Greetings fellow MCF friends!

I’ve got a 2002 DE edition. Several years ago I upgraded the headlight bulbs to the newer white version. Recently I’ve realized that when I completely turn on the high beams the low beams shut off. If I gently pull the lever vs fully engaging it both beams stay on. Are both beams supposed to be on when the high beams are being used or is it one or the other? If they’re both supposed to be on, any idea why they’re not?

Thks!

 

How you described it is exactly how it worked in my 00 and 03 Impalas. Turning on the high beams shut off the lows.

There are people that modify them so both stay on when highs are engaged, but I never felt the need.

 

That is standard behavior for the headlights. High beams are different bulbs using a housing that does a wider spread of the light. Low beams are note as spread. All is as it should be.

 

How might someone do that modification?

 

Depends how the circuit is wired - its worth taking a look at the wiring diagram to determine the best path forward for your specific vehicle.

What I've done on other cars:
-Add a new standalone fused circuit capable of powering the low beams
-Run that new power to the power INPUT of a newly added relay.
-Use the switched +12 high beam circuit as the on trigger for the relay (just tap into it - it still needs to power the high beams, this is just using the signal to trigger a relay to power the lows from your new circuit).
-Tie in the relay's power OUTPUT to the low beam headlights +12 wire
-Just upstream from where you tied into the low beam power wire, I'll cut the factory wire and splice in a diode. This isolates your new power feed so it can't send power back upstream to the switch, etc. Some cars have other things fed off of this, so its safer to keep the power flowing in one direction only.

It's really more labor than anything depending how easy it is to access wiring - materials are under $10.

There can be other ways to accomplish this depending how the car is wired, but this is a method that works for almost any conventional headlight car.