I've got a 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 with an intermittent lamp out warning light... it's very annoying because it will ding on and off 6 or 8 times in a row... then I may not hear it again for 5-minutes, a week, or a month, then it's back again. I'm guessing I have a short somewhere, but am wondering if there's a way to find out which lamp the computer thinks is out, so I at least can figure out which wires to start looking at?

I have a cheap Harbor Freight OBDII reader, but it either doesn't have the ability to gather this level of detail, or I don't know how to make it gather it!

Thanks in advance!

 

It is usually the tail light circuit board assembly that is going bad which is common. They are cheap to replace but no way of knowing which one it is. Also could be a bulb going out.

 

An bulb may be internittant as well. I had that on an 04. The bulb filament w

 

Thanks for the tips - bummer that the computer won't pass along all the information!

 

I had that issue with a headlight bulb. If it is a bulb it will eventually fail completely.

Then you will know.

 

I had the same problem...It was the plug on the left headlight and then a section of the left taillight harness

 

I had/am still having issues with this. I replaced the circuit boards/all bulbs, headlight bulbs and such. The damn chime/lamp out light only comes on during bumpy conditions, or sometimes just because. We can go days without it, and sometimes we can't go 1 minute without it constantly chiming. Aside from the random times it may come on, most of the time it's during braking and left turn signal activation. I am lost right now.

 

2006+tipm controlled Rams do, but beware what you ask for. The tipm module shuts off circuits in faults after 256X's reading that error and there's no way of "turning ON" that circuit again. Only way is to pay $6-800 for a new tipm and requires dealer programming. So, beware what you wish for...lol

I'd say circuit boards as well.

03WhiteRam, have you replaced the license plate bulbs along with the 3rd brakelight bulbs? If any of those bulbs are bad, it'll set off that dinger as well.

 

Now that I think of it, the left liscense plate bulb has been giving me issues with flickering. I just spoke to my wife back home and she is saying it still chimes when she uses the left turn signal and braking. I don't know what else it could be. I guess I will clean all the connections and recheck.

 

I'm a computer guy, so it's just annoying to me that the computer trips a dashboard indicator and dings a bell, but for whatever reason, it's not important enough to log an error code that I can read via ODBII or any other way (like using the odometer as a display) that could tell me exactly which bulb the computer "knows" (thinks) is bad.

Everything you just said about tipm (whatever that is!) also is just crazy in this day and age. Let me stick an SD card in the glovebox and log everything!

Okay, I'll take my nerd hat off now.