Lamp Out Indicator and Warning Chime

[Brett Maverick]

I recently took the stock '03 Dodge on a 1000 mile trip with the 12K 5th wheel. After about an hour, the warning chime would start to ding intermittently, and the Lamp Out indicator would blink on and off. The warning chime would ding intermittently; once or twice, or up to 25 times.



I did a complete light check and all lights on the truck and trailer were illuminated and working fine. When I would shut the truck down, it would clear up for an hour or so, then it would start dinging again until I shut the truck down. The trip was during the daytime, so I wasn't running any lights, just the occasional signal or brake light.

I've made similar trips over the last 3 years and this is the first time this has happened.



I pulled the grey box out of the tail light that holds the three bulbs, it didn't look like it was burnt or damaged. The numbers on it were CHRY#55077343AB TAC#1001585AB02283-12-05.

I picked the truck up in Nov of 2002.

Any suggestions?



Brent

 

[bighammer]

I had a similar occurence. I had remembered seeing a thread in here about tail/brake bulbs causing the problem. I took them appart and found the contacts sort of melted into the surrounding plastic. I dug them out and scraped them off (I was in a remote area of Canada or I would've bought new bulbs) and haven't had problems since.

 

[Dieselnerd]

Wasn't there a tail light circuit board recall or TSB? I seem to remember reading something about that quite awhile back.

 

[vciesielski]

It is not the bulbs that are the problem. Early 03's had a TSB for the tail light modules both left and right. The bulbs sockets would burn. The new modules are around $20- 40 from the dealer.

 

[JHardwick]

The problem was lack of solid contact causing an arc. Pull the wire out a bit from the bulb base to enure solid contact and all is well ... ... ... ... ... . this topic has been covered extensively. A quick search will yeild hours of reading.

 

[zippinbye]

I have had the same problem with my 04. 5. While I do tow with the stock harness, I can't correlate it to towing, in fact I believe it has never happened except when I'm "unplugged. " Trouble is, it never remains consistent enough to take in and demonstrate to the dealer. In fact, the first few times I could not tell what it was, since there was just the chime and a quick flash of amber on the annunciator. I will go for weeks without it, then it will persist at varying intervals. Typically, it will be a problem for a particular drive segment, and then is often gone the next day. It happens more at night with lights on, but often it occurs in daylight without using the signals or brake lights. However, when I am in a prolonged period of frequent lamp-out warnings, depressinging the brake pedal will trigger it too. I have had people follow me and they observe no interruption of lights (when appropriate), nor are there random "flashes" of lights that should be off. There may be a temperature correlation, as it seems to not happen in the hot summer weather. Besides my initial disappointment with mpg from the Cummins 600, this is my only complaint. But I cannot live with it! Any suggestions?

 

[magothy1]

Learn to enter and run topics using the "search" heading, like the earlier post said, you'll have alot to read.

It is aggravating as the devil to listen to that ding-ding-ding.

 

[vciesielski]

Pull the wire out a bit from the bulb base to enure solid contact and all is well

I did what you discribed a bunch of time with in a 6 month period, to no satisfactory end. Until I bought the new light modules, and have not had the problem since.

 

[RDyson]

I bought a used one from the salvage yard for $10. Came with 3 bulbs also. Has worked good for a year.

 

[CommonMan]

I recently took the stock '03 Dodge on a 1000 mile trip with the 12K 5th wheel. After about an hour, the warning chime would start to ding intermittently, and the Lamp Out indicator would blink on and off. The warning chime would ding intermittently; once or twice, or up to 25 times.



I did a complete light check and all lights on the truck and trailer were illuminated and working fine. When I would shut the truck down, it would clear up for an hour or so, then it would start dinging again until I shut the truck down. The trip was during the daytime, so I wasn't running any lights, just the occasional signal or brake light.

I've made similar trips over the last 3 years and this is the first time this has happened.



I pulled the grey box out of the tail light that holds the three bulbs, it didn't look like it was burnt or damaged. The numbers on it were CHRY#55077343AB TAC#1001585AB02283-12-05.

I picked the truck up in Nov of 2002.

Any suggestions?



Brent

Did you ever get a solution to your problem? I tow a 16K fifth wheel and my chime only becomes intermittant when plugged into my trailer and only after I just recently changed the brake controller. Dodge told me that since I had their tow package that my trailer harness and brake controller should have no affect on my lamp out indicator, but it does. I have no problem with it when my trailer is not plugged into it. So far, all the threads I have read don't address this issue.

 

[ssanders60]

Bulb out warning chime.

My '03 did the same thing, identical to BIGHAMMER'S version. I could

not find the bulb, everything looked ok, finally a friend told me I didn't

have brake lights on the rear tail lights, I then took the bulbs out of the

gray strip and they looked ok except for the scortched (sp) black plastic,

I moved the bulbs around (they are all the same) and it corrected my problem,

although I had already bought two new bulbs. The gray strips cost $18. 75

each at West Side Dodge. I would rather say that the bulb quality was bad

instead of the strip, eventually though the strip will go out if you don't

replace the bad bulb in the brake light. The dealers will change the strip

without giving it any study, then you have labor on top of the strips.



Best that I can remember the middle bulb is the brake light. Watch for the

bulb that appears to have been arching on the contacts. .

 

[Dieselnut59]

I converted my '03 to a flatbed and put in LED lights on the bed. It gave the "lamp out" indication and would "fast flash" the turn signals. I had to install "load resistors" to correct the problem. Before converting to the flatbed, I used to get "lamp out" indicator from time to time and it was the bulbs not making good contact in the sockets. I corrected the problem by bending the terminals in the sockets inward with a pair of needle nose pliers to increase the tension when the bulb is inserted. Worked fine from then on.