Need Help with headlight issue

[clintwinstead]

OK, so I have an 01 Ram 1500, 5.9 gas.

Here is what happened:
I had one good light with no issues on the drivers side, but the passenger side was very dim, and not affected when you switched on the brights. In other words, it burned the same all the time, and not even bright enough to be as bright as the other on dim.

So I got new bulbs, and they do the same thing, making me think it's a grounding issue. I could not see anywhere that the wiring was broke or frayed, so I ran a wire from the ground on the back of the plastic piece where the bulb plugs in and to a bolt on the fender and sure enough, both the lights work on bright an dim.

However when I did they they wouldn't turn off. So I unhooked the wire and have the same original problem of the passenger side light being way too dim.

Has anybody else had this happen?
Suggestions?

 

[ace940]

It wouldnt hurt to clean all of the grounds you can find anyways and put some dialectric grease on them as well to prevent them from corroding again. You could also try replacing the pigtail. Since they are usually like 5$

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

 

[sbarron]

when you turn your headlight switch on, rather than it sending power to your headlights, it completes the circuit to ground. there is always power to your headlights, it just can't get to ground unless the switch is on. When you ran your ground wire, you completed that circuit, by removing (bypassing) the switch.

Your issue lies between the dim headlight and the switch itself. Check your plugs behind the headlights, where the loom enters the cab. Pull your headlight switch and look for burnt or loose wiring, (pretty common).

 

[johnbradshow]

I think some wires are probably short-circuited...