Headlight issue

[Sharp Charge]

What's up everyone? It's been a busy summer so I haven't been in here too much. I've developed an issue maybe you guys have seen or can help troubleshoot.

My headlights alternately shut off out of the blue. It's usually when I first start the truck. If I whack it with a hammer fist the light comes back on. It doesn't happen every time but here and there.

Tonight when I was pulling the Ram back into the garage after changing the oil in the wife's Jeep, I noticed this time the drivers side light was off. So since I had time, I hopped out and started looking under the hood for any obvious issues. No dice. No visibly jacked up wires, no rodent damage, I didn't tap into any headlight sources when I wired up my grill lights last year.

So I hit the bright lights and that light didn't illuminate in the drivers side either. After about a min, the passenger side light shut off too when I had the brights on, both bulbs. Again, I thumped it and it came on, then I did the same on the drivers side and the light illuminated normally in high and low.

Any thoughts? I'm kinda confused but I've got a Gremlin running around in the wires somewhere.

 

['12RamExpress]

Are these factory headlights? To me it sounds like a bad ground but it could be a number of things like the bulb is bad or the connection is loose really the only way to tell would be to pull the headlights out and probe the ends of the factory connection to see if they are getting power and if that's the case you can try new bulbs. If that doesn't work you probably have the gremlins eating your wires somewhere causing a short. Another long shot would be the fuse, I'm just kind of naming simple things I can think to check before it becomes a major scavenger hunt
Best of luck

 

[SILVER_BULLET]

i just had a similar problem with my driver side headlight too and i traced it down to the big green plug thats behind the headlight it seemed like it had somehow gotten twisted and was pinching the wires so i straightened it out and put it somewhere where it wouldnt move much and the headlight has been fine for about a week so im hoping thatll be the end of my issues. it might be worth the time to check yours out

 

[Sharp Charge]

Are these factory headlights? To me it sounds like a bad ground but it could be a number of things like the bulb is bad or the connection is loose really the only way to tell would be to pull the headlights out and probe the ends of the factory connection to see if they are getting power and if that's the case you can try new bulbs. If that doesn't work you probably have the gremlins eating your wires somewhere causing a short. Another long shot would be the fuse, I'm just kind of naming simple things I can think to check before it becomes a major scavenger hunt
Best of luck

Yup, factory lights, never been out of the truck. I already checked the fuse, but if it were that then both lights would be out simultaneously.

i just had a similar problem with my driver side headlight too and i traced it down to the big green plug thats behind the headlight it seemed like it had somehow gotten twisted and was pinching the wires so i straightened it out and put it somewhere where it wouldnt move much and the headlight has been fine for about a week so im hoping thatll be the end of my issues. it might be worth the time to check yours out

I'll take a look at that tomorrow.

Tonight on my way home my drivers side light shut off after driving for 15 min. The parking lights stay lit just the headlights go out.

 

[SILVER_BULLET]

Mine was the same the parking and blinker would work but the low and high beam wouldn't

 

['12RamExpress]

Yup, factory lights, never been out of the truck. I already checked the fuse, but if it were that then both lights would be out simultaneously.



I'll take a look at that tomorrow.

Tonight on my way home my drivers side light shut off after driving for 15 min. The parking lights stay lit just the headlights go out.

They r typically desperate connectors it wouldn't be hard for them to not be fully connected if the red locking tab wasn't pushed all the way from the factory they might eventually rattle loose but the only way to really tell is pull the headlights which isn't too bad of a task lots of videos online showing how to