Hey all,

Last night we were out on town, and headlights just stopped working. I checked the fuse in the power distribution under hood, and not blown. all lights work except headlights, had to keep the flash to pass stick pulled back to drive home last night.

Anyone had this problem before, I need some help..

Thanks

 

check the headlight switch itself, they are known to go bad in these trucks. I actually just changed one in my dad's Dakota, and the switch was burnt and melted all to hell. I think that's the 3rd one he's has in it now. His lights would just shut off randomly as he was driving, and a wiggle of the switch would usually bring em back on. VERY unsettling driving along at night and losing all lights

Edit: here's a cell phone pic of it. Hard to tell, but it's a big mess of burnt wires, and the posts that the main power wires are attached to broke right clean out of the switch body. just a broken, brittle mess

 

will check the switch, i don't have any headlights at all. they stopped working completely. if the switch goes bad, can you just have all the other lights, that work on that switch?

 

ya I'm pretty sure all his lights were still working ok, just the headlights went out. The truck had fogs at one time but they have long since been broken, but the park lights still worked.

He also has a 99 Ram, me and my wife used it to travel on our honeymoon. It had a switch issue as well that popped up on us while on the I-95. Same thing, headlights would go out, but all parks, the foglights, and the DRLs stayed on. We used it like that for a week while we were away, and it only happened somewhat randomly, but a wiggle of the switch worked.

I'd check it and get it out of there asap, I dunno how that Dakota didn't burnt to the ground it was that bad.

 

Thanks Maxx,

I am going to go get a new switch this afternoon, and install it, see what happens.
Appreciate your help

 

Wouldn't a relay closer to the headlights installed after the switch was replaced take care of this problem once and for all? And for those of us that don't have this problem yet wouldn't the same relay also prevent it from happening? Plus if done right your head lights would be a bit brighter.

 

Yup, we have a DIY for this. Haven't done it myself yet, but I think I will

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...-write-up.html

taztech, it doesn't happen very often , but I could be wrong .... I would check your switch first to be sure that's what it is before you go out and buy one. Although I am willing to bet that it is.

 

not long ago, i started smelling a smell in my truck when the lights were on. it kinda smelled like wood smoke, i figured that i drove by somewhere and it got caught in my truck....then one mornin i was drivin to work and it looked like i was flashing the car in front of me, sure enuff it was the switch and it had started melting on the back side like that pic ^

 

Ok, replaced the switch. still nothing, traced grounds and all good. 3 terminals were burned on the switch. Now question I have , after i took mine out, my wires looked like the picture above, in Maxx's post. So am I going to have to replace the harness connector?

I am going to check out the diy post and see whats up with relay..

 

Ok that looks a little bit down the road, if else fails.. I noticed that my high beam wand on the column, don't click and stay clicked. Could this be the problem? I noticed in the haynes manual something about the multi function switch connector?

any ideas?