Hey all. New to the forums but I've been lurking for several days trying to see if there's a solution to the issue I'm having. I've seen bits and pieces but no definitive fix, so here's the backstory...
I was having issues the past couple of years with my pre-owned 2019 1500 that I bought summer '21. No right LED tail light, error message about the blind spot sensor not responding and needing to take the truck in for service. After months of the issue, it finally came to a head when the radio wouldn't turn on, and apparently every single electronic doo-dad in these trucks runs through that head unit, so in 90+ degree weather I had zero a/c, zero window control, etc. I gulped down the realization that I was going to have take the truck in to a local dealer for a solution and likely get raked over the coals in charges for the fix. Took it in, and it turned out I had a cracked tail light that had been allowing water into the housing. The fix was going to be $1700 worth of a new tail light assembly, a new wiring harness (the original was partly corroded, I was told), and the labor to repair it.... but what's a guy to do? Get pulled over by the police for no tail light?
Within two weeks of the repair the issues started popping up again and I immediately thought "there's no way I can afford to pay another couple of grand or more for a new radio or an o-ring or something else." I had a year warranty of labor that I didn't take advantage of - I decided to play it by ear, and the issues with the BSS giving an error message were sparse, so I thought I could see how long the issue would last and if it would repair itself (because that's how reality works...) over time. By the time I realized my tail light wasn't working I was already past the year warranty with the dealership.
So now I'm desperately hoping that someone has ideas on how to self-diagnose this. I'm not a mechanic, but I am somewhat knowledgeable of some things related to electronics. If I've got directions I can likely do replacements myself. So the other night I realized that the right tail light was just barely lit. My immediate thought was that the issue could be voltage related. I checked what was indicated to be the fuse for this light in the hood fuse box but it appeared fine. Going off of someone else's suggestion in a similar thread, I bought some electrical contact cleaner, removed the tail light assembly, and sprayed and cleaned the wiring harness contacts, which didn't appear corroded at all. Didn't matter - this didn't fix the issue.
Any ideas on what to check next? Could the radio itself simply need to be replaced if the water from the previous tail light caused some sort of short or something?
I was having issues the past couple of years with my pre-owned 2019 1500 that I bought summer '21. No right LED tail light, error message about the blind spot sensor not responding and needing to take the truck in for service. After months of the issue, it finally came to a head when the radio wouldn't turn on, and apparently every single electronic doo-dad in these trucks runs through that head unit, so in 90+ degree weather I had zero a/c, zero window control, etc. I gulped down the realization that I was going to have take the truck in to a local dealer for a solution and likely get raked over the coals in charges for the fix. Took it in, and it turned out I had a cracked tail light that had been allowing water into the housing. The fix was going to be $1700 worth of a new tail light assembly, a new wiring harness (the original was partly corroded, I was told), and the labor to repair it.... but what's a guy to do? Get pulled over by the police for no tail light?
Within two weeks of the repair the issues started popping up again and I immediately thought "there's no way I can afford to pay another couple of grand or more for a new radio or an o-ring or something else." I had a year warranty of labor that I didn't take advantage of - I decided to play it by ear, and the issues with the BSS giving an error message were sparse, so I thought I could see how long the issue would last and if it would repair itself (because that's how reality works...) over time. By the time I realized my tail light wasn't working I was already past the year warranty with the dealership.
So now I'm desperately hoping that someone has ideas on how to self-diagnose this. I'm not a mechanic, but I am somewhat knowledgeable of some things related to electronics. If I've got directions I can likely do replacements myself. So the other night I realized that the right tail light was just barely lit. My immediate thought was that the issue could be voltage related. I checked what was indicated to be the fuse for this light in the hood fuse box but it appeared fine. Going off of someone else's suggestion in a similar thread, I bought some electrical contact cleaner, removed the tail light assembly, and sprayed and cleaned the wiring harness contacts, which didn't appear corroded at all. Didn't matter - this didn't fix the issue.
Any ideas on what to check next? Could the radio itself simply need to be replaced if the water from the previous tail light caused some sort of short or something?
