08 Aveo Curiosity questions...

1) Sometimes brakes seem to be soft (To the floor) when engine is first started. This is kind of an annoyance when backing out of the driveway without letting it sit or pumping prior and the vehicle continues to roll so hand brake is usually at the ready. Issue resolves itself after 10 seconds like nothing ever happened so im guessing brakes are probably vacuum assisted and there's a problem with the line?

2) My indicator light for my high beams is blindingly bright like the power of a thousand suns. It's almost a road hazard to myself to drive with them on without positioning my head to obscure it with the steering wheel and to make matters worse it doesn't seem to be wired into the instrumentation dimmer. So the question is how much of a pain in the ass is it to get the instrumentation cluster apart so I can slap a resistor on that light? link pointing to instructions/guide would be greatly appreciated .

3) My airbag light is on but the question is if the problem is fixed will the light go off or will it absolutely "need" to be reset? I haven't gotten around to troubleshooting it but searching on the forum for similar issues doesn't seem to provide any clarity if the light goes on it's on for good until reset or if it would go away on it's own if the issue is solved or both.

get a bluetooth ODBII scanner and look for any codes that would show up with airbag light. Maybe there is something wrong with your dash wiring

Your brake issue does sound like a booster problem. There is a tool that attaches to the master cylinder that measures vacuum. It is a tool that most people don't own. You may need to go to brake shope for that. In addition, there is a dye that can be added that can be seen with a blacklight (this test is like the motor oil leak test) if you think the problem is fluid related. -

The blinding light issue might be fixed by just using a lower wattage bulb, like say a 161=1 watt bulb, vs 168/194=3 watt bulb.

As for the brakes, I would suspect a leaky hose or bad booster leaking vacuum. As for the air bag light, we have had them do both, where one time the light came on and stayed on, then after having it reset in the BCM, it came on again later, but only was on until a person was in the passenger seat, then it went out and has never come on since. So it depends on what triggered it.

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Originally Posted by xintersecty

get a bluetooth ODBII scanner and look for any codes that would show up with airbag light. Maybe there is something wrong with your dash wiring

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Never actually used a scanner before but after looking at a few they seem fairly inexpensive to pick one up for some problem solving on the airbag.

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Originally Posted by jimbomac1961

Your brake issue does sound like a booster problem. There is a tool that attaches to the master cylinder that measures vacuum. It is a tool that most people don't own. You may need to go to brake shope for that. In addition, there is a dye that can be added that can be seen with a blacklight (this test is like the motor oil leak test) if you think the problem is fluid related. -

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Welp I guess I'll take a peek at the vac line, I'm confident it's not in the line as it resolves itself (like new) in a short period so I assumed it was a being lazy at pulling a vacuum at first start after it has been sitting awhile.

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Originally Posted by 06T200

The blinding light issue might be fixed by just using a lower wattage bulb, like say a 161=1 watt bulb, vs 168/194=3 watt bulb.

As for the brakes, I would suspect a leaky hose or bad booster leaking vacuum. As for the air bag light, we have had them do both, where one time the light came on and stayed on, then after having it reset in the BCM, it came on again later, but only was on until a person was in the passenger seat, then it went out and has never come on since. So it depends on what triggered it.

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I'm certain that the indicators brilliant blue hue is from the work of an overly high powered LED and not a bulb so if I had to guess due to the longevity that it's probably not socketed in any way shape or form to ever accept those bulbs.
The indicator will need to have a higher specd LED soldered into it or a few resistors inline with it, the later being the cheapest and the former being the easiest. Heck I might just get all lazy and take a sharpie to the LED lens to dim it up a bit. I was more concerned with the difficulty of getting the cluster apart...

Thx that clears the airbag bit up :)
Also kind of unrelated but the manual states that if the airbag light is on that they may spontaneously deploy without collision which I found some what humorous, Has there ever been an documented incident where that actually happened with an aveo?