First, I had recently changed my passenger headlight, which is a bit of a pain because you basically remove the whole front end of the car by removing bolts, screws and flat plastic inserts (Left). But I'm not writing about that, you can figure that one out. A few months after changing the headlight, it went out again. It didn't make any sense. I found time to get a new headlight and replace it, but it didn't work. I took the car apart to get a better look, and I noticed my socket had melted a bit (Right). Note: Always use gloves when dealing with the bulb. Hand oils decrease the life.
I realized, "Shit this means I have to replace the socket, which requires cutting wires and putting them back together." With an aggravated sigh, I left my car in shambles and took my girlfriend's car to an auto part store down the road.
After a several minutes with the dude there, he gave me a socket he said would work. Taking him on his word, I took it home and went to put the bulb in it, and it didn't fit. It was already dark, so, I said, "screw it", put my car back together to get after it the next day.
The next day, I took the socket back the the same franchise, but a different location where the dude actually knew what he was talking about. I had brought the light with me this time and it plugged in correctly. The only problem was it had two black wires and the original socket had two black and one yellow, but ALL of the replacement sockets only had two wires.
I got everything situated to mess with the wires, which includes disconnecting the battery (Right).Things needed:
Gloves
Wire Cutter (small box cutter)
Electrical Tape
Socket
Headlight
Needle-nose Pliers10mm wrench and/or socket
I learned after the fact, but I cut one of the wires too short, so, make sure you cut the wires pretty close to the old socket. I ended up cutting more off the old wire to extend a wire (Right). Where I got most confused was the fact I only had two wires and the other wires were connected to other lights. I ended up putting one new black wire with the yellow wire, then one black wire with all the other wires, which came out to be like 5 wires I had to twist together (Left).Be careful with cutting the plastic off around the wires. The wires are very small copper wires and will break if your knife is too sharp. Mine did, and if you do that, you have to cut further down so all copper wires are the same length. Be slow and cautious, or use better tools than me.
Speaking of being careful. I have a tendency to do things too tight. I broke a bolt off in a hole when tightening (Left).
Twist the small copper wires together, clockwise, just a few twists, it doesn't have to be too tight, just easily manageable, and again you don't want to break them. When twisting five wires together with the tape, it looked like a triangle (Right).
A few weeks later I have people flashing their lights at me and one guy pulled to the side of me to tell me that my brake lights were working, but my driving tail lights weren't. It was also later that night I realized some interior lights were out too.
Days after driving only during day or having hazards flashing at night, I found time to tinker with things. I did research and thought I might have blown a fuse. I went to a different auto part store all together and talked with a guy there who convinced me my back bulbs were out and that "it couldn't be the fuse". Not sure how he did that because the same light bulbs are used for my blinkers and my blinkers worked. The issue was they didn't stay illuminated at night while driving. But I bought a bulb and replaced it anyway.
For the record, replacing back bulbs are a lot easier than replacing the headlight bulbs.
After replacing the bulb, I turned on the car and nothing. I searched through the manual to find the fuse boxes and details. I found the driving tail lights and some interior lights were in the fuse box in the trunk. I pulled out several fuses to find a blown one, and a 10 amp fuse was blown. It was separated at the curved peak and black. I went inside and bought a box of fuses. I replaced the fuse, turned on the car. Nothing. I checked the fuse I just replaced, and it was blown. I gave up for the day, had discussions and did more research to find I needed to go back to the wiring I did for the headlight.
I went back and untied my triangle. I decided to eliminate one wire that was on the left. It goes to the little side yellow light attached to the headlight. I didn't find it important in this situation, so, I twisted it, bent it on itself, and wrapped it with tape (Left). Turns out, that was the same wire I cut too short and extended before.
Then, I just had four wires. I left the yellow wire where it was, then connected one wire to one wire, then the other two to each other. Twisted and taped nice (Right), changed the fuse in the trunk again, connected the battery, cranked up the car and everything works, except of course those front yellow lights, but whatever. It's been a week or so since I've done that, and everything still works properly.
There are better ways to connect the wires than just taping them, but that's what I did with the knowledge that I have. Hopefully this helps someone out in the future and eliminates some time and issues before doing the same thing. I'll also have a video posted at some point and will attach it here. The passenger headlight certainly seems to be an issue with a range of Chevy vehicles. But I still love me a Chevy.
Here's the video.
