Wiring up the lights

Hey guys, this is Rob from Grundy Area Vocational Center. I work with Andy, who has pretty much handled all of the updates. I have been in charge of the wiring for most of the build. Quick update, the car runs and drives awesome, now I am moving on to the lighting. I did not unbox the headlights, taillights and turn signals, and was told there was no wiring diagrams in the boxes. So my question is, does anyone have diagrams or an explanation as to which wire does what ie.. brake lights, running lights, turn signals, reverse light etc.. I have the factory diagrams for the cobalt so I am not worried about that, just trying to save myself some time. Thank you in advance.

Rob from GAVC

P.S. will post updated pictures soon.
 

Tony

Well-Known Member
I'm sure you've gotten it figured out by now, but I figured I'd reply to help anyone with the same question in the future (as I went through the same investigation last weekend). On the tail end, there are five wires plus ground. Brown is park/tail lights (also powers the license plate lamp if you have one). Light Blue is the center mount stop lamp, which is separate from the other stop/brake lights because the BCM integrates stop and turn on the outer lamps. Light green is reverse, dark green is right turn/brake, and yellow is left turn/brake.
 

canyon bolieu

Well-Known Member
Having a strange problem. When I hook my driver side turn signal wire (yellow) to my brake wire (light blue) then to the brake wire (red) on the taillight I’ll push the brake and then release but the light will stay on but if I take the turn signal wire (yellow) off it will work like normal. Do you have your turn signals hooked up to the reverse lights???
 

canyon bolieu

Well-Known Member
I guess this will just be the official thread on lights if anyone has pics of how they wired all the lights up or ran the wires post it up. Still need some info on the mirrior turn signals and headlights thanks guys
 

BAR-AIR

Well-Known Member
Good Evening,
I wasn’t able to move a picture over from my build log but take a look at page #25 on my log. It has a simple diagram of the headlight block and some notes on the taillights and mirrors. Hope it helps.
Bruce
 

Briann1177

Goblin Guru
Your front lighting circuits are different than the rear lights. Also, none of the lighting circuits should be connected to one another. For example, turn signals shouldn't be hooked up to reverse lights.
 

BAR-AIR

Well-Known Member
Maybe I’m missing something. Yes the front lighting circuit is entirely different then the rear circuit and yes you can not connect one to the other. The headlight block is entirely used for the front lights and signals. (Actually set it up as a separate harness going to the front of the car) and yes I did combine the low beam/high beam wires (drivers/passengers sides) going to the headlight just to reduce a couple of wires in the harness. -good bad don’t know but seems to work just fine- the only other thing in the diagram that is noted is a long purple wire that is connected with the low beam headlights (seems in most cars it is melted down that wire was shortened and re connected to itself. The diagram gives the wires and color codes for a 2008 Cobalt LT completely wired and working.
 

Karter2026

Goblin Guru
Having a strange problem. When I hook my driver side turn signal wire (yellow) to my brake wire (light blue) then to the brake wire (red) on the taillight I’ll push the brake and then release but the light will stay on but if I take the turn signal wire (yellow) off it will work like normal. Do you have your turn signals hooked up to the reverse lights???
The blue wire is CHMSL ( 3rd brake light) and should not be hooked to anything but a 3rd brake light. The yellow from the harness should go to the red wire on the tail light (driver side). The green wire should go to the red wire on the light on the passenger side
 
Hey Guys, This is what Adam sent me a while back, this solved all of my issues. My harness was good, I was just having issues because I didn't know which was which for the lights themselves. I have the wires coming out of the back of my lights

From Adam:
If you have the red connectors, the wiring is like this:
  • Bottom connector:
    • white: ground
    • red: stop/turn
    • black: tail light
  • Top connector
    • white: ground
    • red: reverse
    • black: unused
If your light has wires coming right out of the tail light:
  • Bottom three wires:
    • white: ground
    • red: stop/turn
    • black: tail light
  • Top two wires
    • white: ground
    • red: reverse
 

canyon bolieu

Well-Known Member
Yeah why not any info, pics, comments or anything else post it in this thread it will help someone some day and lonny and Adam will get less calls haha
 

canyon bolieu

Well-Known Member
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Well I finished all of my lights last night so here’s a few pics. Just wanted to show everyone how I ran them, and label the headlight plug for anyone having trouble
 

Briann1177

Goblin Guru
Would somebody be willing to post up the wires involved with the stock DF headlights and turn signals? I have the source side figured out so I'm just looking for the destination side. It looks like Rob covered the tail lights already.

I'm trying to get wiring finished up so I want to make sure I ran all the wires I need beforehand.
 

Matt TT

Active Member
Can anyone advise on the wiring for the turn signals in the mirrors? They’ve got the orange and green pair that I connected to the running and turn lights respectively, and I assumed the red was ground since it was separated. Getting absolutely nothing out of them.
 

Briann1177

Goblin Guru
And for the stock Dominator headlights, the colors are this:

High Beam White
Low Beam Yellow
Park Light Brown
Ground Black
 

Briann1177

Goblin Guru
It's very possible that we're fine even if they might not be wired up as designed. When I was hooking the individual wires up to the battery to figure out what color was what, I started with the assumption that black is ground and went from there. Also brown is typically used for park lights so that made sense in my head too.

Then again, I found out that the colors aren't consistent across manufacturers. For example, the white wires on the tail lights are grounds. **** foreign makers.
 

Matt TT

Active Member
Are your head lights working in this configuration? Mine are on full time, but I’m assuming that’s just because the ambient light sensor isn’t connected.

Anyone know which wire off the harness is the park light?
 
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