Light issues (LED)

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atanasiog

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2015
Posts
14
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Location
New Jersey
Ram Year
2012
Engine
5.7L V8 HEMI MDS V.V.T.
The reason for my message, is that I’ve been googling my issue and I’m coming up short.

I have a 2012 Ram 1500 Bighorn. I had replaced all my bulbs to LED.

A few months or so, when I shutoff my truck and lock it, my right turn signal and rear brake light stay on, they are dim but on, also my cargo lights leds as well remain on. I actually had to remove the cargo lights because they were draining my battery.

This is very odd, I’ve owned this truck since 2015, and had those leds since then. Took it to the dealership and they didn’t find anything wrong. Luckily I had purchased the lifetime warranty. They actually told me to put the original bulbs in and see if that makes a difference.

All my LEDs have load resistors installed in parallel.

What also boggles my mind is that my interior map lights, have been giving me same issues, when I open my doors they turn on, when I start my truck, they go off as they should, but… if i try to turn them on while the truck is on, they won’t. My Vanity lights and my glovebox light don’t even turn on.

If it were the “bulbs” I can understand maybe 1 or 2 but all of them at once? Kind of odd here. it has to be some sort of electrical problem, maybe a ground? try figuring that out.. o_O

To top it off, I installed about 5 years ago or so, the actuator for my tailgate to lock and unlock, that recently stopped working, right out of the blue, I was at the store, tried to unlock the tailgate, and no luck. I know the actuator works, because I used a 9V battery to test it. I don't remember is power is present, I would have to recheck it again.

I’m an IT geek, with an electrical engineering degree, and for the life of me, I cannot figure this out. I am hoping that maybe you guys may have come across something similar to this, that you can shed some light? I did purchase a new light switch module just for argument sake, as some sort of troubleshooting technique, trying process of elimination. I’m not an expert on vehicles, but I do have knowledge on how electrical circuits work. I’m just trying to guess my diagnosis.


I figured it wouldn't hurt to reach out to the experts and see if I could get some guidance.

I thank you ALL in advance.

-Gio

P.S. would anyone know the part #'s (non LED) for the Map lights, Visor lights and glove box? I cannot find them, figured I'd replace them back to filament to test.

Thanks!!
 
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atanasiog

atanasiog

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2015
Posts
14
Reaction score
0
Location
New Jersey
Ram Year
2012
Engine
5.7L V8 HEMI MDS V.V.T.
Rustyraindog... any idea where I should start? is there some sort of schematic that would tell me where all the ground connections are?
 

augiedoggy

Member
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Nov 15, 2021
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92
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Location
western NY
Ram Year
2015
Engine
3.0 Ecodiesel
just an fyi the canbus system in our trucks can cause weird behavior like this with the led bulbs. my interior lights were swapped by the previous owner to led and they intermittently worked whenever they felt like it. I googled it and found the led bulbs were likely the problem. I have since swapped back to real bulbs and they have been flawless since. (about a month now). I have swapped my external tail lights and headlights to led and HID without any issues. I dont bother with the leds on the front marker lights since they require rsistors im told and leds with resistors offer no realistic benefit over regular bulbs. They are not more reliable than regular bulbs and the resistors cause them to use just as much power as regular bulbs. I like the look of the led taillights and the led backup bulbs are in fact brighter so I use them
 
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