headlight question [Archive] - Dodge Talk Community Forum


Click Here to Visit The Planets Largest Dodge Enthusiast Community




PDA

View Full Version Of This Page : headlight question


1986w250
01-10-2008, 08:24 PM
alright, 86 w250. what's happening is when i'm driving down the road at night with my highbeams on, my lights will work fine for about 10 min. at which point they will start to flicker off and on. if i switched it to low beams, they would work fine. as soon as i turn the high beams back on, a few minutes later they will start to flicker again. now, tonight i was coming home from work and found my lights flickering again, so i tried to switch them to low beams and found the switch clicking normally, but lights will not change to low beam. i stopped and felt the headlight dimmer switch to find it warm and smelled burnt inside. so i went to the parts house and bought a new dimmer switch. same thing, cannot switch to low beam. i got home, tore apart the old dimmer switch to find the plastic has gotten hot, but the terminals aren't burnt up, and no water in the switch. i am led to believe there is a wiring problem in the circuit. now, i was wondering if any of you guys have experienced this or heard of this type of problem before and could give me a headstart on this for tommorrow's diagnosis. i plan to look at it on lunch or after work. as always, thanks to those who have taken the time to give a man a hand.

bherder
01-11-2008, 10:05 AM
I had much the same problem when I first got my truck. It turned out the headlight switch was full of this white crusty crud. Bought/installed a new headlight switch and had no probs after that...

Speed Dragon
01-11-2008, 12:41 PM
Yeah headlight switch is failing.

Chump
01-13-2008, 04:44 AM
Also check to make sure the low beams in the headlights are NOT burned out.

84 Ram
01-13-2008, 04:51 PM
I had this problem and it turned out to be the wires that are connected to the dimmer switch. Seems that years of stepping on them and them being moved aroud on the floor board had took its toll on the harness. I had a parts truck, so I cut the harness off of soldered it to the harness in my truck and it fixed the problem.

1986w250
01-13-2008, 05:00 PM
and the winner is, 84 ram! just kidding, i found the wires to be chaffed and were shorting out at the dimmer switch. i do appreciate the suggestions. did a little butt splicing and corrected the problem. thanks guys.