Headlight Harness Potential fire hazard?

[RedFury]

So a few days ago, the Girlfriend was driving the aveo and she realized about halfway home, it was very dark. Turns out, headlights were completely out. Had her take my other car the next day and stepped out to see what was going on. I turned the headlights on, and checked. Sure enough, no headlights. I wiggled the passenger plug a little and they both popped on. Hmm...what is going on?

Figuring the bulbs were about shot, i decided to remove them to take a look.

I went to pop the passenger bulb out and couldn't get the harness off. Odd, so I switched to the driver side. It was stubborn, but popped off after some wrangling. That's when i noticed it. The plug was black on the nuetral side and bubbled up as seen here:


So I called the local Chevrolet dealership and explained what had happened.
They wouldn't quote me anything over the phone but asked i set an appointment.

Saturday rolls around and it's time for my appointment. I roll up and they bring out a form for me, which states clearly that there is zero cost for them to look at it. JUST as I'm about to sign the paperwork, the Associate tells me there is a $130 diagnostic fee.

I had just renewed the plates on the car, and money was tight. But they legitimately wanted $130 dollars to pop the hood and look at the burnt connectors. Never any mention of any kind of diagnostics or anything, just pop the hood and take a look.

I told them to bring my car back around.

Long story short, I headed over to a local autoparts store and was told that melted headlight connectors are a common thing in these, is this right?

Anyways, picked up a set of High Heat connectors, which had a proper rubber shield over them to prevent water from getting into the connectors, some wire crimps and some dielectric grease for good measure(didnt end up using) and took about 40 minutes to replace the connectors.


Headlights have been bright and clock flickering inside the car has stopped.

Am I alone with this issue?

Let me know!

[06T200]

I think this burning is caused by the DRL that run the lights all the time, even in severe heat. I have disabled the DRL feature to avoid this issue. Not sure if that is the actual cause, but does not help to not run the lights during 100+ degree days.

[jamesd]

I am not sure what year and model is your car but there is a recall for a similar issue with the Aveo. I just bought and 2005 Aveo with 166k miles on it fairly cheap. I decided to take it to my local Chevy dealer to see if there were any recalls and sure enough there was. For the DRLs. Part was replaced and fixed free of charge. Recall was a saftey concern where it may catch fire. You may want to check it out.

[RedFury]

Sorry for the necro, but for jamesd, I had done the recall for the DRL mosfet much earlier and at the time i had just changed my bulbs and the connectors were ok. BUT as an update to this post, the high heat connectors are still going strong, and I haven't had to change my bulbs since. they are still as bright as the day I installed them!

[xintersecty]

I swapped my head light around and did not have a problem with the connector. I have been hanging on this forum a long time and have not seen this issues. I suspect you had a bad install on both connectors on the harness. I bet the burnt wire is the ground connector.

[RabbitWithoutEars]

You are not alone. I don't think this should happen at any time in a car's life.

[rhyder7]

Have no problems with my connectors also.

[sjcleckley1]

FYI my 2008 dash instrement and clock lights along with right side running side marker lights and tail lights and shifter lights it turned out there is a buss connector where several wires are connected together it in the fuse box under the hood from front of car it on the right side of the box about 2 inches long sort of a trans lucent light cream color right side left side if you orient it siting in the car it burns like the headlight makes a bad connection on the power