Headlights suddenly go out without warning

[RamDiver]

Agree, 4th and 5th gens are designed for both halogen and led which is why we can easily switch with alfaobd now. I never even set mine for led and have zero issues even with upgrades EVIC which is known to be more sensitive to led bulb out errors.

My Fahren LED bulbs were plug n play. No changes were required with AlfaOBD or anything else.

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[PA Ram]

My Fahren LED bulbs were plug n play. No changes were required with AlfaOBD or anything else.

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All of mine were plug and play as well. Low beam, fogs, cargo lights, reverse lights and all interior lights.

 

[nlambert182]

I converted my 2012 to LED exterior lights and never even got an error message. I converted my 2018 1500 over as well (full exterior and interior) and did get a tail light out message until I added resistors. It ran that way for a year until I sold it to a local guy. I see it all the time and talk to him frequently. Everything looks like factory. Heck, I even added heated seats and wired it directly into the empty heated seats slots in the TIPM. Everything works like a charm.

My bet is that the prior owner tried wiring something else in and it damaged the TIPM. He then likely sold it off to the OP and once the TIPM failed... developed amnesia and blamed it on the headlights.

 

[pscarbor]

I'd call that a coincidence... I'd bet my paycheck that LED lights absolutely didn't fry the TIPM.

Now... the previous owner could have wired something else up or tried to rewire the headlights and potentially fried something else.. that's much more likely.

How big is your paycheck? The TIPM rebuilders said this was a common issue with Dodge TIPMs. But hey, believe whatever you want.

 

[nlambert182]

A lot bigger than the cost of that TIPM.

It doesn't even make logical sense. Think about it.

The TIPM is just a large circuit board with fuses, relays, and solenoids. What damages a circuit board? 1) Moisture (corrosion) 2) Salt (corrosion) 3)Rodents (chewed wiring - causing shorts) 4) High voltage (burnt traces, etc...) 5) Aftermarket add-ons (See #4)

The purpose of the fuses are to ensure that the specific circuit is not subjected to a higher load than the circuit is designed to handle.

So... if your TIPM failed it was likely one of the following reasons:

- An overloaded circuit. This can't be an issue with just changing over to LED lights when LED lights draw significantly less amperage than the OEM halogen bulbs. Unless..... additional components were added to the headlight circuit that raised the amperage above what the circuit was designed for, and a larger fuse was installed to compensate. This would absolutely fry the TIPM in a couple of ways by either melting some of the wiring and creating a short or burn the traces on the board itself.

- Corroded contacts on the board due to moisture intrusion. This was common with some FCA vehicles. Corroded contacts on the headlight circuit could have caused the TIPM to fail regardless of which method was used.

- Damaged wiring. Could have been that the original owner spliced in other wiring and tried to put it back to stock before you got it.



A typical LED low beam bulb pulls roughly 0.89-0.92 amps per bulb.
A typical LED high beam bulb pulls roughly 1.6-1.7 amps per bulb.

At MOST the TIPM would see 1- 3.5A depending on which lights are on.

PER RAM..

https://www.ramtrucks.com/assets/bbg/pdf/2015/docs/ram/ramhdlcpu.pdf

Quad Incandescent Hi Beams can be 12.5A EACH.
Quad Incandescent Low Beams can be 17.6A EACH. That's a total of 25A for High, or 35.2A for low beams.
The minimum required current draw to avoid potentially tripping the tail light out message is 1A per bulb, though it doesn't always set a fault. If it does and you see flicker, the fix is to install a resistor that will increase the load enough that the TIPM thinks it's running regular incandescent (halogen) bulbs.

Like I said before.... it is not likely that LED lights had anything to do with your TIPM failure.


Another logical question to ask yourself... if LED lights could damage the TIPM, WHY does Mopar offer LED light upgrades? Ask the TIPM rebuilder to provide actual data that proves LED lights caused the TIPM failure. Not just anecdote such as "A friend of a friend had one go bad after LEDs"... or "Some of the TIPMs we've replaced came off of vehicles with aftermarket lights".

 

[RamDiver]

A lot bigger than the cost of that TIPM.

It doesn't even make logical sense. Think about it.

The TIPM is just a large circuit board with fuses, relays, and solenoids. What damages a circuit board? 1) Moisture (corrosion) 2) Salt (corrosion) 3)Rodents (chewed wiring - causing shorts) 4) High voltage (burnt traces, etc...) 5) Aftermarket add-ons (See #4)

The purpose of the fuses are to ensure that the specific circuit is not subjected to a higher load than the circuit is designed to handle.

So... if your TIPM failed it was likely one of the following reasons:

- An overloaded circuit. This can't be an issue with just changing over to LED lights when LED lights draw significantly less amperage than the OEM halogen bulbs. Unless..... additional components were added to the headlight circuit that raised the amperage above what the circuit was designed for, and a larger fuse was installed to compensate. This would absolutely fry the TIPM in a couple of ways by either melting some of the wiring and creating a short or burn the traces on the board itself.

- Corroded contacts on the board due to moisture intrusion. This was common with some FCA vehicles. Corroded contacts on the headlight circuit could have caused the TIPM to fail regardless of which method was used.

- Damaged wiring. Could have been that the original owner spliced in other wiring and tried to put it back to stock before you got it.



A typical LED low beam bulb pulls roughly 0.89-0.92 amps per bulb.
A typical LED high beam bulb pulls roughly 1.6-1.7 amps per bulb.

At MOST the TIPM would see 1- 3.5A depending on which lights are on.

PER RAM..

https://www.ramtrucks.com/assets/bbg/pdf/2015/docs/ram/ramhdlcpu.pdf

Quad Incandescent Hi Beams can be 12.5A EACH.
Quad Incandescent Low Beams can be 17.6A EACH. That's a total of 25A for High, or 35.2A for low beams.
The minimum required current draw to avoid potentially tripping the tail light out message is 1A per bulb, though it doesn't always set a fault. If it does and you see flicker, the fix is to install a resistor that will increase the load enough that the TIPM thinks it's running regular incandescent (halogen) bulbs.

Like I said before.... it is not likely that LED lights had anything to do with your TIPM failure.


Another logical question to ask yourself... if LED lights could damage the TIPM, WHY does Mopar offer LED light upgrades? Ask the TIPM rebuilder to provide actual data that proves LED lights caused the TIPM failure. Not just anecdote such as "A friend of a friend had one go bad after LEDs"... or "Some of the TIPMs we've replaced came off of vehicles with aftermarket lights".

That is an excellent and detailed post and I couldn't agree more.

Thanks for making the effort, you're a better man than I am.

And, I'm looking forward to the smoke & mirrors response.

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