WARNING: Rear Door Wiring!!!
 

A while back my driver side rear door stopped operating the "door ajar" light and the dome light. I figured it was the integrated latch/switch assembly and put off replacing it because it wasn't a big deal.

A week or so ago, my son reported that the speaker in that door had stopped working. Hmmm... two electrical problems in the same door. Sounds like a harness connector jiggled loose. This afternoon I had some free time, so I opened up the door to check on the connectors and see what is involved in replacing the latch/switch assembly.

I pulled the speaker to get access to the harness coming into the door, and while I was at it confirmed that the speaker was still good. I then put an oscilloscope on the speaker harness and found no signal, which was consistent with my theory of a loose connector somewhere.

Then I discovered that the window switch didn't work anymore. I asked my son and he said the switch had been working the last time he was in the truck. So things are deteriorating in real time? How can that be? How can contacts within a connector housing come apart one at a time?

A bit more fiddling revealed that the window switch worked when the door was closed or almost closed, but stopped working when the door was open. Even the LED in the switch went out when the door was open. The door had been open when I discovered the switch didn't work, but worked again when I sat in the truck and closed it. Bizarre!

The wiring harness is the only real moving component in this operation, so I started there. It passes from the body to the door through a heavy rubber tube. I was able to find a door angle at which jiggling the rubber tube caused the window switch light to go on and off repeatably, proving the problem was within the harness. While I was doing this, the window suddenly went down all by itself... and couldn't be raised again. Things were continuing to deteriorate the more I messed with it, and now my window was stuck down, so I had no choice but to fix it immediately.

To shorten this story, I freed both ends of the rubber hose to see what was going on. I couldn't imagine there being a connector INSIDE the hose, yet the wiggling pointed at something going on there. Here is what I found:

http://articles.richardhartman.net/truck/wiring.jpg

That's right: Most of the wires WITHIN the rubber hose were cut clean through! If you look carefully, you can see the remaining wires are on their way to being cut too (the green and tan wires even have their copper conductors exposed).

Let me be perfectly clear: I did not cut these wires. This is exactly what they looked like when they came out of the hose. The hose itself was in perfect condition, no nicks nor pinches nor any sign of damage whatsoever. The wires were not pinched - they looked like they'd been sheared. And this all happened near the center of the hose, not at either end where the wires might have come in contact with a sharp metal edge.

I have absolutely no idea how this happened. It was obviously a progressive problem, since it seems the dome light wiring was the first to be affected, followed by the speaker wiring. The window wiring failed in my hands, while I was jiggling the wires and hose trying to narrow down where the problem was. And it's clear the remaining wires were on their way.

My solution was to cut all of the wires, give them all fresh ends, strip and solder each connection, shrink wrap each one individually, then shrink wrap them together as a bundle, and finally snake the harness back into the hose. When I reconnected the door to the body, my dome lights came on like magic - the first time that door had triggered the dome lights in months. When the speaker went back it, it too started working again. The window worked, too.

I titled this with "WARNING" because some of those wires obviously have 12VDC on them, and they were all just sitting loose in that hose. If the wrong pair touched, the result could be anything from a blown fuse to a hefty repair bill to a fire. And this is really, seriously hidden away inside a hose that nobody would ever look in under normal circumstances. Not a good situation.

You might want to wiggle those door harnesses once in a while, just in case. Hope this helps someone!

I had the same problem.

same here, common problem.

Anyone figure out the cause? Did you check the other door to see if it was happening there also?

Me to with almost the same problem. I just had two wires broken and a third on the way. It's amazing how many (common) problems I'm finding out "after" I bought my ram about 6 months ago. This is my first american vehicle in almost 25 years and it seems like I'm getting problem after problem just like I did way back then, that was the main reason I went to the other side then. I've had to replace the front right brake caliber (was dragging) the water pump (was leaking), passenger rear door wiring (window stopped working). I'm going to either have to fix or replace the multifunction blinker (wiper, blinkers, high-low beams sometimes don't work), going to have to replace my air blower cause sometimes it won't work unless I give it a tap w/ my hand, the blend doors are now broken so my feet freeze in winter. I traded in my other 2007.5 Laramie Ram that had the 6.7L for this 2006 5.9L SLT partly for the better fuel miles and the other cause the EGR stopped working in between Ft. Davis, Tx. and Midland, Tx. where no service is available for hundreds of miles). O.K., I'll stop and get off my soap box now and fix all the problems. I feel better now. :)

My dad helped me fix it and he was thinking maybe w/ the window going up and down that maybe it was catching on the wires some.

I don't think it was that in my case, since the wire breaks were in the middle of the rubber hose.

Kinda like that could be the bend point in the middle of the hose. Dunno, just a thought.

Have the same thing beginning on mine. So far, it fails to turn the interior light on and does not tell me "door ajar".

If you open the driver's door, you can see the rear door's hose behavior. Mine doesn't have a kink in it anywhere, just a smooth radiused curve around a sort of circle. I'd expect the wires inside to follow the same path. That's why it's so weird - I can't see where a sharp kink would occur.

Mine started w/ the window not working (good thing it stopped after the window was up and not down) then the interior light wouldn't come on. And ditto on the door ajar light.

Mine sounds like yours. I don't want to take the other door apart till it happens to it. It's a mystery.

After everything I did, strictly speaking fixing this wiring problem doesn't require taking the door apart. You can disconnect the harness from the body connector (pinch the short sides and rock it back and forth until it releases) and then back off the hose boot from the connector. Compress the hose and you'll see if any wires are broken.

Yes you are correct. My dad and me had to remove the door panel because we both thought at the time (not knowing what we know now) that the motor or track might be bad and we were going to check the connections for the lights when we noticed the wires in the door were broken.

mine started with the window not working, then speaker and now locks - I have fixed everything but the lock which actually just happened today when I was messing with the rubber boot/harness. I have done so much repair in there and now have no clue which one is the lock wire - can anyone tell me? After messing with everything I now have 3 more broke wires and 1 more that has been fixed once before that has come undone.