Driver side running lights not working

[Jwilzz]

Hello everyone! I really need some help with this.

I recently went to hook up an aftermarket LED strip for the bottom of my tailgate as a brake,reverse,turn signal light and it caused my driver side running lights to stop working. Bulbs are all fine, and all the fuses seem to be fine as well (I'm about to just replace every single fuse in there). The same bulbs work for the brake, turn signals, unlock/lock flashing, basically anything else other than the running lights.

Do you have any clue what this could be? I've read it could be a faulty TIPM but I literally just replaced my TIPM cause my shut off relay kept coming loose causing my truck to shut down while driving. I guess that doesn't matter a whole lot and it very well could be.

But since it happened in reaction to something I did it makes me think the TIPM isn't faulty and it cause a short or something to happen. I do have my old TIPM still which completely works minus that one relay coming looseoccasionally so I could switch it out to test it.

Here in a little bit I'm going to start checking wires/connections with a multi-meter.

Thank you for any help at all!

 

[Jwilzz]

Just an update in case it helps anyone help me... swapped sockets with the other tail light and it worked perfect on the other side so not the socket. Checked all the grounds with a multimeter and they’re all good. So I’m now going to swap out my TPIM with my old one that works it just doesn’t hold my shut down relay in tight enough so I had to replace it. If that doesn’t fix this then I’m not sure what’s next... read something about it possibly being a headlight switch?!? Idk. I was hoping it wasn’t the TPIM but now I’m kinda hoping it is so it doesn’t end up being some crazy wiring issue that I have to somehow track down and fix.

 

[Brian2081]

Hello Jwilzz, what are you tapping into for your lights ?

 

[Jwilzz]

Hello Jwilzz, what are you tapping into for your lights ?

what do you mean exactly? The leds that caused this whole mess? They just plugged into the trailer 4 pin connected. After I noticed the tail lights stopped working I unhooked them though.

 

[Brian2081]

Ok, so here where you need to check for power going to your lights that aren't working.

Behind the left front wheel well liner attached to the cab mount should be a 54 pin connector. You are going to need the pin out diagram to find the wires you will want to test for power.

Now when I bought the truck it had no trailer lights, I found that the wire for this had chaffed through on the front cab mount where it is routed from the factory. Maybe you have the same issue ?

 

[Jwilzz]

Ok, so here where you need to check for power going to your lights that aren't working.

Behind the left front wheel well liner attached to the cab mount should be a 54 pin connector. You are going to need the pin out diagram to find the wires you will want to test for power.

Now when I bought the truck it had no trailer lights, I found that the wire for this had chaffed through on the front cab mount where it is routed from the factory. Maybe you have the same issue ?

I had already used a multimeter to check the wieres at the sockets themselves and everything seemed to be good. I replaced the fuse box with my old one that was causing me issues (shut down relay would come loose) and that fixed the lights. So as of right now I'm using the old box with a piece of rubber tube pinned underneath the lid to hold down my shut down relay. Not my preferred fix but a new box will run me around $800...

EDIT: But now that I've got it fixed, I still want to hook up an aftermarket led strip for me rear lights but am worried about causing the same problem. And if the same problem happens then I'm going to having to buy another box as I don't have another laying around. Any idea how I could hard wire the strip in? Or maybe it's this strip specifically causing problems, maybe it was wired wrong to begin with. could've have the ground and running lights wires switched but idk how to test this without possible causing another short somewhere.

 

[Brian2081]

Hey Jwilzz, sorry took so long to get back, just got home from work. Ok, I believe the black wire on the LEDS is power and the white is ground. What I did was un pin my seven pin trailer plug and pushed the wires I added through the rubber seal and solder the black wire to the power pin and did the groundthe same way, reassembled works as advertised.

 

[Omar57]

Any update on this? My truck also has an led strip under the tailgate and my front passenger running light is not working