the bcm isnt in the path of the 3rd brake light.. the 3rd brake light is run directly off of the switch.. thats why i am leaning on the switch... you should have 12 volts on that wire when the brake pedal is pressed... if theres no voltage on it.. the switch isnt doing its job.

 

another thing to try.. pull the switch off of its mount.. but keep it plugged in.. and press and release the button.. it might not be alligned right on the mount.. might have gotten bent some..

 

Good feedback and I'll try again tonight.

One thing I remember in troubleshooting is that ifI connect the two wires (white/tan and gray/red) in the brake switch harness together with a wire (emulating the switch), I did not get any brake lights. When I did the same for the other pairs, I would get the relay click in the steering column for the shifter, etc. That's way I'm kinda ruling out the switch: 1) No power in the pair (white/tan and gray/red) 2) new dealer switch3) direct power to one of the wires (white/tan) lights up the brake lights. This is leading me to believe that I'm not getting 12 volts on the gray/red wire due to a short, BCM or other mystery.

Thanks for all the support to date on this dishdude2k.

 

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i coulda sworn you said you had voltage TO the switch... in THAT case.. if there is no power to the gray/red wire... there is a 20 amp fuse in the IPM... it doesnt tell me exactly where that is.. but its not the normal fuse box... so check around.. it IS NOT the bcm.. from the schematics .. it doesnt even hit the bcm till later in the circuit.. give me your email address and i will send you a copy of this shematic

 

The 20A fuse for the brake lights in the IPM looks good and I'm looking for any other fuse in the line that might be elsewhere. I recieeved some feedback that disconnecting the battery and pulling the fuses for the IOD (?) and BCM might help to reset the BCM. Left if disconnected over night and no change. I received another tip that I should disconnect the three wire harnesses from the BCM and then reconnect after a while - might try that later tonight but seems risky and is a tough spot to work in. Other advice was to have the dealer scan the BCM, reflash it or replace it. Hope that's not the case. Appreciate the wiring diagram to review before taking those next steps.

 

going to need your email to send it.. it wont let me send attachments on here

 

dishdude2k- Thanks for the wiring diagram - Thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I now see what you were seeing and Ihighlighted it on the image below. Looks like the BCM is not even in the path of the problem and now the most probable cause is a short between the brake switch and the IPM or a fuse somewhere in the path. Looks like12V is not getting through from the IPM to the GRY/RED wire to the brake switch which would thensupply12V upon pressing the brake pedal to the WHT/TAN wire supportingboth the 1) third brake light directly and 2) provides a 12V signal back to the Front Control Module (FCM) of the IPM which thensends power to the relay and back directly to the rear brake lights (what was Dodge thinking on this one.....I miss working on my 71 Plymouth GTX).

This explains why the PARK LAMP RELAYis not clicking even though it has power on pin 86 and 30 - it is looking for power from pin 13 PARK LAMP RELAY CONTROL to supply the rely 12V to pin 85, which in turn, will enable the relay (click) and send full 12V power to the brake lights via pin 87.

I will now focus on tracing the GRY/RED wire back from the interior to the engine compartment as well as searching for any hidden fuses in that path. This has been tremendously helpful - thanks and I'll keep everyone posted.

[IMG]local://upfiles/72603/7E96EF5E2B8645DE82B63A4E61EF90E5.jpg[/IMG]

 

good deal.. i hope i helped you out with it.. its GOT to be a fuse.. or a busted wire.. all it can be.. hope you find it.. and let me knwo what happens.. (one thing to do is make yourself a jumper wire from where it comes out of the ipm off of that 20 amp fuse and take it thru the door straight to the +12v on the brake switch.. then see if it lights up when you hit the switch)

 

In my earlier troubleshooting, I was able to light the brake lights up with a bypass wire from the batterystraight to the WHT/TAN wire at the brake switch. The only concern I had was that I might be bypassing somecomputer logic that might feed the ABS, Airbags or other key function as I thought the wire went into the BCM. Also, if there was a short and it was touching ground, I was asking for trouble....

Thanks for all your help during the troubleshooting phase and the wiring diagramwas awesome (without the diagram, it was like flying without radar) - based on it,itwas easy to see the problem area which I wasa bit skeptical on originally. I will be cutting up my hands this weekend tracing the wire through the interior, body panels and back through into the firewall. If nothing is found, thenI'll probably look at a fused bypass wire...

Again, thanks for the support all along.

 

Problem resolved... Thank you dishdude2k