# How screwed am i? (no interior lights, no reverse lights, and turn signals messed up)



## 2013LT (Jul 3, 2013)

Your toast. You should have had the body shop guy put the OEM lights back on and then take it to the dealer. However they would probably figure out it was tampered with anyway. Put the OEM lights on and take it to a different dealership and hope they haven't flagged you. I'm not sure if the dealerships computers talk to one another regarding maintenance.


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## Rocky87 (Apr 28, 2013)

I ditto what 2013lt said


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## 99_XC600 (Feb 24, 2013)

You're screwed.


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## NYCruizer (Jul 10, 2013)

You need to put it back to stock in order to determine whether the BCM is "destroyed". Those aftermarket lights have LEDs. LEDs require resistors in order to function correctly in an electrical circuit. Resistors can fail - and they can fail "open", in which case they have infinite resistance and conduct 0 electricity, or they can fail "closed" in which case they conduct all electricity with no resistance (e.g. short circuit).

All it would take is one bad resistor to cause faults in the electronics of the BCM. 

It's not necessarily true that the BCM is "destroyed", it's *possible *that by removing the aftermarket pieces, everything will return to normal - though with the map and overhead light being out, my guess is you may have some damage.


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## sciphi (Aug 26, 2011)

Next time power everything in those headlights, and I mean everything, with separate circuits. It will cost more. It will also be done the right way the first time. Powering HID's or other lights off the stock circuits in a Cruze that depends on the BCM to do so much is unfortunately inviting trouble.


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## Kantamanto1 (Oct 12, 2012)

sciphi said:


> Next time power everything in those headlights, and I mean everything, with separate circuits. It will cost more. It will also be done the right way the first time. Powering HID's or other lights off the stock circuits in a Cruze that depends on the BCM to do so much is unfortunately inviting trouble.


 
after replacing my damaged BCM can i just rewire everything and power my LED tails and LED/CCFL headlights with separate circuits? will doing this save me all the stress and problems in the future? because i really love these lights and want to keep them i just want to correct this problem and see that it never happens again. 

so is it safe to say doing this will keep everything running smooth when i re wire it?


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## Kantamanto1 (Oct 12, 2012)

I really need help with this, some are saying I just need to replace the fuses


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## CW_ (Jan 31, 2013)

First of all, if you still have the OEM lights, put them back in, or at the very least, disconnect the aftermarket headlights, because whatever they blew out will probably just blow out again. Your dealer *should* have checked fuses, but you can check them again to be sure. If you find a blown fuse, do not replace it with a higher amperage fuse, that's asking for an electrical fire (forgive me if I sound condescending, I have seen people do this before).

Do you have a multimeter? That's the most sure-fire way to test a fuse, set your multimeter to measure resistance (ohms, commonly labled with greek letter Omega) and set it to the lowest scale if it's not auto-ranging. Pull the fuses one by one, and check for continuity between the terminals. They should all read around 0 ohms (maybe 1 or 2 if your meter isn't super accurate). The Cruze has two fuse panels, one inside the car below the headlight switch, and the other underneath the hood near the battery. Your owner's manual actually has pretty decent pictures of these and explains how to open them (in-car one is pretty obvious, underhood one is slightly more tricky but still not brain surgery). Check every single fuse. Yeah, that's probably overkill, but who knows what all is linked together. If you find a blown one, cross your fingers and replace it. If they're all good, you're probably just screwed. It may also be worth asking your dealer to check all of the wiring prior to replacing any parts (maybe an overcurrent melted insulation on some wires, it would really suck to replace the BCM and have it blow up again immediately because you have a short somewhere in the system).

If you don't have a multimeter, you may be able to visually inspect the fuses, but this isn't 100% foolproof since it relies on you having good eyes, and the fuse being blown in a place where you can see it. The underhood fusebox has a mixture of relays, small fuses, and big fuses (Picture here http://i.imgur.com/HC2kT.jpg). The big fuses (colored blocks with numbers like 30, 40, etc. on them) you can look at the top of, there should be a strip of wire inside them. The black and gray blocks that you can't see inside are relays, not fuses. They can't really be checked without a multimeter. The smaller fuses (the much smaller colored blocks with smaller numbers like 5, 10, 20 on them) you will have to pull out to inspect visually. They have a strip of metal inside them, if the strip is broken, the fuse is blown. (Picture here: http://www.bdfuses.com/images/Fuse2_med_med.jpg - good fuse is on the left, bad one is on the right).


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## SneakerFix (Jul 28, 2013)

First replace the stock lamps then take it to the dealer to have that relay replace you can leave the tails in Can you post the link where u got them.


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## CW_ (Jan 31, 2013)

One more piece of advice: if the dealer says that the aftermarket lights caused the problem, I'd look into getting the guy who installed them or the company that made the lights to pay up. When you sell aftermarket parts for a car, you have a responsibility to make sure they're safe and won't damage the car. Unfortunately getting some ebay seller to pony up could be tough, but if nothing else you might be able to dispute through eBay and get the cost of the lights refunded - eBay is very buyer-friendly when it comes to such things.


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## TheMaterial (Sep 5, 2012)

Go to your local parts store. Buy a test light, should be $20 or more if it's a digital read out. 

Discconect your current lights, make sure any bare wires are tapped or cut.

go into the car, turn the lights on manually

locate the two fuse panels in the car

ground one end of the test light, take the pointy end and proceed to check both sides of every fuse in the car. (There will be a tiny metal area exposed on the fuses) 

if the light lights up fuse is good, no light it's either an auxiliary/acc fuse or it's blown. Pull the fuse (needle nose pliers work best) if you don't see the connection broken your good. 

If they all check out, your SOL and to the dealer you go. It sounds like a fuse though.


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