Cap wiring/ 3rd brake light issue

[Astra9]

I ordered a cap for my truck and it will be installed today.

I decided to pre-wire the truck to make it more robust than what the shop would do by using high temp wire, convoluted tubing, etc. Here's what was done:

Battery line directly from battery with inline fuse.

Tapped into brake wire (white tan) under the truck near the spare tire.

Tapped into ground wire at left rear light.

Removed 3rd brake light bulb.

Here's my issue.....

My display shows that I have a brake light out (which it sould since I removed the 3rd bulb). However, the display shows it as my passenger side bulb which functions fine. I expect that once the cap connector is plugged in that the problem may go away, but the cap probably uses an LED which takes much less power than the normal bulb. I don't want to see that I have a bulb out every time I get in my tuck.

Has anyone dealt with this type of issue?

I'm hoping to get an answer today since I have an appointment in 6 hours.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Cruizer]

I have seen issues like this posted when people go to LED's. I think the answer is a relay or something but I'm not sure. I'm sure others will chime in soon.

 

[Astra9]

Since no one has responded, I'll post what I've found out in hopes of helping someone else in the future.

After installing the cap and plugging in the new LED brake light, the issue of "brake light out" on the DIC still remained.

I got some feedback from another forum stating that I need to add a resistor in parallel on the passenger side brake light. After mulling this over for some time, I decided that this is not the right approach. After all, there's a bulb missing!

So......I called A.R.E. this morning and explained the situation. Lo and behold, they have a solution......

1. Put the brake light bulb back in which will cause some issues with light reflecting between the cap and rear window.

2. Get a smaller dimmer bulb (BP194) and put that it instead, which still may reflect.

I asked about the resistor approach and he knew nothing of it. He also stated that this is only an issue for the 2014 Ram.

The misinformation I was given regarding the resistor approach is only applicable when changing from standard bulbs to LEDs, which have lower resistance. The resistor is used to trick the system into thinking that the bulb is the same. This is not the case for a missing bulb.

My solution is to use the dimmer bulb and tape off the inside of the CHMSL to eliminate all light output.

Hope this helps someone else out.