Five problems related to headlights have been reported for the 1996 Dodge RAM. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Dt: consumer states: the headlight switch keeps burning up in his 1996 Dodge Ram truck. It is burning the wire harness that goes to the headlight switch. It could go out at any time. He had it replaced about 3-4 months ago and it is out again. He has talked to the dealer and they have made a special wire harness to splice into the wiring on the truck. They have had a lot of problems with this same thing. The dealer said Chrysler was aware of the problem. He can be going down the road, and the lights will just go out. You can park it for a while, when you come back to start the car and switch on the headlights the headlights will not work. The last time he had it replaced, the wiring had melted the insulation.
During failure all of the warning lights flash the transmission goes haywire and the tachometer goes haywire. This truck has been at three different shops, we have changed out the transmission relay, the headlight lamp, serviced the transmisison and still cannot find the cause. In addition, we have replace a radio which has shorted out and the fuel indicator doesn't work. Both of which failed before the truck was three years old, unfortuneately just out of warranty.
Headlamp switch and connector melted, amperage overload, reinstalled relay assembly and headlamp switch, notified by dealer that there is no recall on this, yet they are aware of the problem because they have redesigned the relay assembly.
The headlights went out when I changed to high beams. I pulled off and cycle the switch and they came on. This happened several times. I continued to drive with just the low beams. The dealer said the "multi-function switch" had failed and replaced it. I think it is only fortunate that an accident did not occur.
While driving with the signal lights on, they may go off, also experience problems with high beams and the low beams.