GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

For a reason known only to his noodliness, My little green light that lets me know that the headlights are on stopped working this last weekend. Accompanying this annoying trait, the HVAC backlights also stopped working when the headlights are on. The lights are all stock, no DRL or sensor modding here. The headlights still seem to work on the daylight sensor, turning on and off properly. I just don't get any indication of whether or not they're on and have to fumble for the A/C in the dark... High beam indicator works great as do the rest of the gauges.

Anybody have any idea what might cause this?

Better double-check to make sure your tail lights are working, they're on the same circuit as your instrument panel lighting.

Check the TAIL fuse if they are not working.

Tail fuse blew, changed it and it blew immediately when I turned the headlights on... No clue why, although I suspect a wiring issue.

OK, so the only lights out in the cabin are the HVAC lights and the green headlight indicator light in the gauge cluster. The tail lights don't work although I haven't checked the license plate lights or the reverse lights...

I did a search on google and on the here and came up with a post talking about light bulbs being resistors and giving some idea what might be wrong. However that person's issue was related to a wire in the automatic transmission backlighting by the shift lever.

Frankly electronics are a bit over my head and I'm freaking out as I don't really have the money to take the car to a shop... I'm trying to put together a checklist of things to check, any help you guys could give me would be massively appreciated!

Looks like my next step is to check the relay located above the glove box. I haven't replaced any of the lights on that fuse with an LED, nor have I modified anything on that fuse so the relay should be my next step. Wish me luck guys!

To take out a 15 amp fuse, you have a dead short in the circuit. Without a wiring diagram and voltmeter to trace the wiring out, your going to be guessing. Good luck.....I had something like this with the wife's mini-van. It took me all weekend tearing the dash apart to trace it out and in that case it was the passenger side electric seat switch that was jammed by the kids playing with it. They had it stuck and internally shorted. This is why shops charge by the hour for this kind of repair. The only things you can rule out are the things that are not on the wiring diagram for that circuit until you start testing and tracing.

The tail light and illumination wiring diagram for an 03 Matrix (same as for your 03 Vibe) was uploaded here somewhere else, and can be found at http://forums.genvibe.com/files/importe ... -020ti.pdf

I'd probably start by pulling out the trim piece left of the steering column that has the dimmer switch and mirror controls, and disconnect the electrical connector from the back of it, replace the TAIL fuse and see if it blows again. Disconnecting the dimmer will isolate two parts of the circuit powered by the TAIL fuse. If the problem is in that switch, or in one of the things that the dimmer controls, then you'd at least have tail lights ( a critical safety thing)

Your signature says you've replaced the OEM NAV radio. The OEM radio was tied into the TAIL circuit, and the new one may be or may not be, depending on how it was wired up. That may be your only mod that taps the TAIL circuit, so that would make it a suspect. Perhaps whoever did the radio swap didn't properly insulate one of the wires, and its now shorting. Thats a guess, but since its a mod, that makes it suspect.

Seems unlikely, but if the TAIL fuse still blows after you disconnect the dimmer switch, you could try removing the four running lamp bulbs (one in each corner of the car} and see if it continues to blow a new fuse

Alright, I've added all the things you guys suggested to the list, here we go...

Thank the FSM for easy fixes!

I pulled the dimmer control, fuse still blew.

Pulled the relays above the glove box and swapped em out, fuse still blew... Ps that third bolt that attaches the relay box to the dash beam is a B*TCH!!

Pulled the stereo out and found that the power wire had rubbed enough on something to wear through the shrink wrap where I soldered it, causing my short. Bit of electrical tape and I'm good to go!

Thank you guys so much for your help, I thought the stereo was on the dome fuse and would've never checked it!