Problems with headlights on a 94 Dodge Dakota 4x4

Question

The headlights on our truck are messing up, and we are trying to get them to work. If we go without a bulb on the drivers side of the vehicle, the passenger side works, but if we put a bulb in the drivers side, neither headlight works unless I hold the dimmer switch to the steering wheel as if I'm trying to put them on brights. As soon as I release, it goes dark again. Help! We are trying to find cheap ways to fix it as we are low income.

We bought it used back in March after a young lady had hit a deer with it and had taken out the drivers side headlight and assembly. My hubby has replaced the assembly, but now this is going on. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Sounds like one of those bulbs may have a short in it , I'd pick up a cheap set of replacement bulbs and try them.

Do the high beams work properly both lights working?If when you turn on the high beams with both bulbs installed the bulbs both work but when you're trying low beams they aren't working at all and when just the passengers bulb is alone connected it works......That would be a sign of some type of short , plus I bet you've tried switching the two headlites and seeing if suddenly the drivers side works when connected alone and passengers is dead or if when both connected they are dead again.If so then forsure some kind of short exists but I'd still try a set of new bulbs to be sure it's not some kind of weird bulb short going on here.

What you can try is buying a 12volt lite probe tester for about 10 to 20 bucks you can buy a nice one that is solid and will last you a lifetime, I suggest if youve a Princess Auto by you to try there for that tool bec they sell a variety of them.

No1 have both the bulbs out of their sockets and clamp the wire off the probe onto the ground or negative post on battery

No 2 Turn on the low beams and take the test probes tip and place it into the socket that the drivers side headlite plugs into try both of the outside wires that are on the headlite wire plug.Does the probe lite up by using it to connect to both of the terminals that the bulb would connect to?1 Of those two outside wires or connectors should become live and lite up the probe.

No 3 Turn the highbeams on then try the opposite outside wire on the plug. Does the probe lite up now on the second wire with high beams on?

No4 Try the exact same tests on the other headlites socket plug and see if you get the probe to cause both outside terminals or wires to lite up when the low or high beams are on.

No5 basically if you've gotten the two sockets to have two indivual lives via the low and high beam switches then so far that circuit is okay.If one of the sockets doesn't have 2 different lives switch indivually on by the headlite swith check the fuses in the fuse boxes there is one under the hood other inside vehicle and the inside fuse box should have a list of fuse functions , look for the headlite low and high beam fuses.There should be 4 fuses one each for each low beam and same for high beams.

No6 If both of the sockets had a high beam current and low beam current cause the probe to light up then try adding one of the headlie bulbs to the circuit and conduct the same tests you just performed.

No7 If both sockets give you still current and the headlite is working for both high and low beam and lighing up the probe then try the same bulb in the other socket and perform same tests again.

No8 If again you get the probe lighting at the test points it should try to install the other bulb and conduct same tests of the two outside wires on the sockets.

  No9 If then suddenly with both bulbs in the tests are out of whack try changing those two bulbs and always change headlites together  all at once when replacing any headlites.

No10 a very important test to conduct is try stripping a bit of wire  rapping a bared wire onto the probes clamp ground wire lead and then have bulbs out of sockets and try to get the other end of that wire stripped a bit and stick it into the centre connector on the headlite socket plug.

No11 turn on the headlites and and use the probes tip to check the other two connections on the plug , also try again with high beams on.

No12 Basically the probe should of lit up twice at each socket but if you know the wire you've in the centre of plug connected to the probes lead ground clip.......and the probe fails to lite up when it should , then the centre wire needs to be replaced or fixed bed thats the ground or negative feed to the headlites.

Hope that helps and best of luck.By the way for sure check the wiring harness's on both of these headlites and try tracing them back and seeing if any part of it is melted or frayed or shorted out or damaged or bare etc.If you find a lot of cracks in the wiring that shows you've probablly rotted or corroded or faulty wiring and maybe a broken wire or faulty wire internally.

One last resort suggestion is to try going to a big do it yourself auto wreckers and clip off the wiring for the headlites socket and all and as long as possible.Plus you can try getting the headlite switch and maybe the high beam control too.But basically then you could even grab another set of headlite bulbs and then try connecting the two spare sockets up together so you'd have each one of the 3 wires of the one socket wrapped around the other sockets wire. Then add bulbs and try touching one of the sockets outside wires to the positive battery post and connect the centre wire to the negative battery post, then switch the outside wires you connect to positive battery post.

You should then know if the bulbs you have are in fact good and if the problem really is socket or harness or fuse related.  

Answer 2

It sounds like an electrical issue to me. Maybe a short?

Answer 3

one really simple thing you can do on this one is check the ground wires on the head lights,on each side and also take a 12 volt test light and see if you get voltage to the socket for the bulb that wont seem to work right,it sounds like the ground wire has just broken off,a simple 12 volt test light may find the problem on this one,at the worst it could turn out to be would be the dimmer switch may be burnt out,that will knock one side of the lights out when they go bad,good luck.