Dear Car Talk:

My grandson has a 2001 Dodge Dakota. It was a hand-me-down from my father-in-law to my grandson.

For some reason, we lose the low beams when we pull the tilt steering wheel down. I looked for shorted or broken wires but didn't find anything. I'm thinking maybe there's something wrong with the dimmer switch. By the way, the high beams work. Any suggestions?

-- Papaw and Christian

I believe this truck has the headlight switch on the dashboard, Papaw. Am I right? In any case, that's not important, because I don't think that switch is causing the problem.

The problem is more likely in the multifunction switch, which is the stalk that sticks out of the side of the steering column. That's the switch that activates the directional signals and switches your lights from low beams to high beams.

Because the problem happens when you tilt the steering wheel, my guess is that somewhere in that switch itself, or in the bundle of wires coming out of it, is a pinched or broken wire.

If you want to fix this yourself, you'll have to be comfortable disarming the airbag (otherwise, you'll need a multifunction switch and a nose job, Papaw). Once you do that, you can use a puller to remove the steering wheel.

My suggestion would be to just buy a replacement switch first. It'll probably cost you $100. I'd replace the switch, then try testing it before putting everything back together.

With the switch wired up and working, but still hanging there, try moving the steering column up and down, and jiggling the switch and wires, and see if you can get the low beams to fail. Hopefully, you won't be able to.

If you feel fairly confident that it's all working, then put it together and hope the geometry doesn't change things.

If you're not confident in your ability to deal with the airbag and steering wheel, then any shop ought to be able to do this job for you, Papaw.