2007 Dodge Ram 1500 bulbs or headlamp assemblies

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My better half drives a 2007 Dodge Ram 1500 4wd to work. I usually never drive this truck, especially at night, but I was out in it late last night and the lights are terrible.

I know little to nothing about what is currently on the market for lights, hence the thread. I would prefer to just replace the bulbs, both high and low beams (four bulb assembly), but I'm not opposed to changing out the entire assemblies to upgrade to something better.

In addition to the Ram, I have a 2009 Silverado 4wd and a 2013 Expedition 4wd. The Chevrolet has the best headlights (brightness, distance and peripheral light) of the three. I don't know what type of bulbs are in the Silverado, but I would like to accomplish something similar with the Ram.

Suggestions please. (Paging 901Memphis)
 
What part # are the stock headlights? Are your lenses foggy? Might benefit from new bulbs, ans a oxidation removing polish for the assemblies. That or if they are beyond foggy, replace the assemblies if not too expensive.
 
Clean the lenses with a kit from amazon. I usually buy the 3m kit, it works fine.

Also I buy my bulbs from candlepower. Have had good look with the Osram german bulbs. About 30 dollars for a pair in most sizes.
 
Are you sure it's a 4 bulb assembly? I'm showing a single H13/9008 bulb for low/high duty.

If the housings are in good condition without hazing or clouding the Phillips Xtreme power 9008 is the best bulb, but being that old there is a good chance you could benefit from new oem housings if you can afford them along with the new bulbs at the same time.
 
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Are you sure it's a 4 bulb assembly? I'm showing a single H13/9008 bulb for low/high duty.

If the housings are in good condition without hazing or clouding the Phillips Xtreme power 9008 is the best bulb, but being that old there is a good chance you could benefit from new oem housings if you can afford them along with the new bulbs at the same time.


901Memphis, you are correct. It uses a H13 only.

Does this truck have fog lights? If it does, drive with them on as well.
 
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Are you sure it's a 4 bulb assembly? I'm showing a single H13/9008 bulb for low/high duty.

If the housings are in good condition without hazing or clouding the Phillips Xtreme power 9008 is the best bulb, but being that old there is a good chance you could benefit from new oem housings if you can afford them along with the new bulbs at the same time.


You are correct, it's a two bulb assembly; just came in from checking.

The housings show a little hazing, but they're not bad at all.

Thank you for the reply.
 
Originally Posted By: Farmer
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Are you sure it's a 4 bulb assembly? I'm showing a single H13/9008 bulb for low/high duty.

If the housings are in good condition without hazing or clouding the Phillips Xtreme power 9008 is the best bulb, but being that old there is a good chance you could benefit from new oem housings if you can afford them along with the new bulbs at the same time.


901Memphis, you are correct. It uses a H13 only.

Does this truck have fog lights? If it does, drive with them on as well.


Yes, it has fog lights.

Thanks.
 
Originally Posted By: JustinH
Clean the lenses with a kit from amazon. I usually buy the 3m kit, it works fine.

Also I buy my bulbs from candlepower. Have had good look with the Osram german bulbs. About 30 dollars for a pair in most sizes.


I'll be trying the 3M kit, thanks.
 
As bulbs age they loose power. If they are the original it is possible to that they are a lot dimmer than when they were new. If the lenses are hazy you can repair them, there's a you tube video by chrisfix that will show you how to do it without power tools. Also, aiming the headlights may be in order.

As far as bulbs - you need to make sure any bulb is DOT compliant and actually is made for your housing. A lot of aftermarket bulbs may not be. I'm sure their are others but Osram and Philips sell only DOT compliant bulbs. Whiter color bulbs tend to burn out quicker, bulbs with the blue outer housing produce less light than the clear bulbs. Apparently LED bulbs and HID kits that are aftermarket are not DOT compliant; from what I've read the housing needs to match the light bulb in order for it to operate correctly and not cause too much glare to on coming traffic.

My wife's car has projection headlights and I've been thinking in about a year (just got the car) to change over to the Philips +100% bulb, x-tremevision, to see how they last. As we age it seems that it is getting harder to see at night, if the bulb only lasts a year but it is significantly better then I'm all for it.
 
The problem with headlight kits is that they do remove the oxidation from the exterior but they also remove any remaining factory UV coating that is intact which should result in a fast hazing process since you have no UV coating.

I used one of the kits with the drill attachment on an older Ford Taurus and the housings looked new when I was finished but they hazed badly within two months again.

There are some products available to help apply a new UV coating but it will never be the same as the oem process which usually lasts a good 10 years.
 
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
The problem with headlight kits is that they do remove the oxidation from the exterior but they also remove any remaining factory UV coating that is intact which should result in a fast hazing process since you have no UV coating.

I used one of the kits with the drill attachment on an older Ford Taurus and the housings looked new when I was finished but they hazed badly within two months again.

There are some products available to help apply a new UV coating but it will never be the same as the oem process which usually lasts a good 10 years.


That video I mentioned, the person used a clear UV resistant spray vs what comes in the headlight kit. I haven't tried it myself yet but do have a car with yellowed and hazy headlights ... was planning on trying his technique out before buying new assemblies.
 
It can buy you some time if that's what you're looking for but from what I've learned those spray on UVs are very temporary and may require re application for any sort of effect
 
901Memphis: How did you determine how many bulbs were in the assembly and the type of bulb used?

I'd like to look-up my Silverado and determine what the OEM are; best lights I've ever had.
 
The first thing I did was look up the replacement bulb at Rockauto. It showed the part number and sometimes there are multiple part numbers but this year only had one.
 
As the owner of 2 2007 Rams, let me break the bad news to you: These headlights were pathetic from the moment they rolled off of the assembly line.

I had:

Clean intact reflectors
Clean intact lenses
New Sylvania bulbs

Still got "Are your lights on?" and "Turn your lights on!" from passengers, unless I ran my fogs simultaneously.
 
Yeah unfortunately there are some bad oem setups and they only get worse with age. The aftermarket parts aren't any better.

Retrofitting projectors into the housing is an option (albeit with questionable legality) but it's extremely hard to get it right, especially sealing everything up.
 
I've chosen the lesser of the evils and gone with aftermarket projector housings with LED bulbs.

The cutoff is nothing to write home about, but it does keep everything out of other drivers' eyes. Seriously considering removing the lackluster projectors and putting some real ones in.

It's better than what I started with. That's all I would say about that.
 
Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
As the owner of 2 2007 Rams, let me break the bad news to you: These headlights were pathetic from the moment they rolled off of the assembly line.

I had:

Clean intact reflectors
Clean intact lenses
New Sylvania bulbs

Still got "Are your lights on?" and "Turn your lights on!" from passengers, unless I ran my fogs simultaneously.


I have came to that conclusion.
 
Are the lamps aimed too high? Have the rear springs settled with age? If the lamps are aimed too high (here's looking at you, Jeep...) not enough light will make it on to the road.

I had a 2008 WK which had a similar design, though it was a 4 lamp system - and they got a lot of light out of it. With the generous reflector area the 2007 Ram should be able to also. I'd mess with it and see if lowering the aim would get more light on the road.
 
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