2015 Ram 3500 Tradesman B2303 WIPER Park switch Input short Circuit to ground

[marcusldaniels]

Greetings,

Of course I just got the Evaporator and the heater core changed on the truck, back in action hauling, on the way home and its raining pretty good! Park the truck, get up the next morn to continue my journey and its still raining a little!! Take off and while rolling on, windshield wipers stop working!

Long story short, I just did all kinds of troubleshooting, bought a new motor and before I took it all apart, I just hooked the new motor up to the connector and it still didnt work!!! I used the alfa OBD reader and got the B2303 code and went as far as checking the test light to the low and high setting on the switch and that didnt work like it was supposed to. Before I went any further to find that somehow the ground circuit is screwed in the BCM and have to replace the BCM, wanted to run this by you guys to see if anyone has had this happen and its something simple like just hooking the new motor up and letting it make the connection or theres just sometihng going on with the complete circuit, I mean how the hell does the ground circuit connection just go the hell out in this system. The fuse is good, checked that 50 times. Its making a click noise in the fuse block when I turn it on once, and it clicks when I turn it on to the low and high setting. I had to connect ground physically to the where the blower motor relay is supposed to have ground to make the blower work. for some reason, ground in that circuit just up and quit. Any insight will be greatly appreciated!! TIA!!

 

[2003F350]

Chaffed wire somewhere, I'd bet. Sometimes the harnesses get stretched a little because something wasn't laying quite right when it was put together, and a wire rubs against something it shouldn't. OR a rodent got in there and did some chewing.

I would definitely say try to inspect the harness before replacing the BCM.

 

[marcusldaniels]

Chaffed wire somewhere, I'd bet. Sometimes the harnesses get stretched a little because something wasn't laying quite right when it was put together, and a wire rubs against something it shouldn't. OR a rodent got in there and did some chewing.

I would definitely say try to inspect the harness before replacing the BCM.

Yes sir, It seems that the on off circuit wire is not giving it the power it needs to make the wipers work. 12v applied directly to the high and low wire, the pop right on and work but they dont work through the switches power. I replaced the switch, still no luck I pulled the whole dam PDC box and blew it out with air and blew out the connectors and then put the electric grease on the connectors and put it all back together, still the same. its got to be a miss communication between the BCM and the PDC. Ive wiggled every harness that I can see. Now that I know if 12v is applied directly to either the hi or low side and it works, the main cuplrit could be the relay is not getting power?

 

[Redfisher1974]

Just a shot in the dark but have you removed and cleaned all 9 ground straps on truck?

 

[marcusldaniels]

Just a shot in the dark but have you removed and cleaned all 9 ground straps on truck?

Will be searching for them and doing that!!!! preciate it!! The two in the front near the battery all done gotta find the rest. Thats more than likely my issue!!

 

[Redfisher1974]

Fast way to rule them in or out is to put your volt meter across battery and get voltage. Then leave red lead on positive then on cleaned spots touch black lead to engine, frame and inner fender or fire wall. If the voltage is .5 or more lower then battery voltage its a poor ground.

 

[GTyankee]

Your initial statement, was a clue ..

" I just got the Evaporator and the heater core changed on the truck "

to replace the evaporator & heater core, the whole HVAC Unit has to come out of the truck.

To do that, the Dashboard has to come about 3/4s of the way out
The steering wheel had to be dropped onto the seat
The dashes center stack is usually removed

do you realize how many things get unplugged to do all of that

does the windshield washer pump spray onto your windshield ?
How about your High Beam Lights & signal lights

All of those are functions of the Multifunction Switch

 

[marcusldaniels]

Your initial statement, was a clue ..

" I just got the Evaporator and the heater core changed on the truck "

to replace the evaporator & heater core, the whole HVAC Unit has to come out of the truck.

To do that, the Dashboard has to come about 3/4s of the way out
The steering wheel had to be dropped onto the seat
The dashes center stack is usually removed

do you realize how many things get unplugged to do all of that

does the windshield washer pump spray onto your windshield ?
How about your High Beam Lights & signal lights

All of those are functions of the Multifunction Switch

Greetings, Greetings, Yes sir, yes sir the windshield washer pump sprays, the blinkers, high beams and signals all work!! Thats one thing I didnt so was pull the radio and stick my head in there to see if that ground was put back correctly!!

But heres another kicker, I was testing to see if there was continuity between the sense wire and the low and high side and all. Did all those test and non had continuity but what did have continuity was ground and the low speed wire!! So I isolated the **** out of it. I unplugged the connector that made all that work from the BCM and went back under the hood and it still had continuity so I pulled up the fuse block as far as I could, found the low side wire in the connector and put one end of the lead in there and made sure there wasnt a break in that wire. I left the lead in the connector underneath the box and took the other lead and touched to both ground studs on the side there and it beeped. touched it to every black wire on the whole box and it beeped. connected it to ground so it would continue to beep and I disconnected the whole connector from the box and it stopped beeping. took the lead out of the bottom of the connector and touched it to the pin for the low side wire and it beeped!!! How the hell does that one pin suddenly turn to ground??

I guess my next move is to buy the box and see if it does the same thing. Cant see how the ground behind the radio area could make that OOOOOOONNNNNEEEEE pin for that OOOOOONNNEEEEEE specific wire just turn to ground But we're gonna see!!!! Preciate the realization of whats been disconnected back there, I may take it back to where i got the work done so he can find the ground wire that he possibly disconnected and didnt put back on right.

 

[marcusldaniels]

Your initial statement, was a clue ..

" I just got the Evaporator and the heater core changed on the truck "

to replace the evaporator & heater core, the whole HVAC Unit has to come out of the truck.

To do that, the Dashboard has to come about 3/4s of the way out
The steering wheel had to be dropped onto the seat
The dashes center stack is usually removed

do you realize how many things get unplugged to do all of that

does the windshield washer pump spray onto your windshield ?
How about your High Beam Lights & signal lights

All of those are functions of the Multifunction Switch

It was the PDC box with all the fuses! Swapped the box with a used one and everything worked perfectly!!

 

[marcusldaniels]

Fast way to rule them in or out is to put your volt meter across battery and get voltage. Then leave red lead on positive then on cleaned spots touch black lead to engine, frame and inner fender or fire wall. If the voltage is .5 or more lower then battery voltage its a poor ground.

It was the PDC box with all the fuses! Swapped the box with a used one and everything worked perfectly!!

 

[marcusldaniels]

Will be searching for them and doing that!!!! preciate it!! The two in the front near the battery all done gotta find the rest. Thats more than likely my issue!!

It was the PDC box with all the fuses! Swapped the box with a used one and everything worked perfectly!!

 

[marcusldaniels]

Yes sir, It seems that the on off circuit wire is not giving it the power it needs to make the wipers work. 12v applied directly to the high and low wire, the pop right on and work but they dont work through the switches power. I replaced the switch, still no luck I pulled the whole dam PDC box and blew it out with air and blew out the connectors and then put the electric grease on the connectors and put it all back together, still the same. its got to be a miss communication between the BCM and the PDC. Ive wiggled every harness that I can see. Now that I know if 12v is applied directly to either the hi or low side and it works, the main cuplrit could be the relay is not getting power?

It was the PDC box with all the fuses! Swapped the box with a used one and everything worked perfectly!!

 

[GTyankee]

Great !!!

thanks for letting us know, it may help someone else with similar issues

 

[62Blazer]

Your initial statement, was a clue ..

" I just got the Evaporator and the heater core changed on the truck "

to replace the evaporator & heater core, the whole HVAC Unit has to come out of the truck.

To do that, the Dashboard has to come about 3/4s of the way out
The steering wheel had to be dropped onto the seat
The dashes center stack is usually removed

do you realize how many things get unplugged to do all of that

does the windshield washer pump spray onto your windshield ?
How about your High Beam Lights & signal lights

All of those are functions of the Multifunction Switch

This was the same comment I was going to make after reading the initial post. General rule of thumb......if an item is working fine, you then do a bunch of work around the area of that item or the harness/wiring that goes to that item, and now that item doesn't work the first thing I would suspect is that you inadvertently messed it up. My first suspect would be a connector is loose, pins in the connector got bent, wire broke or pinched, etc.... Of course maybe the BCM did suddenly mess up but it would be quite the coincidence.