Both headlamps / headlights completely dead
 

Noticed today that my drivers side low beam was dead. The DS high beam was ok. The passenger side low and high beam were both ok too. But whenever one lamp does burn out, I replace both sides. So I did, but before reattaching the wheel well covers and reinstalling the tires, I fire up the car to test them.

BOTH SIDES COMPLETELY DEAD. Both low and high beams, dead and dead. So I reinstall the one older, but good lamp that I took out from the passenger side. That one is now completely dead, low and high. Hmmm, OK, must be the fuses. In the HHR there are 4 fuses, one each for low and high beam, both sides, AND a fuse for the daytime running lights. I checked all 5 fuses, all are OK. So then I swap the headlamp/DRL relay with the horn relay (same part number) but still nothing, and the horn worked with the swapped relay. But still no lights.

Any ideas as to what might have happened? The only other thing I can think of is that left side stalk controller has gone bad, but why would it happen when merely replacing lamps?

what year

I solved the problem, sort of. I started to wonder if somehow the cars computer was no working correctly. So I did a Powertrain Control Module (PCM) reset. I disconnected the cables going to the negative terminal of the battery for about 20 minutes. After reconnecting, BAM! all of the headlights are working. I then followed the procedure to properly reset the PCM for all of the engine's needs.

But the question remains, what would have caused the PCM to not let me turn the lights back on? Now that I think about it, maybe it was not the PCM at all? I did not reconnect the battery cable right away. Something else electrical may have gotten reset after I reconnected the battery. Any ideas?

I don't know, you seem to know some PCM reset procedure.

It is the BCM that controls the headlights, but disconnecting the battery does the same thing to it.

Could be loose ground wires, low battery, loose bulb connections. Age, the filaments broke.

Seems somewhat similar to a problem that I had last year - my fuse panel under the hood was acting up. Had to disassemble, clean, reassemble and try to make sure they were secure. Haven't had any problems since then (about 10,xxx miles).


I never tried disconnecting my battery for that problem - but I don't think a reset would have corrected those connection issues.

You should have disconnected the battery before working on the fuse box .

Ooooooooh I DID, I DID! hahahahah "THAT'S why he looked like Don King at his funeral"