i need to find out if the low beams will work without the DRL relay installed on these cars

ive tried everything to get them to work on the 96 all to no avail

i found that the DRL relay someone removed and the relay plug is damaged corroded horribly and some of the orange and blue wires for the headlights were damaged and i had to repair them

brights work but still no lo beams

tried another HL switch assembly too

im at a loss currently

any ideas?

thanks for anything





-96 cavalier 2.2 auto 143k miles

the relay in center front of car in front of radiator
it has two orange wires, one blue wire, one green wire, one black wire,
according to wiring diagram this is the DRL relay

but maybe its wrong

the wiring of the HL's make no sense, there are no grounds to any of the bulb sockets, i dont understand or see how they could even work, with how they are wired



-96 cavalier 2.2 auto 143k miles

Headlights are common power, switched ground.

That relay you identified is the drl relay. It has to be there (or rewired for drl bypass) to allow the headlights to work properly.

Doesn't the DRL relay work on the highs, not the lows?

http://www.j-body.org/library/howto.php?6

Try using the site a little bit.......





i find it amusing that SHOoff has nothing better to do but follow me around & be an unhelpful dick in even cross-forum. - Jon Mick

SHOoff wrote:http://www.j-body.org/library/howto.php?6

Try using the site a little bit.......

ok well you dont have to be a smartass comment to me like that i am really busy working alot nonstop all the time i dont have extra time to eat or do anything else personal let alone search

im busy alot non stop trying to figure out problems like this for ppl all the time


sorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyy



thanks much to the people who are actually trying to help here, and not just wanting to be dicks












-96 cavalier 2.2 auto 143k miles

and i guess i should find a relay and relay socket plug for the DRL's and then go from there, at this point, and see if the lights work


[and yeah the DRL's are the brights and are wired in series to cut voltage to 6 volts each bulb

odd..

every GM car ive seen, including today- as i was out and around town- uses the bright bulbs (the inner lamps -closest to the center of the car) as the DRL's

the lo beams i have no idea still.. and am still trying to figure out


so far ive learned one thing in this thread, that all the bulbs are connected to a common hot

although that doesnt explain why only one bright bulb works when the DRL's are not functioning

and i posted in the original first post that both brights were woring but nope only one is

in which according to everything ive seen is supposed to be that way when the DRL system is not functioning

someone hacked the orange and blue wires behind the bumper on this thing and the DRL relay is missing and the relay socket is horribly corroded junk ruined un-useable,

so thats where it is currently, and has been for i dont know how many years. we acquired this car this way recently.

thanks for any further




-96 cavalier 2.2 auto 143k miles

oh and that library link on the DRL stuff you supplied to me is totally wrong incorrect for this 96 anyways

the relay is not in the fuse panel or even inside the car at all

totally wrong

useless infono DRL anything is inside the car on a '96



the DRL relay is in front of the radiator(and a/c condensor core), behind the bumper, on the vertical hood latch bracket

heres the innacurate info on the page in the above supplied link:

Disabling DRL on a 1999 J-body
Open the door on the fuse panel (the one inside the car). The door shows a map of the fuses and such. There is a relay that is marked DRL. Remove this Relay by simply pulling it out. Now the DRL's are disabled.
Two side effects though.
1) the DRL light inside the cars blinks when the DRL's should be on.
2) High beam on the passenger side no longer work.
side effect number one. not solved yet.
side effect number two. Look at the DRL relay and find the prongs #30 and #87a. Now get a little jumper wire and put it where the two prongs are when the relay in inserted. This will fix the high beam problem.


-96 cavalier 2.2 auto 143k miles

Mr. Quick wrote:Doesn't the DRL relay work on the highs, not the lows?

It is supposed to, but just removing the relay up front also borked the low beam. Might have something to do with 9007's vs 9005/9006

To re-enable the drl, you will need a 5 pin relay. I'll see if I have the schematic somewhere.

If you want to kill them, splice 80 and 87a together (I belive it is orange and white, but will check) . This will fix the high beams but will cause the DRL light on the dash to flash. Alternatively, you can pull the cluster and cut the blue wire that is next to the only purple wire.No side effects.

thank you kardain good info!

ive jut found a couple relays in my electrical stash piles

a bosch 12077864 B00 which shows identical everything as in the wiring schematics for the DRL's on these cars

also i found a potter brumsfield VF4-45F11 which is also 5 pin but im not seeing the coil across between the 85 and 86 terminals as shown in the wiring schematics


hmmmm

so i guess that one probably wont work huh

i assume the coil across these two is for a certain amount of resistance, for some reason?

thanks again


-96 cavalier 2.2 auto 143k miles

welp i managed to rebuild repair this original factory horribly corroded ruined relay connector by removing the three junk wire terminal ends from it and replacing with good ones from relay sockets on a fuse panel from a parted out vehicle, that i had laying around

so that will save the time and cost of finding a replacment relay socket pigtail connector hmmm

and theyre pricey wow, over 30 bucks at most auto parts stores wow thats insane..




-96 cavalier 2.2 auto 143k miles

now im going out to install this onto the car and see where it gets me

if the lo beams work and the DRL dash warning light stops blinking then id be ecstatic and also done working on this damn car finally

yayyyyyy


-96 cavalier 2.2 auto 143k miles

actualy at the last minute before trying this out i just came across a relay 12193602 and its the exact one used on cavaliers at least in 2003 i know, for the DRL's

so thats even better

so im gonna use that one

im glad i save relays and such from cars we cut up and scrap out

this relay has the resistance coil needed, between terminals 85 and 86

unlike the bosch relay i was about to install and try hmmm


or so it appears to not have one, according ot the schematic on the relay housing itself hmm



-96 cavalier 2.2 auto 143k miles

Honestly, I'm not sure which relay of the ones you have to use... If you have one that's is close to OEM specs, use it. It's not very common people want to re-enable drl's, so info is lacking in the forums.

fast68chevy wrote:

SHOoff wrote:http://www.j-body.org/library/howto.php?6

Try using the site a little bit.......

ok well you dont have to be a smartass comment to me like that i am really busy working alot nonstop all the time i dont have extra time to eat or do anything else personal let alone search

im busy alot non stop trying to figure out problems like this for ppl all the time


sorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyy



thanks much to the people who are actually trying to help here, and not just wanting to be dicks

Not working enough to post several posts in a row apparently. Spend all the time typing and not clicking on given info. Beside, why bitch about the location of the DRL relay in the library listing when you already had located it and knew where it was?

Stop crying and use the search function.





i find it amusing that SHOoff has nothing better to do but follow me around & be an unhelpful dick in even cross-forum. - Jon Mick

For all the work you're going through, I'd have just rewired the lights to standard relays with no DRLs.

alright well i finally got them working wow and what "fun" it was

maybe this will help others out there with this issue because it just has to be at least somewhat common

the blue wire to the bulbs is the ground side from the HL switch

if you jumper terminals C and E at the blue HL switch connector and the lo beams do not come on then you have break in blue wires between switch and bulbs

OR the orange hot full time wires to bulbs are not hot

well all my orange wires were hot always no issue there

i jumpered C and E terminals and had no lo beams at all

no surprise there of course

so i started opening up the harness under the battery tray and checked the inline harness connector under there, found nothing wrong bad there

so then i opened up the same harness but inside the LH H/L assembly area/opening

found factory splice of two blue wires and one blue wire that rusted corrded came apart

i cut them stripped them and put them together and all the lo beams came on

all fixed

crappy corroded factory wire splices are the culprit



-96 cavalier 2.2 auto 143k miles

I found the same info in my service manual right after you posted (the relay pinout that is)

i never was able to get the DRLs to work again but all else is working fine

i guess the instrument cluster is not sending control signal through the green wire to the relay apparently, maybe

dunno

the car is gone down south now with my brother for at least a while so i cant do any more checking on it






-96 cavalier 2.2 auto 143k miles

Thanks fellas,great post, I am having the same issue with my 98 Cavalier.I too went to look for the DRL relay in the fuse box and didnt find it, so at least the spme goood came out of the disagreement we had here.. THanks.... Mar k

All the info is in the headlight faq to start with. Disabling is easy, 99s is when it started in the dash. Not sure if tgat was all 99s or tlate 99s.