- Joined
- Sep 2, 2019
- Posts
- 160
- Reaction score
- 170
- Location
- Arkansas
- Ram Year
- 2021
- Engine
- 5.7 Hemi (no e-Torque)
This thread is where I will post the minor things I do to my 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 SLT Quadcab 2WD. I will try to post an image or at least tell the vendor and price I paid for each thing I install. Bigger jobs will get their own threads.
Today it was new license plate lights. Mine are 18 years old, the bulbs don't work half the time and the lenses are yellowed. As I replace light assemblies and bulbs, I've been going with LED's. They make an LED license plate light assembly with fixed LED bulbs for the 3rd Gen Rams. But I decided to go with regular replacement assemblies and then just add LED bulbs. I figure it's much better to replace a $1 LED bulb in the future rather than an entire $20 assembly.
Here are the new assemblies I got. These do not come with new sockets for the bulbs. But mine are in good shape and I didn't have to unplug them from the harness. Considering the age of this wiring and it's exposure to the elements, not having to unplug the sockets is a good thing in my opinion. I used Lucas synthetic grease in the sockets. It seems to work as well as standard dielectric grease. If these assemblies happen to leak water into them, I will knock out the lenses and then glue them back in with clear silicon.
I already had the LED bulbs left over from the cab light project on my old 1984 Chevy drill rig. These come in an Amazon Basics bag but have another name on the order page. They are brighter than the original incandescent bulbs, but not too bright. I used about 20 of them on the old Chevy drill rig and I'm pretty happy with them. They are cheap too. And as we all know, you can't have "good" unless it's also fast and cheap.
The final result was pretty nice. Looks like the plastic cover for the trailer plug I don't have is all faded. Maybe I will go ahead and add a trailer plug for that trailer I will likely never pull. We will see.
Today it was new license plate lights. Mine are 18 years old, the bulbs don't work half the time and the lenses are yellowed. As I replace light assemblies and bulbs, I've been going with LED's. They make an LED license plate light assembly with fixed LED bulbs for the 3rd Gen Rams. But I decided to go with regular replacement assemblies and then just add LED bulbs. I figure it's much better to replace a $1 LED bulb in the future rather than an entire $20 assembly.
Here are the new assemblies I got. These do not come with new sockets for the bulbs. But mine are in good shape and I didn't have to unplug them from the harness. Considering the age of this wiring and it's exposure to the elements, not having to unplug the sockets is a good thing in my opinion. I used Lucas synthetic grease in the sockets. It seems to work as well as standard dielectric grease. If these assemblies happen to leak water into them, I will knock out the lenses and then glue them back in with clear silicon.
I already had the LED bulbs left over from the cab light project on my old 1984 Chevy drill rig. These come in an Amazon Basics bag but have another name on the order page. They are brighter than the original incandescent bulbs, but not too bright. I used about 20 of them on the old Chevy drill rig and I'm pretty happy with them. They are cheap too. And as we all know, you can't have "good" unless it's also fast and cheap.
The final result was pretty nice. Looks like the plastic cover for the trailer plug I don't have is all faded. Maybe I will go ahead and add a trailer plug for that trailer I will likely never pull. We will see.
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