Long story short I screwed something up and need direction. While messing with the three headlight wires, I somehow screwed up the center ground wire. The only way I can get my headlights to work is to make a new ground wire attached to the metal. The wires are not loose around the connection.

The ground that runs into the vehicle's wireing harness is not grounding. I didnt pull on the wire, not sure why that ground wire is not working. Any ideas on what I broke in regards to this ground wire not working?

2009 Dodge Ram 1500

 

So if both lamps have the same problem, it's unlikely that you screwed two wires the same way, you either damaged the TIPM or the TIPM ground is not making good contact.

The ground for the headlamp for a basic high, low beam lamp is handled via the TIPM module. The left lamp signal return (signal return is the proper way to refer to the signal) goes to the TIPM connector C2 pin 1 and the right one is C2 pin 8. You can ohm out the wire to make sure it's getting to the TIPM. The TIPM module ground is called G107 and is connected to the inner fender well by the battery. The way to find it, is to open the hood and look at the battery negative. The battery has 2 cables going out of the negative side, one of them goes to the G107 ground. The other lug at G107 is the one that goes to the TIPM. You may want to disconnect the wires and clean them.

 

The driver's side headlight works without issue. The passenger side headlight is the one I am having problems with. In order to make it work, I had to run a wire from metal to the center headlight ground wire.

 

My suggestion would be to get the wiring diagram for the headlight system to get the pinouts, color codes, etc., and to backtrack checking for continuity with your multimeter. You can get the diagram from the downloadable shop manual, or try something like Haynes (I've never found them to be totally accurate for a particular year or model, but they generally give enough info to get started with) It may take some time, but it's often a sure-fire way of finding where the continuity of a wire drops. You'll probably find it around something you were working on. In the mean time, I would add a temporary jumper to ground so you have both lights so you can use the truck while you're working on your problem.

 

I already gave him all the info he needs in my previous post.

Ohm out the wire at the bulb connector to the TIPM module Connector C2 pin 8. If it's an open then the problem is in the wire or connector. If there is continuity and the return signal is going into the TIPM, then check the TIPM ground G107. If everything ohms out, then he probrably connected live 12 volts to the ground and burned out a trace inside the TIPM.

 

Yes you did, but without the service manual pinout diagrams, it's not always self evident which pin is which - the manual gives all that to you so that you can easily find the pins and then perform the continuity tests. If a person uses a "cheaper" manual, there are seldom any pinout diagrams included, so you need to rely on color codes and understanding how to read the schematics.

 

All he has to do is figure out where the TIPM is located and which connector is C2. This is very easy to do in about 1/2 hour or less

There are only 3 wires per headlamp and since 5 out of the six signals are working properly, it should be really easy to see which are which.

1. Disconnect the negative side of the battery.
2. disconnect the connector at the left lamp (if he wants to figure out which pins are which - may not be needed)
3. Disconnect the connector at the right lamp
4. disconnect the C2 connector at the TIPM
5. connect one input of the ohmeter to the ground wire that is not working at the connector to the passenger side lamp. Since he has already figured out that by grounding it the lamp works, he knows which one it is.
6. Go to the C2 connector and use the other input to the ohmeter and work your way down all of the pins on the connector. If not one of the pins gets a short, then the ground is open, and he has a harness problem. If he gets a short, then the wiring harness is fine from the lamp to the IPM

If you want to figure out which pin is which, do the above process for every pin from the lamps to the C2 connector, pretty soon, it becomes obvious what the pin assignments are.