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Rear LED tail light not getting power


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The LED tail light on my 2013 R/T recently stopped working, driver's side only. It's the inner one, the one on the lift gate (the outer one, which is the brake light, is still working). I took the tail light assembly off, and tested power - there is no power coming to the light. Manually ran power to the light, and it lights up - so the light is good. Even stranger, when the headlights turn on, the reverse light on that one side also comes on, unless you open the lift gate and then the reverse light goes off as long as the gate is open.

 

Any ideas on what is wrong and/or how to fix it?

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  • 10 months later...

I lost the same light on my 14 R/T, I also lost the parking light and the signal light On the drivers side. The break light works fine though. I pulled the light assembly out and put a new signal bulb in, hit the lock button to see if it would flash and it didn’t BUT the parking light flashed quickly and then wouldn’t come on again. I tried several times again without it coming back on. I took the light assembly back out and moved the wires all around and still couldn’t get it to do it again. Any ideas where to look for bad wires, bad connection or something else?

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21 minutes ago, OhareFred said:

See above comment.  Wire loom at the top of the gate going into the body

 

So what your saying is that the wire harness goes from the right side, up over the top to the left side? Just trying to make sure I understand fully.

 

how would I get to the harness? Is it accessible from where the gate opens? Do I have to drop the ceiling panel? Any help would be great, thanks!

 

thanks for your time and have a great day!

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21 hours ago, jkeaton said:

Just look at the harness. Cut the loom open or untape it or whatever. The wires are inside. You need to inspect them. 

 

11 hours ago, NewfieDecker said:

Ok great, thanks for the info! Any idea how I get to the loom? Is it in the roof and I'd have to drop the ceiling panel? Or is it accessible by opening the lift gate? Any help would be great. Cheers!

 

See the above response. Open your lift gate and look.....

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I've cut open the loom. Took the tape off of the wires, dropped the liner panel and inspected all the wire run, I don't see anything wrong with the wires anywhere. I've even removed the gromets and looked at the wires there, still nothing. Any more idea on where to look or what could be wrong? Anyone know where I can find a wiring diagram?

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So I found the problem! It was not in the wire bundle that passes threw the body up by the lift gate. It was a faulty module that controls the wiring for the trailer hook up. It's tied into the left break light assembly. It has a "T" style harness for the break light and the park light and then is spliced into the signal light. The module is tucked in behind the bumper just below the tail light assembly. I removed the "T" connector and cut the wire for the signal light that was jumpered from the car harness and went to the module. It didnt work right away, but not untill i cycled the car ignition to the on possotion without starting the engine. I'll post pictures when I go back in and clean the area up

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  • 2 years later...

Had this same problem fixed by my dealer a year and a half ago, just had to fix it again. The wires going thru the loom are pulled so tight that they break. The dealership put on a splice that made the wire even shorter, so boom, it happened, again.  I fixed it and put an extension on that wire so it cannot get pulled that tight again.  Such a common problem and so easy to fix if you know where to look.   When mine broke, it took out my right inner light, my right reverse light, my tailgate light and my license plate lights.  20 minutes later, all working again.  

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  • 1 year later...

I was suffering from the same problem, I lost all liftgate lights and the lock at the same time losing that much on the liftgate at once told me to check the harness. After spending $104 on mopar.com I got the wiring harness here is the old harness I removed, problem fixed. There was a total of 8 wires broken inside the boot. Before you drop money on new led lights which are $250-300 a piece I urge you to check the harness.

20211009_115546.jpg

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  • 1 year later...

I had the same problem. Bought a new inner tail light assembly on Amazon but that didn't fix the problem. Peeled back the harness cover to find a broken wire. Splice, solder, shrink-wrap, problem solved. Saved $65. Hopefully it lasts.

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Edited by MikeGyver
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  • 11 months later...

Thanks for the great posts on the non-working LED light. A broken wire was my problem when I cut open the boot that covers the wires. I did exactly what Mike G did- solder the broke wire & use shrink. I then hooked up the old LED assembly & it worked great! Now packaging the new LED assembly I bought to send back to Amazon. Thanks again for the helpful posts.

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  • 2 months later...

Get someone who knows how to solder. Or practise a bit to see if you get the hang of it. Watch utube soldering links.

Need to pretin wires first, then solder them together. Electronic flux is useful even if flux core solder used.

Need multi strand copper wire of same or bigger gauge.  I think I broke one more during soldering process, ended up with 5 bad wires. Test everything while harness is still apart.

The wires break because not enough slack in harness, not too little.


I added a maybe 6 inch splice to each broken one,  I needed the extra space to separate and solder properly. Tucked some wire further into gate and folded some of the new slack into wire bundle.  Grommet was sliced longitudinally. Used small zip ties to hold wire bundle together. Then used them around grommet to hold around fixed wires, urethane caulk used on cut seam held together with wraps. 
 

It’s like extra wire in house wiring junction boxes. Can fold extra into loops and make it go away. Electronic Tec’s would do this in their sleep, of course.
 

 

 

Edited by John/Horace
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