Son's truck is a 2003 Dodge 3500 with CTD. He has been getting an indicator light on the dash that says "lamp out".

Indicator light appears to randomly come on and off, day or night, whether the lights are turned on or not. Fro mthe best we can tell, all the lights on the truck work.

Any suggestions to what could be going on?

Thanks

 

UMMMMMMM check all the lights?? lamp out means you have a bulb socket not pulling enough power a blown bulb maybe a brake light

 

All the lights work, that is why we do not understand why we are getting the message.....

 

Seen some with poor connections and bad circuit boards. Take the rears out and check the connections. I just replaced all my bulbs when I had them out. Pretty cheap insurance, and my light hasn't been back on since.

 

I had the same thing happen on mine...one bulb connection was arcing. Like vzdude said...Check out your taillight circuit boards and bulb connections. The boards are pretty cheap, I would just change 'em.

 

Has he upgraded to HID lights? From what I have read they draw less current and on occasion have triggered the lamp out indicator.

 

Further to vzdude's comments, the stock bulbs have plastic bases and the wire connectors heat up and melt into the base. Then the contact is no good and you will get intermitent "lamp out". 2 weeks of driving down logging roads with that beeper going on and off every time you hit a bump and you are looking for a looking truck to have a head on with! Anyways, what I did as I didn't have access to new bulbs was get a small screwdriver and just pull the wires out away from the base a tiny bit. I re-installed the same bulbs and no problems in 2 years. The other more permament fix I have heard is to get aftermarket bulbs that have glass bases.

 

Change the passenger side tail lamps.

 

I've got the same problem after banging down some logging roads last week and I can't seem to get the tailight housing off . I undid the two screws hiding in the tailgate recess with a torx bit, but the tailight housing won't come loose from the rear fender. Don't want to pull too hard and break something you know. What's the secret?

(Shop manual just shows the two torx screws, nothing else holding the housing in )

 

Plastic "bullet" retainers. You have to pull fairly hard. You can angle it away from the bed and kinda see them. Try to pull straight out though. Don't want to break them off!

 

Hold your tongue just right, say a prayer and pull on that sucker. It's pretty scary but I've had mine off a few times and haven't broken them yet. They don't seem to get any easier either.

 

my lamp out light randomly went on. checked all lights good. finally pulled over one day for brake light out. lamp out light was not on. will replace them both when lamp out starts acting up again.
jwooden. just giver a yank straight back

 

I had this problem and I had the bulbs with glass bases but you could see when you removed them where they had been arcing so not making contact all the time. Replaced the bulbs been fine since.

 

My sister had it on her '03. It turned out to be fog lights; so dont for get them; she didn't even know she had fog lights.

 

Thanks guys, it took a good tug but it came off without breaking anything. Turns out the wire was melted into the base.