Hi all, Happy New Year, and HELP. Took my 04 Monte Carlo to what is supposed to be a reliable car stereo place. I wanted to get an aftermarket backup camera and touchscreen display and decided to go with a pioneer unit with a nice screen. They also put in front and rear sensors in the bumpers with a separate sonar unit. Previously it just had the stock radio/ no onstar. Anyway, they did a nice job, everything seemed to work right during the day. Last night was driving out for New Years and discovered the headlights were dead. The bright light worked if you held the lever up, would not click and stay on. I know there are all sorts of things in the stock radio that control settings, but was curious if anyone knew the most likely thing they messed up or forgot to hook up. Of course they're closed today and tomorrow with the holiday, and I can't drive at night. One other odd thing I noticed. I guess my rear view mirror lights hadn't been working or powered prior to the aftermarket install, because they were now on and working. I had tried them last week for the first time in years and they definitely didn't work. Probably irrelevant. Anyway, much thanks on possible cause of headlights being out, or other things to check. Thanks.

 

Step 1: Remove aftermarket crap.

I mean, really. It's exactly like my story about the 06 GTO I drove that now had SiriusXM, but also had a leaky rear window due to the antenna install.

Which do you do more of, back up or drive at night?

 

Y, I'm regretting it at the moment. Since every other button, light and system are working fine, and the backup camera/pioneer screen w Bluetooth are working perfectly, I was hoping someone could give me an idea where a wire or ground would most likely be unattached or other. The brights work when the lever is held up, just won't stay on, and headlights never work. A few years back it was doing similar thing and it was the multi switch, but they never got near that on the install. Hoping it's some ground wire or other wire came off somewhere. Going back to shop tomorrow after 3 nights of no headlights, but am concerned.

 

First, to my knowledge, unless the company that did the install cut a factory wire, blew a fuse or disconnected and forgot to re-connect something, I do not believe anything required to install and aftermarket radio (with or without the backup cams) should impact the headlights on a 00-05 Monte. Yes, the radio is more then just a radio in these cars. The door chime runs through it and GM used the radio as a better interface to some of the computer controls (such as resetting the oil life or tire pressure systems). But the radio has NO control to if you head lights come on or not.

My thoughts are the multi-function switch (aka, the wand to control the head lights) went bad oddly at the same time (those are frequent to fail in these cars and even some other GMs, I went through 3-4 in my '94 Grand Am in the 9 years I owned it).

 

Thanks. Just had new multifunction switch a year ago or so. Curious where a wire would most likely be cut or not connected. Other sites said maybe a ground ??!

 

It really depends on what the installer did. When I've installed aftermarket radios in my cars, I avoid any wiring cutting (when I've done a remote start kit on two cars, I did have to mess with the factory wiring). I know sometimes when I have installed things, I might disconnect a harness to get better access.

I would start with checking your fuses and make sure they are good. If they are good, consider a visit to your installer. See if they can help. But it keep in mind, the problem could be coincidental timing.

 

Just started a new post about the headlight saga which continues.

 

I was going to save the multifunction switch would be my first guess seeing as though I replaced three of them because they caused my headlights to go out

 

So 5 days ago the headlight relay was replaced. They stopped working once about an hour later after driving 5 miles from the shop, I turned around and they came back on and never turned off again. Have driven it extensively for 5 days, tried every switch, dimmer, fob, etc, cannot get the light to not work. Still too early to call it a cure since it had that one early failure for no apparent reason, but maybe a good remission. We'll see.

 

I hope you don't have that issue when you are driving at night