# DRL flickering while driving, pulled over by State Police



## ajb62787 (Feb 13, 2018)

I've noticed in the past couple days where my DRL would randomly start flickering when driving, thinking its electrical on my '18 Cruze Diesel Hatch. I pushed in the connector all the way, thinking it was good. Tonight, the flickering reappeared in a rather unfortunate way when I got pulled over by Virginia State Police while on my way into work. He pulled me over and said my headlights were flickering and "blinding other drivers". I was baffled because they were Daytime Running Lights and not my actual headlights. I got out of my car and checked my headlights. They looked good. The trooper asked me to pop the hood, which I did and he immediately began smacking the right headlight to see if he could find the problem. He found the problem by hitting a cylinder cap on the back of the headlight to where it would brighten and dim repeatedly. Its a wiring issue on the inside of the headlight. He asked me how far I was going and I told him about an extra 15 minutes down the road. He gave me a verbal warning to get that checked out as it was my DRL and not my actual headlight.

Could I repair whatever the issue is myself without taking it to a Chevy dealership or should I just go ahead and buy a whole new headlight assembly?


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## Maqcro1 (Apr 29, 2019)

when you say flickering are you meaning that the bulb actually shuts off and back on quickly or the light vibrates/moves?


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## ajb62787 (Feb 13, 2018)

It’s the lighting ‘V’ strip as displayed in the CruzeTalk site logo. The entire strip goes from dim to bright.


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## Maqcro1 (Apr 29, 2019)

Ahh ok got it. I was gonna say a lot of newer cars have dynamic adjusting with the LED headlights. I see it more often now when looking in the rear view mirror. The headlights will seem like they are shaking or flickering.


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## Maqcro1 (Apr 29, 2019)

if just moving the wiring causes the lights to change from dim to bright it could be a bad ground, loose or corroded wiring. 

I don’t own a gen 2 Cruze but I’m sure you could disassemble the connector to make sure there is no corrosion or lose wiring and then put it back together.


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## Blasirl (Mar 31, 2015)

ajb62787 said:


> I've noticed in the past couple days where my DRL would randomly start flickering when driving, thinking its electrical on my '18 Cruze Diesel Hatch. I pushed in the connector all the way, thinking it was good. Tonight, the flickering reappeared in a rather unfortunate way when I got pulled over by Virginia State Police while on my way into work. He pulled me over and said my headlights were flickering and "blinding other drivers". I was baffled because they were Daytime Running Lights and not my actual headlights. I got out of my car and checked my headlights. They looked good. The trooper asked me to pop the hood, which I did and he immediately began smacking the right headlight to see if he could find the problem. He found the problem by hitting a cylinder cap on the back of the headlight to where it would brighten and dim repeatedly. Its a wiring issue on the inside of the headlight. He asked me how far I was going and I told him about an extra 15 minutes down the road. He gave me a verbal warning to get that checked out as it was my DRL and not my actual headlight.
> 
> Could I repair whatever the issue is myself without taking it to a Chevy dealership or should I just go ahead and buy a whole new headlight assembly?


Make sure none of the wires are abraded or broken, then gently tug on the individual wires/connectors to make sure they are still snug. Now disconnect it.
Once you have the connection apart, try spraying some electrical contact cleaner on them, maybe use a pencil eraser to help clean it up, then blow it dry with compressed air and lastly put a dab of dielectric grease on it.


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