Lights come on by themselves... WTF???

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xb1230

Hobby Mechanic
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Location
South Shore of Montreal, QC, Canada
Ram Year
2020
Engine
5.7 HEMI
My lights come on anytime... When the truck is sitting, light switch is off, nothing lighted up or anything the lights just light...

I have plain regular Headlights, so no relays, no HID's, nothing special.

This morning again when I woke up, sure enough the lights were on... Went outside and tried wiggling the light switch, and funny thing is the lights on alarm only goes off if the switch is in the off position and the door is open.
The only way I was able to shut them off was to play with the OBDII port...

WTF ?

A little background on what I think maybe going on:

As I was preparing to go camping (tomorrow morning) I installed a Brake controller (brand new I got from CURT), and a transmission temperature sensor from equus (Mechanical type).
In order to complete the install I had to fiddle around under the dash and fear I may have moved around some wires causing a short of some kind.
How I came around to figuring out it could be the OBDII diagnostic port is that I have an OBDII bluetooth interface I leave connected all the time. thinking it could have gone haywire and caused some issues I pulled it out and sure enough the lights went out. When they came back on later on I just wiggled on the port and sure enough it shut everything down.

I am reviewing the wiring diagram, but they are a little cryptic so any help or insight is welcomed.

What is the link between the OBDII port and the light switch???
 
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xb1230

xb1230

Hobby Mechanic
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Location
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BTW there are no error codes I could read from the ECU just in case anyone wondered.

I also did check my fuses in the engine compartment. (not visually, but with a Multimeter).
 

Ceri

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Definitely sounds like a short. Pull the lower dash area and look around for wires from your recent installation that could be making metal on metal contact. Also keep in mind that it doesn't have to be two wires touching. If one wire grounds out on a piece of metal under the dash then it could be your problem. Check any splices you've ever made starting with the most recent and be sure you wrap any exposed copper in electrical tape to avoid unintentional grounding.

Lastly, you can pull the light switch itself and see if something may be making contact from the factory harness. Hopefully you'll be kicking yourself as soon as you open up the lower dash area because its obvious you accidentally left a wire exposed. Those are bittersweet moments because you've easily found the problem, but past you was an idiot. ;) I do that ALL THE TIME. Its scary how stupid past me was sometimes.
 
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xb1230

xb1230

Hobby Mechanic
Joined
Aug 22, 2014
Posts
960
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Location
South Shore of Montreal, QC, Canada
Ram Year
2020
Engine
5.7 HEMI
I haven't found anything obvious, but all the wiggling of the harnesses under the dash has alleviated the issue so far...

I might need to do a little autopsy on some of the Previous Owner's work under there as I think his shoddy work may be part of the root cause.

What freaks me out is that I am just about to leave on a camping trip...

I brought my HD battery charger, and some wiring tools just in case. If the issue comes back, I can try and work it out as best as possible. The result is worst overnight, but then I will in a full hookup facility so I can hookup the charger and get back ont he road when I need it.
 
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