Asher

I was on a job the other day and the guy that owned the house was outside taking the taillight off his 03 1500 Ram. I stop as I walked by and asked him if he needed help (he did) . Anyway he said the "lamp out" light came on in the truck and needed to change a light bulb. So we pulled out the assembly and I pulled out the bulb (brake light). I looked at the bulb and it looked fine. I had a tester close by and checked it out, it wasn't bad so I stuck it back in and had him step in the brake. Sure enough it didn't work, so I pulled the bulb back out and looked at it a little closer. The contack points on the bulb actually got hot enough that the little wire melted into the plastic end of the bulb allowing for the wire to not contact the socket . Well I pried the wire out a little and put it back in and everything worked fine and he was off again.

Well 2 days later, mine did the exact same thing . So now I have to ask, is anyone else having problems with thier brake lights burning out (or lamp out light on)???? Or was mine just a fluke???

If this is a problem, is thier an easy way to put in LED bulbs (I don't want replacement lens assemblies) without hacking up the wiring system?? I would think LED's would keep things cool enough to keep this from happening.

abc4yew

Yep, I've been through a couple of brake lights. $1.49 every year or so. LED lights aren't recognized by the light controller so lamp out will flash as will the lights. You can wire in a load resistor to get them to work or have the dealer do a TSB for a flatbed conversion to recognize or ignore led tail lights. If I got a set of full led tail lights for $150 I'd make some effort but for $1.49 a year I can live with it. $$$ can be better spent where the taillight are more of a problem for those you blow by. ks

roadrat

Pretty much what abc4yew said, i have led tail lights and you need a resistor for each led bulb, so you need 4, they are 6 ohm 50 watt resistors, $4.95 each for the resistors and $7.95 each for the bulbs, you can find everything here http://www.superbrightleds.com/ pics of them lighted in my gallery.


rob

RamWheelsBy4

My left brake light was bad also, would be fine stopped when I got out and looked, but blinked off and on while driving. Service writer noticed it and replaced the left rear brake light.

jbeg

I had the same problem. Replaced the bulb and it happened again....... Just happened to be at the dealer (U-joint issue) when it acted up again. A new $25 circuit board (where the lights plug in) and no more problems. That was about 1 1/2 years ago. Service guy says the same board goes into the '03 and '04 Chevy's with the same issue.

Asher

Are the LED's any brighter??? How did you have to add the resister, did you have to cut wiring to install them?

thanks

roadrat

I would say the light is more intense and maby a little brighter, 19 of the leds face straight back and 6 point out the side of the bulb. because of the design of the bulb they do not make full use of the reflector part of the tail light housing. When the lights are on and the signal or brake lights are activated the difference in brightness could be a bit better, to compensate for this i added the led line of fire (more is better right ) To add the resistor you splice one wire of the resistor to the signal wire or brake wire, whichever one you are hooking up,and the other wire to ground, the resistor comes with the required gell filled taps, see them here, half way down the page, http://www.superbrightleds.com/1157.htm Hope this helps.

rob