Gauges won't work! Alarming lights stay on! Headlights flickr

I'd first check the instrument panel regulator.

Does the battery have plenty of power to start the engine?

Is the ground cable that is hooked to the negative side of the battery properly grounded to the vehicle chassis?

Is/are the voltage Regulator/s functioning properly?

Is your alternator functioning properly?

Any recent repairs, modifications or damage?

I have more questions which may be helpful, but lets start with those few.

Check your grounds. Battery to chassis has sent me 'round the bend' more times than I would like to admit. Pretty common on Chevy's but usually the last item when all else fails. Symptoms include erratic turn signals/brake lights, no illumination, dead in the road until it cools down, etc., etc.. Get up under the rear bumper and clean that neutral/ground connection from the wire bundle too.

Luck, Carl

This is a good suggestion, I have the same model vehicle and I have had this problem. There is a strap that leads from the body to the engine block and along with the negative cable are connected to the trans axle bolt nearest to the radiator. This one is usually ok but where the strap jumps to the body right under the battery case it will come loose.

They manufacturer installs this with a self tapping screw through the thin metal here instead of grounding it to the actual frame part of the front end. I moved it to the better thicker material of the K-frame and had no issues after that. Might give it a look see. Especially if you have had any corrosion from the battery what so ever.

There is also another one of these flat straps under the dash connecting the dash to the firewall. this has been an issue on other cars I have owned.

The fact that you have swapped the + and - cables however has probably fried enough of your electrical system that the car is junk.

I don't think he meant he'd swapped them, just replaced them both.

He didn't switch the + to the - cables.

He put new cables on the proper connections.

Good luck finding which Ground isn't making good contact. It seems like they put them dam things everywhere and finding the bad one is never easy.

A 2002 chevy cavalier uses the on-board diagnostic system, so you should be able to get a trouble code which should tell you where to start looking.

The OP didn't say that he "swapped" the battery cables. He said that he "changed" them, which I believe to mean "replaced" them.

To the OP, you obviously don't understand a thing about electricity therefore it would be very unwise to start digging about in your car wiring.

What you really need to do is get your car to an auto-electrician...before you & the car go up in smoke.

Sounds to me like the ground to the chassis is faulty!

I am guessing your car does not start. you probably have a poor connection at a major power point, a poor ground, or corrosion in a vital connector. Check the cable that goes from the starter to the car. There might be a fusable link in the harness that may be corroded or burnt.

Follow the main power cable to the fuse block under the hood. Examine the ring terminal there. Follow the engine ground to the body ground, examine connections there.

Beyond that you will need diagnostic tools and a schematic.

My humble suggestion would be to go to the local library and look in a Mitchell's, Hayne's or other type of MANUAL for the WIRING DIAGRAM for your particular Make, Model and Year. That said, you will most likely find a Fusible Link and or some form of Voltage Stabilizer on the inlet side of your guage harness. How about the Fuse in the block (next to the parking brake ?) that is marked Instrument Cluster

" Thats All Folks"

GLB

It just sounds like a very flat battery. Have you tried charging it?

The main fuse link connection maybe loose, this is where the wiring harness connects to the fuse panel.

Classic corroded earth star point (s)

http://www.alldata.com/ They sell a years subscription for your car appx. $30.00

They have good wiring diagrams well worth the money. Check the instrument panel ground.

Cavaliers have aknown problem with the instrument cluster. Replace it.

I would have to agree about the instrument cluster. For some reason those digital readout types don't seem to stand up well to vibration. The one on my Z24 went bad and it was so frustrating I traded the thing off. Great little car otherwise.

Have you been to the car wash lately and power washed the engine compartment? If so, chances are you got water into a bulkhead connector and it has shorted connections or started to corrode some of them. Been there, done that. Also, did you concentrate on cleaning the alternator with the sprayer? Did you use Gunk to loosen any heavy grease? All big mistakes.

If you think the problem is ground related, connect clip lead ends to an 12' piece and a 3' piece of 10ga or larger. Connect one end of each lead to the negative battery terminal. Connect the other end of the 3' lead to a cleaned up bolt head on the engine block. If you can still create the observed problem, clip the other end of the 12' lead to a pointy object, ice pick or such, and go around the car, under the dash and in the engine compartment poking at the chassis, under dash structure and anything that should be a ground surface in the engine compartment while observing if there is any change to the observed problem. Because of the multiple vibration isolators used in cars, there are usually two or three ground straps connecting the drive train to the chassis. If an engine or transmission was removed at some time, the omission of a ground strap is possible.

After that, try to find a current or voltage regulator for the dash panel.

The inclusion of dim headlights in your problem would usually point to a bad ground since the headlights usually are powered directly through a relay that is switched through a dash panel switch, which is fused. Flickering would be caused by the dash panel switch switching an uncontrolled voltage/current that controls the relay. If the flickering was severe enough, the relay contacts for the headlight current may have arced and created a resistance high enough that only allows dim headlights. Feel the relays carefully, looking for a hot one.