I have two questions that are bugging me on my 2002 SSEi.

First, is there a way to make the headlights/foglights do what i want them to do instead of the car? Do i have to remove a fuse or something? The car always turns the lights on when it'* getting dark out and i don't want that. I'd like to be able to just run with foglights and parking lights until it gets dark enough to turn on headlights. My 1992 SSEi let me do what i wanted. :?

Second question, having tranny probs. One problem i'm having is the torque converter locking up too soon. It locks sometimes at 28mph. Most other times it will lock right on top of 3rd gear. Even other times it will lock when i'm trying to accelerate, then i have to let off the gas to disengage lockup and accelerate harder. Another problem is 2-1 and 1-2 shift. When i'm slowing down and it downshifts from 2-1 and i try to accelerate, instead of the tranny staying in 1, it will immediately shift to 2 as i press that gas. This causes a brief pause in acceleration for the tranny to go from 2-1 and then immediately from 1-2 when it should've stayed in 1 a little longer. My tranny does this quite frequently. Seems electronic to me and a tranny shop. I was told that if i had the tranny reprogrammed, it might help. Any thoughts?

Pulling fuse 30 (daytime running lights) worked for me. It doesn't keep the sensor from turning on the lights for you, but if you set your headlight switch to parking lights (half stop) and then turn your fog lights on, you'll be driving with only fog lights (but I wouldn't do this close to dawn or dusk. Your fogs are too dim and too low (and too small on my GXP) to be safe.

The automatic lights on/off system is the best cheap safety feature on GMs. I hate the DRLs though. If the system knows when it is time to turn on your lights, why do you need them on all day? We in the US (except Alaska) are far enough south not to have the low sun angles that prompted the Canadians to mandate them. My GXP has the DRLs on the low beams which means I have to diasble them to use some brands of the brighter clearer Xenon or other type bulbs.

What you described re: the tranny sounds exactly like what happened on my 96 SSE before the tranny went out. I was told it might be torque converter, tranny needs serviced, blah, blah, blah. Still lost 4th gear. The guys here know far more than I about fixing tranny problems.

Hang in for a minute. To retain the automatic features of the lights and stop the DRL'* there is a way with a jumper.


One of the 00 GH'* will be along soon with the actual way.

You need to jumper out the DRL relay in the underhood fuse block. Pull the relay and jumper the terminals in the fuse block with a short piece of wire with spade locks on the end. looking at the side of the relay you just pulled figure out which terminals are 30 and 87a and jumper these out in the relay block.

Never heard of reprogramming a tranny, you can make adjustments like line pressure and shift points but thats about it.
Do you do a lot of high speed cruising and passing in OD? Thats how I cooked my tranny, stock sun gear wont take it.

correct. this also allows you to run with fogs ONLY and not parking lights

Is there a way just to run parking lights and fogs with no headlights a night. Because my blues and my angels look amazing when its parked but when i go to drive away BOOM .....instant daylight

yes, using the method described will allow this

*UPDATE*

I just got my car back from having a different engine put in and it seems like the torque converter is acting normal, though i don't know why swapping engines would do that, unless there was a poor connection or having the battery disconnected reset something. All good for now.

There is a TSB about problems with the 20 way connector on the transaxle, that I imagine may have been removed during the engine replacement. Howver, that would set codes, and the symptom was also listed as very harsh shifts, so not sure that would explain it.

I sometimes have that problem if I don't eat enough fibre.