This 2001 Chevrolet Impala came in with the complaint that the low beam headlights would not work. I went to the headlight bulb and found power on both terminals of the low beam bulb. This indicates that a ground is missing. After looking at a wiring diagram I determined that there were several possibilities: broken wire, loose ground connection at left side of dash, blown fuse,faulty headlamp relay, faulty dimmer switch and faulty body control computer. The dimmer switch however was the one point were most things could be checked. I removed the lower dash cover and the metal bracket behind it to access the wiring connector.
The yellow connector is for the airbag system and the connector that I was looking for is just below it.
Working room was pretty tight and the plastic edges are very sharp so I pulled the connector down to gain better access.
The white lever has to be flipped over to separate the two connector halves.
With the connector separated I decided to reattach it to it’s mounting clip. You can see the mounting clip for the air bag connector just in front of the connector.
From looking at diagrams earlier I had determined that I needed to check terminal C4, Dark Blue for bleed through power from the low beam headlight bulbs. It is the second terminal from the right in the second row down. Terminal C3, Light Blue is the ground supply wire that is sent to the dimmer switch from the headlamp relay. I do not know why the color codes change from the main harness to the combination switch harness but on the main harness side the C3 wire is Light Blue and on the combination switch harness the wire is yellow. On the main harness side the C4 wire is Dark Blue and on the combination switch side it is Brown.
Anyhow, I had bleed through power on the C4 terminal and I had ground on C3. I could touch the two wires together and the low beams would come on. Diagnosis of a faulty combination switch. Now that I had it diagnosed, all I had left to do was to change the switch. I had to remove the steering column cover. There are two torx screws attaching the lower cover and the tilt lever had to be pulled out of the column. There are two inverted torx screws holding the upper cover from the inside that have to be removed. Once the covers are removed the two attaching screws can be removed.
I use a torx bit and 1/4″ ratcheting wrench because it allows me to change the switch without removing the steering wheel and air bag. Takes a little coordination and effort but it saves a lot of time.
There are a couple of wire ties that have to be removed and one harness support that needs to be unclipped. Then the cruise control subharness can be detached.
The wire connector also has to be removed from the shifter interlock solenoid.
Out with the old and in with the new and all is well. I took a picture of the headlight relay. It is the upper, larger rectangular box that cannot be fully seen in the picture. This view is of the backside of the fuse box that is at the left end of the instrument panel.
Thanks for the information it helped a great deal with my light situation.
Check all of your fuses. Restore the wiring and relay to factory design. Describe the problem from there and I will see what I can offer in assistance.
I’m curious. I have a toggle switch where I ran a ground to the chassis under the hood and the power to the ground of the headlight assembly harness ground wire. Switch had power because it glows. But I only had high beams. If I turned the high beams off, nothing. The idea behind this was that I found out I had a intermittent short in the ground. I wasn’t getting DRL lights but when I went from the ground of the harness connector of the pass side headlight assembly to the chassis I had high beams, pass side only. Now the headlight went off again and I reran the ground from the switch and moved it to the driver side headlight assembly (behind the assembly there is a screw for the chassis with, I assume, 2 ground wires attached. Nothing! I pulled the DRL Relay as It was causing the headlights to stay on only when car was off and killing the battery. Since I removed the relay I haven’t had that issue again, but the toggle can’t be grounded as it won’t light up anymore and the headlights also won’t work. I tested the multifunction switch, all is fine there as it was turning on and off the high beams. Only trouble was, again, when I turn high beams off, I go from 1 pass side high beam light to nothing at all. Can you give advice? I will donate!
I would start by checking the fuses for the headlights and inspecting the harness connector at the problematic headlight.
Need help Sparky , turn on headlights drivers side works fine but pass. side both are lit but real dim and stay that way when I switch from high to low