Battery replacement

[Devram2112]

This morning I took my 2026 RHO Level 1 to the dealership for an oil change (at 2,900 miles), tire rotation, Pennsylvania state emissions inspection, and to have them look at the auxiliary battery. The truck wouldn’t start ventilation through the app (see picture)

I booked everything through the app and listed all the work needed. The service advisor briefly went over the list with me, then I sat down to wait. A little while later I realized she never asked for my insurance information. I showed her my ID cards and she said, “I didn’t have you in for inspection.” Okay, fine—go ahead and do the inspection then. That was the main reason I was there (I bought the truck in Louisiana and need to comply with the 10-day rule after registering it in PA).

A few hours later another advisor came over and said, “Hey, we couldn’t perform the inspection… because of the OBD2 you have to put 100 miles on the truck now since we replaced the aux battery.”

Has anyone ever heard of that? I’m not sure why driving it 100 miles has anything to do with it.
He continued, “…I’d be happy to schedule you another appointment after 100 miles to get the inspection done.” He could have at least done the safety inspection without the emissions portion, but that wasn’t offered.

I specifically chose this dealership because it was the highest-rated one near me (4.9/5 stars).
Slightly inconvenient, but whatever. I paid for the services they did complete and got in the truck. It fired up and immediately shut back off—and wouldn’t restart. I stormed back into the service center and they didn’t even look at me. I announced loudly, “Well now it won’t start. It never did that before.”

I’m not aware of it having a problem since they cleared the codes, but now it definitely sounds different—just off somehow. I had the windows down and it doesn’t sound 100% correct. Maybe I’m imagining it; time will tell, but I’m expecting it to start acting up.

I’m heading out to the truck now to turn off the proximity illumination, since I’ve read in another post that it can leave you stranded. Not sure if that was related to the original battery issue or not.

 

[PBRStreetgang]

Yep, the emissions machine won’t let them do the test until some miles are on the vehicle after a battery disconnects. I had someone tell me it’s due to people pulling the cables to reset check engine lights right before a smog check. I ran into on my wife’s car a few years ago. Put a new battery in and I couldn’t get it tested until I put like 50 miles on it.

 

[Devram2112]

Yep, the emissions machine won’t let them do the test until some miles are on the vehicle after a battery disconnects. I had someone tell me it’s due to people pulling the cables to reset check engine lights right before a smog check. I ran into on my wife’s car a few years ago. Put a new battery in and I couldn’t get it tested until I put like 50 miles on it.

Sorry for the skeptical opinion but I've had dealerships (different than this one) tell me some tall tales before.

Including gems like the following:
"Your truck didn't pass inspection due to a non factory battery hold down" Battery was secure, this is an outright fabrication and technically against the law to fail a vehicle for this.

"That's what you get for putting cheap fuel in your tank"
"I filled up at BP"
"Oh! That's the worst!"
"No it isn't. Sheetz or Get Go maybe... But not British Petroleum! Nice try, there is a serious issue with this vehicle"
After running that entire tank of gas out of the truck the fuel sending unit was bad and needed replaced under warranty. Funny that the vehicle was unsafe to drive at that point but not when it had a full tank of gas and wouldn't run for longer than 5 mins.

"We can't refund tax for this test"
"Technically you can because you are charging the test under warranty. The warranty should cover the test I paid for including the tax"
"It doesn't"
"Ok, you keep the $10 in tax, over pay the government, and I'll never be back here for service again"
They kept my $10 and I never went back for service or to buy another vehicle. It's been 7 years.