So first off, i know my headlight switch is slightly melted some due to the poor wiring from dodge. I fixed that with an aftermarket harness a year ago and things have worked good and have been getting me by. My headlights still come on when I pull the switch. My new problem is, when I was driving down a dark highway the other night, i switched from high beams to low beams and lost all lights. I was able to get them back on by wiggling the headlight switch a little. A few miles later I did the same thing, and lost all lights. So I just kept it on low beams the rest of the drive.

Fixing the switch is on my list, but since I lose headlights when I switch from high to low beams (hasn't done it from low to high), is my multifunction switch on the column going bad too? Or is this all stemming from the slightly melted headlight switch?

 

If wiggling the headlight switch brings your lights back, the headlight switch is indeed the problem.

 

Thanks heyyou. Let me ask you this, obviously the **** side of the switch can be replaced easily, but if the pigtail side of the plug is melted some too (which is likely), do you think that will NEED replaced too? Soldering the best for that? Or butt connectors with some of that heat shrink insulation?

 

Take a look, and see what you think. I think the aftermarket has figured out that dodge has a problem here, and a fair few of the replacement switches actually come WITH the pigtail. I am not really a fan of butt connectors though, solder, and heat-shrink for the win.

 

I second this, if you're going to do wire repair, solder and heat-shrink is pretty dang reliable and its a very handy skill to pick up.

You could try and see if you can replicate this while sitting in your driveway and narrow down the cause of the issue.

 

when the lights go out if you have a tilt wheel try moving the wheel up and down to see if lights come back
if they do it is the common issue on the harness where it plugs in to the multi switch
I have seen it 6 times in the last 20 years.. 3 times on family owned ram 1500s