well let me start off by telling you all what happened.

i started with a stock cavalier headlight bulb, and i wanted a little better nigth vision.
so i bought silvania silver stars. after that i heard about silvania silver star ultras. when i wasnt
really happy with those i finally went HID...got a kit on ebay, bi-xenon for 170. and it didnt last very long.

after the HID's died, i decided to go with some regular style bulbs again, but i went with StreetGlow hyper white bulbs.
but they were high wattage. this is where the problem comes.

one day, after putting these high wattage bulbs in, i noticed my light output was horrible. i went out and looked at my headlights.
and the drivers side was very dim. after noticing this, the next day, i went out and bought a replacement socket and wired it up.
next, so i didnt fry another socket i put stock bulbs back in, and that side is still very dim...so, just today i went to my local dealership, where the car was bought brand new back in 2000, and they were real nice, and told me to check the 2 grounds for the headlights, which is located on the core support.

i was just wondering, if it is not too much to ask, if someone could show me a picture where these ground wires are. i dont know if i am just blind or what, but i cannot find them for the life of me!!!

thanks for the help in advanced,

-brent.

The ground is passed through the headlight harness back into the body harness, and the ground connects at the frame rail just underneath the battery tray. It's common for the terminals inside the connector plug to corrode and crap out, as well as for the stock battery to leak and ruin the harness by dripping battery acid onto it.

...j

Durr... I almost forgot something... headlights are constant positive, and switched negative. So that means the ground would be through the headlight switch and then at the top of the steering column, underneath the dash pad and cluster. The positive will have a left and right feed, for each headlight.

oh, i know very well about this!!!
hahaa. i had to go to a junk yard,
and get a whole new wiring harness!

but, there is no ground wire connections on the core support??
they are both under the battery tray??
how easy are they reachable??
...i need to try to clean them.
do u also know the best wat to do so?
sandpaper? steel wool? some sort of cleaner?

thanks tho John!

There are no grounds on the front bumper bar, if that's what you're wondering. The grounds from both the headlight harness end, and the body harness end are terminated together at the frame rail under the battery. If you take out the intake and battery, it's not too hard to get to. Or go from the bottom side, jack the car up and take the inner fender plastic out, but that's probably more of a pain... I usually use a steel brush or wheel on my drill to clean up that kind of stuff... don't breathe the dust though, if it's got battery acid and corrosion all over it.

True that. Our headlights are a switched ground. The middle, or orange, has constant power, and the headlight switch switches ground to complete the circuit.

What works really well for cleaning terminals is a little baking soda/water paste. Put it on there, it'll eat away at the acid.

I LOVE IT!!!

...i had checked the fuses before....they looked good...i was in a hurry tho when i did.
so maybe i missed the burn mark in the one...on the one side.

BUT

that was the problem.

i spent like 3 hours total tryin to find the ground wire, which by the way is a PAIN IN THE ASS to find, let alone get to!
take it off, clean it up, and put it back on!

when that didnt help, and i didnt haev a volt meter, i decided to check the fuses again, and i saw it was burnt up.

thanks for the help guys. even tho it was not what i needed to do, i have learned something new.
i now know where, and how to take care of grounding issues on my cavalier, if i ever run into that problem!

again, thanks for the advise!

-brent.

not to hi-jack or anything, but is this the most common spot to check for corrosion of the harness?

lol. im done with this thread, SinisterZ, but yes, i would have to go ahead and say yes. even not knowing for sure.
ive heard that the batteries leak on j-bodies all the time from what ive heard, and from what ive read. mine exploded!
and leaked all over the harness and melted my headlight wires! i had to buy a new one and mechanic put on,
caz ive never dealt with a harness before! but yes, with any headlight issues, i would check this first!
...actually, i would check my fuses next time very first, hahahahaaa!!!!

lol, yeah i suppose i could do that again. im pretty sure they were fine, maybe ill pull the battery this weekend and see if i cant see anything..