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  #1  
Old 01-14-2008, 04:23 PM
Groundhawg Groundhawg is offline
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Default Headlights refuse to stay on

I've got a 1996 Dodge Ram 2500 2wd 360V8 truck. At night when driving the bright lights go out. If I turn them off and right back on they come on again. Little bit later the same thing happens. Here the other night the dims did the same thing. I've replaced the dimmer switch in the column, the headlight switch, the bulbs and the bright light relay in the fuse box. The only thing left that I know of would be the wires somewhere. I was curious if anyone has ever had such a problem?
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Old 01-14-2008, 04:43 PM
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dwc43 dwc43 is offline
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Well, you changed everything I can think of. My guess was going to be the relay until I read you changed it. Might check and clean the box terminals where the relay pulgs in. Might be a bad connection, you know how bad Mopars wiring and connectors are. Might find a broke wire to the relay as well.
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Old 01-14-2008, 04:51 PM
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dwc43 dwc43 is offline
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Biggrin

I just noticed where you live. I was up that way a few years ago. Nice country side. I went up there with a friend after her father passed to pick up some personal stuff. Went to some holloween festival in a small town where they block off 4 city streets that intersect and hafve like a street fair with rides and all sorts of stuff. Even went pumpkin pickin up there. All you could carry for one price, so we picked the biggest guy out of the party and loaded him down ... lol.
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Old 01-14-2008, 07:51 PM
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Some vehicles have a timer circuit that'll shut the headlights off if you leave 'em on when you stop the car. I know our Chrysler has that, and I think my Ram does, too, though I've never tested either.

Maybe, if you have such a feature, there's something wrong in the circuit; if it doesn't recognize the ignition "ON" signal, it might just be doing what it thinks is correct. You'll need your owner's manual to see if that was offered on your truck, and probably an Factory Shop Manual to trace the circuit if that's where you want to go.

Good luck, post back.
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Old 01-14-2008, 08:02 PM
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I think that the headlight circuit is protected by a circuit breaker that re-sets after a cool down period. You might have something that is overloading the circuit causing a trip of the breaker.

I have to ask; any auxiliary lights been added to the H/L circuit recently?
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Old 01-15-2008, 12:01 AM
scredneck scredneck is offline
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My 96 1500 did that same thing to me a few years ago, but a new headlight switch fixed mine. I can't remember for certain, was there a recall on that year's Ram for the headlight switch melting?
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Old 01-15-2008, 01:08 AM
Groundhawg Groundhawg is offline
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Well I've narrowed it down. They went out just a little bit ago and when I push up on the pull out switch kinda hard they come right back on. When I relieve pressure they go back off. Is it normal for the dash above the switch to get warm? We originally replaced the switch because it would get hot and let off a burnt odor. I'm wondering if maybe the wiring harness is melted or maybe a bad new switch all together.

PS-dwc43 you probably attended the world famous pumpkin show in circleville. It's about 10 miles from chillicothe. HUGE deal around here. It celebrated it's 100th annual show last year or so.
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Old 01-15-2008, 05:58 AM
namvet67a1f namvet67a1f is offline
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WHEN the lites go out .... do the lites come on ...IF you pull the flash-to-pass?
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Old 01-15-2008, 12:28 PM
Groundhawg Groundhawg is offline
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No, I tried that last night out of curiousity
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Old 01-15-2008, 04:08 PM
namvet67a1f namvet67a1f is offline
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So the FTP does not work at all? ... how much pressure does it take to get the connectoron and off the HL switch ?
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Old 01-15-2008, 11:53 PM
scredneck scredneck is offline
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If I remember correctly there was a recall on that year Ram for headlight switches overheating. As I recall the fix was a new plug in the harness as well as the new switch. Can anyone here verify this or am I going senile again?
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Old 01-16-2008, 12:29 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scredneck View Post
If I remember correctly there was a recall on that year Ram for headlight switches overheating. As I recall the fix was a new plug in the harness as well as the new switch. Can anyone here verify this or am I going senile again?
No, not senile, at least not any more than I am. I also thought there was headlight switch problem with all Ram trucks of a certain vintage. But all I can find is this one for the '96 3500 truck.

http://dodgeram.info/tsb/recalls/819.htm
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Old 01-16-2008, 12:44 AM
scredneck scredneck is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dick View Post
No, not senile, at least not any more than I am. I also thought there was headlight switch problem with all Ram trucks of a certain vintage. But all I can find is this one for the '96 3500 truck.

http://dodgeram.info/tsb/recalls/819.htm
BINGO...that's the one...can't understand why it only shows up for 3500's, but THAT is what it took to fix the same problem with my 1500. 6 years later and still no more trouble.
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Old 01-22-2008, 09:14 PM
Groundhawg Groundhawg is offline
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What kind of harness are we talking about? I took the headlight switch out and a light green wire gets hot and has the connector melted. Does the harness have pigtails or is it just the plastic piece?
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Old 01-29-2008, 09:10 PM
Winston Smith Winston Smith is offline
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i just got done replacing the switch on my '97 1500 again a few days ago. first time was about 3-4 years ago, can't really remember. the first time i didn't replace the harness, but this time there was some melting on the switch where the harness plugs in so i went ahead and cut off the old one and spliced on the new one that comes with it.

when i first reconnected the battery, i hadn't screwed the switch back on to the dash yet. when i touched it, the round aluminum contact on the front of the switch that the pull knob goes through was hotter than heck. i went ahead and buttoned it up, but was paranoid about it all the way home. i knew they ran hot, but never knew that it was that hot, it was too hot to be able to keep a finger on it for more than a couple of seconds. i run with my headlights on day or night so i'm feeling kind of concerned about it at this point. the next day i went over to a buddy's who has an ohm meter and does electrical work at the plant he works at (the only thing i know about electricity is you can't see it and it's bad for you if you're careless). i popped the shroud off the dash and turned the headlights on and lo and behold the thing never warmed up. my buddy checked it out and couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, and after 15-20 mins the switch never did get hot, or really even warm to the touch. i don't know what the deal is, but i've got headlights again and it doesn't seem to be running too hot, so i'm just going to go with it for now. not really much of an answer, i know, i wish i knew why mine got so hot when i first reconnected it and guess i'll just be happy it didn't repeat itself. as long as i get another 4 years out of this one i'll be good with it.

i did ask the guy at the parts counter if he had any idea why they would put out a TSB on the 3500 and not the 15/2500 and he just shrugged his shoulders. neither one of us could think of a good reason why a switch getting hot would depend on the size of the truck.

Winston
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Old 01-30-2008, 04:27 AM
namvet67a1f namvet67a1f is offline
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IN my experience with this .... the connectors are NOT firm on the posts and will fry the switch, wires and connectors over time.

I just changed out my 98. ALL I did was replace the switch and connectors with the single ones. I could NOT imagine trying to pull ALL nine connectors off at the same time.

This OEM design is very bad. And Chrysler was ZERO help when I called.
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