the head lights.



Let me know what you find out

-Josh

I have a helm, and the diagram is a cluster of confusion. I'll look at that one, thanks

They went out again this morning, then came back on, and then went out again

At first I got under the car to look at the wiring under there, but didn't see anything so I popped the hood and tried to trace the harness.

There's a large rectangular connector right under the battery. It was resting on the transmission, so I pulled up on it, and then looked down an noticed the headlights were on. I wiggled and tuned the connector as much as I could to see if they would go out again, but couldn't make them go out. I don't know if it was grounding to the transmission or not. I kind of hooked it over the lip of the battery tray to make it easier to grab later. If they go out again, I'll grab my mulitmeter and see if I can figure out which wires are not getting voltage

Check your grounds under the battery tray.

this thing has been going off and on, it's driving me nuts. As soon as it goes out, I'll get under the hood and start testing with a multi meter, but then they will come back on, and I can't make them go out again.

I don't even know if taking it to a whop will help because of how intermittent it is

What's the easiest way to get to the grounds under the battery tray? Do I go from the bottom, or the top (removing the battery tray if possible)

I undid mine from the top and then moved them to the battery tray for easier access, they now sit under the air filter box.

There is a ground under the battery tray coming off the headlight harness. Not uncommon to see it get corroded from battery acid etc...hold be a 10 mm bolt. You can get it from the top by feeling for it.



FU Tuning

Forgot to update. found the problem, or at least what seems to be the solution.

I ran an extra ground wire coming off the switch and grounded it to the steering column, and the lights have been working fine since then. (about a month at least)

Crazy cars, thanks for the update.

OK, after I ran that ground wire, the headlights worked great for 6 weeks, and then nothing... couldn't get them on at all, and when they went out, it left me in a BAD place to not have headlights

So that was the middle of December when they stopped working. ever since then I've been careful where I drove it at night, but this week I finally put it in a high priced electrical shop to get it fixed. I considered selling the car as is, but Literally the ONLY thing wrong with it was the headlights

Turns out at some point before I owned the car somebody did a patchwork repair job on the wiring, and combined the left and right headlights into one circuit, and when something else went wrong behind the fuse panel, that made diagnosis going by the book confusing. My guy found the issue, restored everything back the way it was supposed to be, and I now have headlights again. Cost me $330, but at least I'm not giving the car away because I couldn't drive it anymore