Repost: No high beam on chevrolet cavalier ( with update! )

Hi there.

Thanks for the replies to my previous post. I thought I should repost
it with the new news as the older one gets left way behind.

I went through pretty much everything I was advised on from before but
still had the same problem. Changed the relay also. I then noticed that
the connection wasn't too clever on the actually plug that fits into
the bulb on the passenger side high/low beam light. (It's a plug with
an orange and a blue wire going in but it's sealed) Got a new one and
connected the cables ............. BINGO ........ all lights running as
normal. Great I thought. Wrapped the joints seperate in electrical tape
and then sealed everything up. Started up the car but then everything
went back to the problem stage :-(

This morning, I just unwrapped all the black tape and left the wires
bare (separated of course) started up and all the lights work !!! What
on earth is going on there? Seal them up and I have a problem, leave
them bare and everything works. It's so odd it's quite comical.

Hopefully someone else has come across this problem and can put me out
of my misery.

Thanks and look forward to any replies.

Andrew

Perhaps you have a mechanically flaky connector and the act of wrapping
electrical tape around this and that knocks it loose. This would jibe
with the venerable troubleshooting wisdom that connectors are often the
site of weird intermittent problems.

A brushable rubber product called "liquid electrical tape" might
insulate them without further disturbance and also provide some
mechanical stabilization, but if you conclude that the problem is
definitely the connector (does wiggling it or its wires reproduce the
symptoms?) replacing it would be the high-road solution.

Cheers,
--Joe

On Sun, 21 Aug 2005, andrew123 wrote:

> I went through pretty much everything I was advised on from before but
> still had the same problem. Changed the relay also. I then noticed that
> the connection wasn't too clever on the actually plug that fits into the
> bulb on the passenger side high/low beam light. (It's a plug with an
> orange and a blue wire going in but it's sealed) Got a new one and
> connected the cables ............. BINGO ........ all lights running as
> normal. Great I thought. Wrapped the joints seperate in electrical tape
> and then sealed everything up. Started up the car but then everything
> went back to the problem stage :-(

Most of the replacement 9005 bulb plugs you get at a parts store are very
poor quality. You might want to contact Candlepower (candlepowerinc.com),
they have the actual plastic housings and terminals so you can crimp your
own onto sturdy (12 or 14 gauge) wire.

Thanks for the replies.

The new plug seems to be ok going into the actual bulb socket. The
wires in the old one were loose. The problems seems to arise from the
new connections. The two wires coming off the new plug are around 6
inches. I have connected these to the old original two wires coming out
the depths of the car. When the new connections are left open showing
just the actual wire joints, the lights work fine. Cover them up with
electric tape and put everything back together, I lose the lights.
Strange.

Going to try it again in 10 mins a see what happens

Andrew