Tipm?

Hey all,

I was told to swing by these forums by a fellow co worker and dodge owner. I did some research on the issues with the TIPM and headlights.

Here's my story. Theres a TL;DR(too long;didnt read) summary at the bottom.

Purchased my truck in Sept 14', installed Retroshops HID kit that came with a harness to lower the amps that go into the TIPM so nothing goes wrong. A year goes by without any issues whatsoever until early December last year, when driver side low beam goes out. I quickly order new bulbs and sen by HID kit for testing to ensure nothing is wrong with the kit. I installed my old bulbs, the problem seemed to persist.

Retroshop says the kit is fine and everything works perfectly, as it should for only being a little over year old. Fast forward to December 27th, my father in law, who is an electrician, helps me trouble shoot the electrical problems I was having. We narrowed it down to the ground wire on the truck's side headlight assembly connection. To test if it was really the problem, we spliced the wire and attached a thicker wire on it and grounded it on the truck at a ground point. Headlight low beams and high beams worked!

Fast forward to mid January, both headlights go out no. Only things working is parking lights and fog lights, which to my surprised to this day I haven't even been pulled over but Omaha cops are pretty relaxed.

So I have taken the truck to the stealership and quoted me $1550(military discount) to replace the TIPM, electrical wiring, and labor. He mentioned that the HID kit could've pumped out to many amps to the TIPM and over time, burned it out. Is this true?

Reading all the problems everyone else seems to be having here AFTER they receive the new TIPM, what can I do to ensure this problem doesnt happen again? I will not be installing HID even though I don't think this seems to be the root cause. Maybe it was the ground connection to begin with. The father in law and I were able to re create the problem every time with whatever we did.

TL;DR- driver side low beams went out along with high beams and only parking and fog lights working. established new ground wire to truck; everything worked. A few weeks later, both headlights went out. Giving into the dealership. TIPM needs replacing. Need preventative measures to not let this happen again.

Thanks in advanced!

Best preventative measure is to remove the HID's. I had them once myself and blew 2 TIPM's luckily dealer replaced both under warranty. Retro shop sells awesome stuff but there is no guarantees with anything these days. I wanted brighter lights in my 2015 so i installed. OPT7 leds in my fogs and putco ion spark white bulbs in my factory projectors

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i use the relay harness with mine so it takes power from the battery and not from the headlight wires. headlight wires just switch the relay which is low power. No issues. I bet there is a wire issue somewhere.

Thats no discount for the TIPM module from the dealer. I had mine replaced for $1400 parts and labor. Also had my PCM replace for $1500. Mine were replace because my tuner fried both.

Have you checked for a bad resistor? It will be cold while the others are hot. I had one go bad on the drivers side, both low beams wouldn't work.

Mineralram said:

Best preventative measure is to remove the HID's. I had them once myself and blew 2 TIPM's luckily dealer replaced both under warranty. Retro shop sells awesome stuff but there is no guarantees with anything these days. I wanted brighter lights in my 2015 so i installed. OPT7 leds in my fogs and putco ion spark white bulbs in my factory projectors

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Yeah I'm going to put regular bulbs in it when I get my TIPM replaced. I ordered a new one.

LB3711 said:

i use the relay harness with mine so it takes power from the battery and not from the headlight wires. headlight wires just switch the relay which is low power. No issues. I bet there is a wire issue somewhere.

Thats no discount for the TIPM module from the dealer. I had mine replaced for $1400 parts and labor. Also had my PCM replace for $1500. Mine were replace because my tuner fried both.

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I'm thinking it's wiring. I ordered a new TIPM that I'm installing myself to see. If it still doesn't work then I'm going to replace wires

adurm said:

Have you checked for a bad resistor? It will be cold while the others are hot. I had one go bad on the drivers side, both low beams wouldn't work.

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Where are the headlight resistors? I forgot to mention I drive a 2010 1500 sport

RAndersen said:

I'm thinking it's wiring. I ordered a new TIPM that I'm installing myself to see. If it still doesn't work then I'm going to replace wires

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More than likely it won't work. It needs programming. Its a simple replacement because its around $700 online new.

RAndersen said:

Where are the headlight resistors? I forgot to mention I drive a 2010 1500 sport

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I don't think you need a resistor. If you have the harness setup its just relays and a capacitor for the flicker part. Retroshop can confirm that for a 2010

LB3711 said:

More than likely it won't work. It needs programming. Its a simple replacement because its around $700 online new.

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From what I've been told it's plug and play. It'll work when I plug it in but yes to program it I'll need to bring it to the dealership after I replace it

Update:

It is plug and play. Took 15 mins to change the TIPMs. Everything worked like a charm.

Nubie here...but with the lack of evidence that pertained to my particular vehicle (2011 Ram 1500 4.7l) and finding a TIPM, researching issues and whatnot, the info was quite scarce. Not to hi-jack by any means but just thought I would share my personal experience. My 2011 had the fuel pump relay issues, it was at a constant on. I did as much research as i could and found simple solutions and then got lucky and tracked down an individual that sold remanned TIPMs with a 2 year warranty. Paid 450 for everything and installed it myself...carefully. After the install, the start up was perfect but my dash was lit up like a christmas tree and my doors would not lock or unlock with remote, or even windows would let down! I had no clue, nor had i seen anything at the time of my research about needing to be programmed because they were VIN specific. I ended up doing a soft reset (I believe that is one of the terms), where I started my key in the ON position and cycled 3 times from ON to Acc, ending back at the ON position. It did a trouble code read, cleared my dash lights and showed 1 issue, which was the TPMS sensor (which was in fact true due to me taking those out prior to this install) so I was aware of that. The door locks functioned properly, the windows worked and my dash lights were cleared. I have driven approximately 350 miles since the TIPM install and have had 0 issues to date. I recently installed a 50w Morimoto Ballast along with 5k bulbs in my low beams ( i have the quads) and I used the simple plug and play (CANBUS adapter) and have luckily not had any issues either. But, as I have been told, it is so hit or miss with the CANBUS adapters and that no two vehicles will respond the same. Again, not meant to hi-jack or post such a long response but I just wanted to toss out my little bit of personal experience with the HIDs and the TIPM craziness. Maybe I was lucky and didn't need the re program or either I was lucky enough to stumble upon this by happenstance and found out that it may be just another way for a dealer to charge for something. Again, all just personal experience and as you can tell by reading, I am in no way shape or form a mechanic, but I refuse to pay 2 or 3 times more for something that could potentially be solved with a little effort and research (even though I apparently didn't cover ALL the angles in regards to the TIPM). Now excuse me please...headed to the new members area to say hello. Thanks, guys