We have an 06 Equinox, and lately the low beams have been working intermittently. Also, I don’t think the running lights are working either. Low beams don’t work on auto or in the “on” position. The high beams do work. We took it to the dealership yesterday and they said we had a bad resistor and replaced it for $270. Tonight my wife tried to drive home after dark and no headlights. She has to take this vehicle on a business trip soon. Any help is appreciated.
Did The Dealer Mention Or Write Down Anything About Body Diagnostic Trouble Codes They Would Have Obtained By Scanning The Body Control Module ?
Did they physically check all the wiring ? Do you know how they (seemingly wrongly) determined that a resistor needed to be replaced ? What all did they do for $270 ?
CSA
I don’t know if they checked the wiring. I think since the running lights weren’t working either they looked at the resistor, it looked corroded, and they replaced it. Should I take it back to this dealership or just cut my losses and try someplace else?
At $270, and a day later? I’d go back. I’d also request (nicely) that they fix it under some sort of warranty. Clearly, whatever you paid them to do didn’t fix it.
Most likely they handled the part that’s causing problems, but didn’t troubleshoot and actually fix it. For example: It could be the wiring where the resistor connects…they disturbed it, and it worked for a bit.
I Do See That There Is A DRL (Daytime Running Lights) Resistor In These Vehicles And It Sometimes Causes The DRLs To Become Inoperative.
Perhaps they got a body code (B2600) for DRL Lamp Control Circuit, saw a little corrosion (CYA ?) and just replaced the resistor.
I’d think they would at least scan codes for you and maybe recheck everything and wiggle some wires. Give the Service Manager / Director a call and politely (at first try) express your angst and frustration.
Have you ever noticed only one light out ? Has it always been two ? Sometimes it’s possible to have an unnoticed intermittent headlight bulb and then get another. I had one bad bulb on my Bonneville make the DRLs inoperative. Stranger things have happened.
Have you ever tried clicking the headlight / DRL switch and the H/L dimmer switch to see if either procedure turns on the lights.
I’d see if there is a relay (non-critical) with the exact same GM part number in the relay block that you could swap with the H/L relay and see if that’s it.
CSA
It’s been both at the same time every time. And when they aren’t working, when I to turn them on, there’s a clicking noise around the fuses. It’s just a single click, and I don’t notice it make that noise when the lights are working.
After looking at some data for the lights I’m not sure why the resistor was replaced. It isn’t used when the low beams are turned on with the switch.
Since the low beams don’t also work in the AUTO mode this makes me think there is a bad wire connection that is common to both turn on modes. There is a dark blue wire tieing to the dash fuse panel at positions C2 and jumpered to A10. By placing a grounded jumper lead on either of those points you should be able to manually turn on the low beams. If they don’t come on then you need to see if placing a ground connection on pin A8 (again, DK Blue wire) of the fuse panel under the hood turns on the lights. If it does then the wire connection between those points needs to be checked for a bad connection.
The shop owes you on this repair in my opinion. They didn’t fix the trouble you already paid them to fix. A good shop should acknowledge that also. I think the resistor was replaced needlessly but I wasn’t there so it is hard to say what happened with that. I can say, it can’t cause the trouble you are having, that is for sure.
Thanks for that comment. We took it back to the shop this morning, and I just got a calling saying there was a short in the relay so they replaced that piece of wiring. Let’s see if this does it…
Thanks For The Update. We Always Appreciate It.
Hope that takes care of it.
Did the dealer cover it or charge you a reasonable amount ?
CSA
So now they are claiming a shorted relay is the cause of the trouble, interesting. Relays don’t normally short, they do commonly fail due to bad contact connections. I did notice a couple of relays being used in the light circuit but I could not see how they could be causing the kind of trouble you are (were?) having due to the circuit design. Hopefully I am wrong and they have now truely found the correct cause of the problem and fixed it. If the trouble still comes back though then the area I suggested before to look at should be investigated. Hopefully you weren’t charged for the follow up repair.
No charge for the follow up… that’s the good news, and I don’t expect to be charged when I take it back in tomorrow…The invoice says “swapped headlamp relay with DRL relay. all working at this time.” That was at 5:30PM when I picked the car up.
We were out this evening and the lights were initially working ok, but by 9:30, no lights again. I plan to take it in for the Saturday hours and take in your report on the wire connections.
Do you think the fact that it will make a click noise around the fuse area when they’re not working (but no click when they are working) is an even better indication that this connection is the problem?
Hopefully the lights will stay broken so when the shop looks at it AGAIN they will find and fix the real trouble. I had a suspicion that changing the relay wasn’t going to help with this trouble. It sounds to me they are just guessing at a fix for the trouble but maybe the lights are working ok when they are working on the trouble. It is hard to pin down the trouble then. The only thing to me is that, both of the things you mention that were replaced can’t cause the type of problem you are having. The trouble is only with the low beams when turned on manually or it the AUTO mode. The only thing that I saw common to those controls was the wiring between those points and the lights that I mentioned earlier. The lights have power running to them at all times. They are turned on by making a connection to ground.
I’m not sure what to think about the clicking you mentioned. There are some relays in the circuit so I suspect that is what you are hearing but I can’t explain why you don’t hear them when the lights work ok.