Australian Converted 2500 - Making it Right!

[FantaInOz]

Ok, so those two wires aren’t for what you’re thinking. Ram trucks don’t use the turn signal CONTROL circuits for the rear turns. They use the turn signal DRIVER circuits (C6-42, circuit L62 and C5-3, circuit L63). So, those wires would have never existed in those two positions in the C6 connector to begin with.

Does the truck have rear fog lamps? It looks like you’re holding BCM connector C5 in your hand, and the white/green wire is coming out of its wire bundle?
Then it looks like the white/orange wire is coming out of a different bundle, possibly C6? Maybe that’s one thing that module is controlling?
View attachment 49988

You’re right on each of the connectors - C5 and C6. Very interesting. I don’t think I do have rear fogs now that you mention it. I have fronts and no switch for rears. It’s something I’ve struggled to come to terms with since moving from Ireland; rear fog lights are not compulsory in Australia

 

[Olive2022HO3500]

Interesting, great knowledge @Jimmy07

I’m not aware of any unusual laws down here around lighting. That being said, I’m Irish and only been living down here 10 years. Everything else, light-wise, appears to be normal although a side-by-side with a factory truck would be useful!

The two pairs that are terminated with the resistors are Blue / White and Green / White - I wonder if they are related to the rear guidance lights? I suspect I’ll need to remove the door card to get to the bottom of that but haven’t put the work in to research the how-to yet.

I’ll try to get a better photo of the module label and make out the factory part numbers.

In the US, the rear amber turn signals come on and the brake light on this side comes off. That is not legal in the EU or Australia. You need to have completely separate brake and turn lights. Turns need to be amber but all 3 brake lights need to stay on. I know the EU spec trucks have the upper segment only as brake lights and the lower segment only as amber turn lights. You can reprogramm the BCM to keep the brake lights on, however then all 4 are red AND amber when the trun signal is on. I guess this requires some changes in the taillights, desoldering or cutting the trun signal pin on the upper section and the brake light pin on the lower section within the taillight. I think this is the same in AUS. Not sure if thery were unable to reprogram the BCM and added a different module to make this work, I know some EU imports are hacked up like that (unfortunately). Sometimes they add extra boxes too for the trailer wiring, as AUS uses a flat 12 pin and EU a round 13 pin conenctor with more lighting functions than the US spec truck provides. Could maybe be one of those two.

 

[Olive2022HO3500]

another thing I can think of, when you mentioned that the amber marker lights in the mirrors don´t work and AUS needs to have CAT 6 side indicators, so that means they need extra side trun signals on these trucks, maybe they used these to control the CAT 6 side indicators on the fender or door? Therfore also disabling the amber marker lights on the mirrors? Anywhere outside of north america you are not allowed to have forward facing amber lights, sind the mirror markers also shine forward, they usually need to be disconnected. I know in Germany, the trun signals are still "OK", even without an ECE approval, but in AUS they require the CAT 6 indicators in place of the ones in the mirrors.
Maybe that is why the respliced the turn signal control?

In AUS on the 1500 they also have rear fog lights, all EU import trucks do as well. The HDs in AUS don´t require rear fog lights, but in the Middle East, the HD RAMs come with rear fog lights as well. I always wanted to swap the EU headlight switch in and ann the factory rear fog lights and make them work through the BCM. The colors match what you described Jimmy, but I doubt the BCM would control rear fog lights through the turn signal control.

I am always shocked on how bad they redo the wiring when converting vehicles. It could be done so nicely by just reprogramming (and pinning) the BCM without cutting any wires.

 

[Olive2022HO3500]

Sorry to hijack the thread here, so I looked closer at your truck.

The US spec truck has the turn signals in the towing mirrors and they also light up amber as a marker light. I assume that this is all controller by the BCM (right Jimmy?) On the 4th gens, that only had turn signals, you had to run extra wires or a module to make them work as maker lights and turn signals, however 5th gens I think are all done by the BCM.

The AUS converted truck has the CAT 6 indicator lights on the door, behind the cummins emblem and below the mirror. These ONLY light up as turn signals. For this they must have either ran extra turn signals wires to the doors, or reprogrammed the BCM to only have turns in the mirrors and used that wire.
Because the tow mirrors are so wide and according to the ECE regulation you cannot have anything stick out more than 40cm (little over a foot) that is not lit up, they added small white penny marker lights in AUS to these mirrors (again, ECE requires forward facing lights to be white only). Little white dot you see in the front part of the mirror arm. These ONLY turn on with the parking lights, so they need their own feed as well.
I am assuming, what they did is take the turn singal wires from the BCM (that are setup as turn and marker lights), ran them into this extra module that splits the signal into a dedicated marker light and dedicated trun signal and then runs into the doors.

Maybe something worth looking into, especially if any extra wires run into the doors.

Hope that helps.

 

[FantaInOz]

@Olive2022HO3500 thank you for your input and insights. Very helpful

 

[FantaInOz]

I’ve had a slow few weeks on this project after having our 3rd child…….

Something else I’ve noticed when my wife came home with the truck this afternoon, is that only the lower half of the rear reversing (back-up / white) lights work. I pulled one of the taillights off quickly to have a look if there was any mods directly behind but it all looks untouched. @Olive2022HO3500 or @Jimmy07 do you guys have any idea why or how to rectify?

 

[Olive2022HO3500]

I’ve had a slow few weeks on this project after having our 3rd child…….

Something else I’ve noticed when my wife came home with the truck this afternoon, is that only the lower half of the rear reversing (back-up / white) lights work. I pulled one of the taillights off quickly to have a look if there was any mods directly behind but it all looks untouched. @Olive2022HO3500 or @Jimmy07 do you guys have any idea why or how to rectify?

I have noticed that in some AUS HD 2500 3500 trucks as well. Maybe the OEM reverse lights are too bright? On the DT 1500 they completely get rid of the OEM reverse lights and insted of the two rear fog lamps for the EU, they add one white reverse light and only one rear fog. Kind of weird.
Maybe what you are describing, if the taillight looks untouched, there might be a EU version of this light then. When I swapped the 5th Gen taillights in my 4th gen 3500, I noticed it has approval numbers and wattages for US and EU printed on the back housing. The EU numbers are way lower (less bringt). Maybe that is the case as brakes are only the top half of the clear portion, amber turn the bottom half (where as in the US both are brake or turn) and maybe also the reverse lights only run half the LEDs to meet ECE regulations. Funny though, in Germany they run the brake and turn lights the same, but the backup lights are full LED, so everything on. I can´t find any different part numbers on the taillights though. Just red with or without BSM and black with and without BSM. If you have the taillight out, what is the part number on the AUS version taillight?

Comming to think about your reverse light issue, I might have another idea... in the EU at least they are very strict with mounting heights for lights. Maybe if the full LEDs are on the center of the light is too high. Therfore they unly use the bottom half, then the measurement is between the two remaining LEDs and not the center of the backup light. Maybe to get around legistlation again.

As an automotive engineer, I find it frustrating that we have not yet found a way to make world wide lighting standards that work everywhere. It would be possible with what we have currently....

 

[Olive2022HO3500]

and off topic, congratilations to the new family member!

 

[Olive2022HO3500]

I have checked and the reverse lamps, according to the ECE-R48, they need to be mounted in a height od 250mm to 1200mm. I am pretty sure, if you measure the ceter of the reverse lights, they are over 1200mm. That is why they disabled the top ones. If you measure between the two remining ones (lower half of the reflector) I am sure you are exactly at 1200mm.

 

[MEGA HO]

You and me both! It's very frustrating with the premium price tag on these trucks down here and we don't get the full functionality.

For how much they charge for the HD/SD trucks down under they should be in better condition than coming off the assembly line in Mexico! I've been working in Aus for the last 3+ years and the vehicle prices are outrageous! Seen some very low mileage SD FORDs for double the brand new price they're in Canada!

 

[FantaInOz]

[mention]MEGA HO 3500 [/mention] you’re absolutely right there.

[mention]Olive2022HO3500 [/mention] thanks for checking! Now I need to trace where they’ve disabled those

 

[Olive2022HO3500]

[mention]MEGA HO 3500 [/mention] you’re absolutely right there.

[mention]Olive2022HO3500 [/mention] thanks for checking! Now I need to trace where they’ve disabled those

That is a good question, as I don´t think they can disable them without opening the taillight. But you mentioned that they don´t look messed with at all. Curious to find out!

 

[FantaInOz]

[mention]Olive2022HO3500 [/mention] I got a chance to take a taillight out again for a look. I can’t see any access to the reverse section, without perhaps heating the seal and separating the lens from the unit. There is an over label with a -AUS part number which I assume is applied after the modification.

 

[Olive2022HO3500]

[mention]Olive2022HO3500 [/mention] I got a chance to take a taillight out again for a look. I can’t see any access to the reverse section, without perhaps heating the seal and separating the lens from the unit. There is an over label with a -AUS part number which I assume is applied after the modification.

Wow, thanks for the detailed pictures. What I think they might have done is actually taken the radar out and maybe altered something internal. The only way you could get in there without splitting the lense apart from the rest. If they applied a new part number, for sure they did change something. Under that white cap above the reverse lights, maybe they de-soldered something and put the cap back on? Would be curious to see a picture of an OEM US taillight to compare. Mine are no BSM, so they are all closed up. :/

But it does show an ECE and a different SAE part number. I am wondering where you´d get the ECE part from, I have never seen an ECE specific partnumber for an entire taillight. I am sure the "X" marks something they disabled too. Very interesting pictures, thanks a lot.

But to your reverse lights, I bet if you´d lift off that white cover over the 4 reverse LEDs you will see two of them are disconnected, 100% sure. I will do some more digging here.

If anyone has a US spec LED taillight with BSM, it would be great to be able to compare them!

 

[Jimmy07]

That tail light part number is the European market tail.

 

[Olive2022HO3500]

That tail light part number is the European market tail.

So there is EU specific taillights then? Do you know if they are only available as the bright with BSM or also as a night edition dark light? If that is really the case, maybe they have different boards in the lights all together then. Do you have access to a US one? I´d love to see the same pictures of a US light to compare.

On the EU 1500 DT ones, all reverse LEDs work though. So weird that they don´t in the HD version for Australia then.

 

[elle gee]

I’ve had a slow few weeks on this project after having our 3rd child…….

Something else I’ve noticed when my wife came home with the truck this afternoon, is that only the lower half of the rear reversing (back-up / white) lights work. I pulled one of the taillights off quickly to have a look if there was any mods directly behind but it all looks untouched. @Olive2022HO3500 or @Jimmy07 do you guys have any idea why or how to rectify?

Common situation with pick-up trucks. Probably related to the fact that European (UNECE reg 48), and by extension Australian regulations, limit the reversing light to 1,200mm from the ground, whereas American regulations have no restriction on height. "6.4.4.2. In height: not less than 250 mm and not more than 1,200 mm above the ground." So many American trucks in these markets need to clip the reversing lamps or use separate lamps plonked on the bumper.

 

[Jason B]

Thanks @Jimmy07

There was a score mark on Pin 30 of the C5 connector so was clearly removed from there; it‘s now back in place. It has made no difference to my lighting. I did notice C6 Pin 6 is labelled for the cargo light so I’m going to check that in the next day or two when I can get back under there.

I’ll also check on the 2 wires highlighted above. Not only is there a yellow one looped back but a white/green one too.

Hi boys what colour wire goes into C6 pin 6