No turn signal to left trailer light

[frank1]

One of my 03's left turn signal on the trailer does not function. Brake and running lights work fine. All lights work on truck side. Both fuses 46 & 47 are okay (switched them to 10 amp fuses years ago). What I would like to do is tap into the trucks left turn signal and add a 5 amp fuse in-line and run new wire to seven pin connector. Will I cause more problems doing this? Just trying to keep the truck out and finish off the season (lawn / landscape business).
Thanks, Frank

 

[crabman]

Take the 7 pin connector apart that is on the truck & check for corrosion first, loose wire, etc. first.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Honestly I would figure out what is wrong and just fix it. Doing work arounds like that just starts turning a vehicle into junk imho.

Scott

 

[frank1]

Checked- trailer connection is fine. Found yellow wire with pink tracer- no power. Traced all the way to front underside of driver's door near cab mount. Found 12 pin connector and at the connector the yellow/pink tracer wire switches over to white with green tracer wire- also no power. From that point, wires go up firewall, I cannot locate the white with green tracer any longer. The problem could be the fuse box going bad- but no fuses are blown at this point. Any ideas???

 

[jhenderson]

1st on my list would be a wiring diagram.

 

[frank1]

After much research and talking to a few guys around town, seems like my TIPM is need of replacement. Apparently, the relays for the trailer right and left turn signals are below your fuse box and cannot be replaced. Spoke to someone at etrailer about my problem and said that they have an independent converter made by Curt. The system simply plus into your rear tail lights and the power goes through the new converter and out to your trailer plug. Does not effect your trucks TIPM. Ordered a kit, will have it in a few days.

 

[jhenderson]

You need to talk to smarter guys. Your 03 doesn't have a TIPM.

 

[frank1]

Your right, I believe my 06' has the TIPM and my 03'S have a PDC- power Distribution Center . Anyway, the PDC seems to be the problem.

 

[jhenderson]

An FSM on cd is cheaper than a PDC. Why don't you get one and trace the problem.

 

[frank1]

I do have a complete set of manuals for the 2003 Ram. Apparently there are no relays you can replace for the trailer turn/brake signals. I did a search on TDR and found out that if there is a short in a circuit or an overload condition in one of the control turn signal circuits the ribbons on the back of the PDC burns and fails (I believe it was Bill Stockton a TDR member who stated this). Once this happens -well your out of luck, unless you are capable of removing the PDC and re-soldering the ribbons. I phoned e-trailer and spoken to one of there tech's and recommends the Curt C55504 converter. It goes for under $60.00 dollars. The kit comes w/ "T" connectors that plug into the back of your tail lights and then you run the wires to your trailer connector. I ordered a kit this afternoon, I'll give it a try and see what happens.

 

[jhenderson]

Good luck. I hope this will fix the problem. I have seen posts of people removing all the connectors from the bottom of the PDC and cleaning them. It might help.

 

[Kirwin]

You have a Front Control Module on the underside of the PDC. It controls all the exterior lights and has current limiting electronics that turn off the trailer lights on overloads. It can be reset a couple of times but excess current draw can also damage the pc foil on the underside of the PDC main board. It is replaceable for around $200 I think. Talk to your friend at your Ram dealer. They can check it with their scan tool and tell you what is wrong. Ken Irwin

 

[frank1]

Thanks Ken. This particular truck is used daily pulling one of my 20' open equipment trailers. I was gone for four days and when I got back home my foreman told me that the left trailer brake light would not go off, only when you would turn off the truck. They ran this truck for three days under these conditions!!!! What I did was unhook both batteries for about thirty minutes.Reconnected the batteries and the left brake light was off. Sent the crew off to work, the foreman called me about five hours later letting me know he no longer had brake or left turn signal on the trailer. I ran down my other 03' and hooked up to the trailer and put their truck out of service. I've had some really bad luck with dealerships around here, my last dealings with them was for a $1010.00 starter for one of my Rams!!!! Never again! I'll run the truck down to my local garage and see if they can scan the PDC for me. Thanks guys for all your suggestions. On a side note, I did check the trailer for any shorts, all looks good. Frank

 

[jhenderson]

The front control module (FCM) is on the side not the bottom of the PDC. It is NOT PROGRAMABLE. If it has failed it must be replaced. Be diligent on your testing, they are not returnable and list price is $400+.

 

[Kirwin]

Sorry for the bad info. Its been a long time since I worked on mine. I get the FCM trouble shooting confused with the TPIM set up in the later trucks. I'm sure that your dealer can tell you if it's failed though. It does have diagnostics for the FCM/PDC in the service manual. I will try to see if I can find that when I get the chance. My problem was in the trailer connector on the trailer. It wasn't an issue with the truck at all. Ken Irwin