9006/0995 Low/High Beam Fitment Issues

I know there are a lot of headlight threads on the site but i am thoroughly perplexed and cant find an answer. The service manual (and every other source i have seen) lists our lows as 9006 and our highs as 9005, however when i consulted the manual on replacing the low beam lamp (simply reaching in behind the headlight and turning the bulb and i pulled out the high beam 9005 lamp. I double checked myself and also turned the lights on to ensure that what i had was indeed my high beam and it is. Ive never had a problem with my lights being adjusted incorrectly or anything to my knowledge but from reading the service manual it sounds like my highs and lows are switched in my headlights. So my question is which socket has the highs and which has the lows, my car is set up so my highs are in the smaller socket closer to the center of the car and the lows are closer to the sides of the car. is this backwards or what. can someone clear this up for me. Thanks.

Inside lamps are high beams (9005). Outside lamps are low beams (9006). The daytime running lamps are the high beams at lower voltage. To use the lows in the day you need to turn on the switch.

It is possible to substitute 9005 bulbs for 9006 if you modify the mount by simply cutting out a tab with a dremel or pliers. Some one could have done this in your case. Check the bulbs for modification.

AA is correct. Another tip for the future, the bulbs on the right side of the car have left-handed threads. God knows why...

Really? I never knew the bulbs were marked "L" & "R". Have I gotten lucky all this time?

Correction, the bulb-sockets (in the headlight assy) are reversed on the right side, resulting in having to turn the bulbs right to remove and left to install...

krazyfish wrote:

I know there are a lot of headlight threads on the site but i am thoroughly perplexed and cant find an answer. The service manual (and every other source i have seen) lists our lows as 9006 and our highs as 9005, however when i consulted the manual on replacing the low beam lamp (simply reaching in behind the headlight and turning the bulb and i pulled out the high beam 9005 lamp. I double checked myself and also turned the lights on to ensure that what i had was indeed my high beam and it is. Ive never had a problem with my lights being adjusted incorrectly or anything to my knowledge but from reading the service manual it sounds like my highs and lows are switched in my headlights. So my question is which socket has the highs and which has the lows, my car is set up so my highs are in the smaller socket closer to the center of the car and the lows are closer to the sides of the car. is this backwards or what. can someone clear this up for me. Thanks.

You have the correct bulbs installed in the correct location.
After reading the responses you got, I Was confused, but your car is as it should be.

Thanks for clearing it up guy s, i took a look at the FSM and realized i was interpreting it wrong. and about the sockets changing direction from left to right, reminds me of some older (i believe) Chrysler vehicles that would do that with their lug nuts. turn to the from tightened on both sides and turn to the rear loosened.

You guys that are, or have used, the PIAA bulbs(extreme white plus)... any problems with the installation? I finally had a little free time this evening to swap in the low beam 9006 PIAA bulbs I got from Summit in the winter, but it all came to a screeching halt on the passenger side.

The female sockets on the stock bulbs are not identical. The driver side has a single guide/slot inside the socket, centered. But the passenger side has a pair of these guides/slots(whatever you call them..), set apart equally far from center. These properly match up with the stock male connectors. Problem is, the PIAA bulbs are both the same. They both have just the single centered guide inside the female housing. There's no way the passenger side stock male connector will fit into the PIAA bulb.

I figure either PIAA screwed up when they packaged these, or my stock wiring isn't quite stock these days, or it's necessary to take out the dremel and grind off the single guide on the passenger side PIAA bulb. Anyone else have this problem? I didn't want to rush into trying to take the dremel to this socket housing, and was running out of time, so I stuck the stock bulbs back in.

Anyone have any feedback on this? I'm intending to check with Summit and/or PIAA tomorrow, but was hoping there might be some insights here first. If you don't understand my explanation of what these guides/slots are in the female socket, I'll snap a pic in a while after I have the kids to bed.

Sorry for the long boring explanation.

Also, on the passenger side bulb, were you able to change the low beam bulb easily? I could get it done with the help of my daughter's smaller hand only, but of course then I found the socket problem. I haven't checked the FSM yet, but I'm guessing I'll find directions that say there is some headlight assy removal required, or special tools from GM.

As for removing the headlight assys you won't need GM tools. You *may* have to drop the bumper cover, which is way easier than it sounds.

As for the headlight socket issue, not sure. Kinda wonder if you got the low beams and the high beams mixed up but I doubt it. Kind of wonder if the PO changed a socket (any splices?). I don't know anyone else who has your problem. I'll wait until you post pics.

Albertj

A pic of the PIAA socket. Note the single guide at the top of the housing. My passenger side male connector has a double slot design, no way to get it to fit without modifying it.

No need to drop the bumper, my daughter can get her hand in there easily and plug in the stock bulb. My hands are simply way too big for the passenger side. The driver side is easy of course. No signs of the wiring having been spliced in the past.

No, I don't have the lows and highs mixed up.

The stock driver side bulb socket is identical to the PIAA I posted.

I may take the easy way out and dremel off that single guide, very carefully. I don't think it would be missed.

I don't want to go blaming PIAA of mis-packaging these bulbs, if my Riv is the only one here with non-identical low beam connectors. Would be great if someone could confirm whether or not they have the same or mismatched connectors too.

Dave,
I checked mine and they both have the single tab / slot. I save my OEM's and put them in the PIAA plastic case for safe keeping.
Don't know how yours would be different.
How did the OEM bulb fit in or does it have the dual guides.?
Rick

1998 Riv wrote:

I don't want to go blaming PIAA of mis-packaging these bulbs, if my Riv is the only one here with non-identical low beam connectors. Would be great if someone could confirm whether or not they have the same or mismatched connectors too.

Short answer - my connectors are the same.

Long answer - I strongly suspect your Riv's hi and low beam sockets might have been swapped into the wrong holes in the headlamp housing during a prior headlight bulb change, or something else happened. Thinking about it, you might want to read the bulb numbers off the bulbs you removed, they should still be readable. See which number bulb was in which socket and please post the numbers. That could answer a lot.

You are probably aware that the lo beams are supposed to be the outermost, hi beams are innermost in the headlight housings on each side.

I do not know of anycar, let alone the Riv, that would not have identical R/L low-beam plugs.

Albertj

Rick, yes, the OEM bulb on the right side has dual guides instead of single, thus it fit perfectly with the male connector.

Albert, the oem bulbs are back on the car, I have to drive it every day. I know I did look at the # on one for sure, and it was a 9006 as it should be. But I don't recall if that was the left or right bulb I happened to look at.

I hadn't considered the idea that someone could have mistakenly switched the low/high wiring at some point. But, why would the high beam connectors use dual guides? Just to be different than the low beam connectors? Next time I get a chance, I may pull a high beam bulb to see what design it is.

I'll be damned... the FSM does in fact show that the low beam connectors have single guides, and the high beam connectors have dual guides. The low beam wiring is also differently colored than the high beam wiring, so it should be a snap to ID if the wires were swapped low/high, as it seems happened at some point.

Low beams have tan and black wires. Highs have Lt green/Black on the left, and Lt green/Dark Blue on the right. Where's my flashlight...

When I have the low beams turned on, it is in fact the 2 outside lamps that are on. So the wires themselves are not switched, there is simply an incorrect connector on my right side low beam wiring. That's how I would intrepret the situation. I'll pull that stock bulb again and figure I'll find a 9005 instead of a 9006.

Wonder how the hell this got screwed up.

Now you're on it!

Worst case is you'll need a little pick to slip the pins out of the wiring connectors and swap them or some such.

As for how it got screwed up, only the PO knows for sure. Would not be surprised to find a front end collision in your Riv's past. Collision repair is light years ahead of what it was even 5 years ago and a body shop using updated techniques, paints and processes can make repairs without leaving any readily discernable trace. The truth is that most of them cut corners and you can find them, such as paint on rubber body gaskets or overspray in wheel housings or on undercarriage.

Point is - you found it, you can fix it, and once fixed it's not gonna be an issue ever again. Once and done. Congrats.

Albertj


Albertj

What a moron.... I was in such a hurry to get this done before I ran out of daylight last night, that I actually pulled the high beam bulb out by mistake when I moved over to swap the left side bulb. No wonder I had to have my daughter pull the bulb out. The REAL low beam bulb is a piece of cake.

Albert, my apologies. I brushed off your comments about mixing up the bulbs, because I knew I had the low beam... Go ahead and me for not rechecking the simplest solution first.

So I took 15min and did the swap at noon today. Not sure when I'll next be driving it at night to see if there seems to be an improvement. I suspect there will be though.

Now to schedule that gas fill pipe project.

1998 Riv wrote:

What a moron.... I was in such a hurry to get this done before I ran out of daylight last night, that I actually pulled the high beam bulb out by mistake when I moved over to swap the left side bulb. No wonder I had to have my daughter pull the bulb out. The REAL low beam bulb is a piece of cake.

Albert, my apologies. I brushed off your comments about mixing up the bulbs, because I knew I had the low beam... Go ahead and me for not rechecking the simplest solution first.

So I took 15min and did the swap at noon today. Not sure when I'll next be driving it at night to see if there seems to be an improvement. I suspect there will be though.

Now to schedule that gas fill pipe project.

No, no whacking. Apology accepted, glad you figured the whole thing out.

Good luck with the fill pipe, there are some posts about that floating around this editboard as well.

Albertj

I was going to post that i checked my high beam (9005) and saw the 2 slot's on it.
So, I was going to say to you something got cross-wired somehow.
But you have figured that out and don't need us to RUB IT IN.
Now about that FUEL PIPE..........