Electrical Gremlins

[FourThreeFourRHO]

Took possession of a brand new ‘26 RHO (Level 1) back in early May. Great experience with Mark Dodge. Can’t say enough about that whole process, the sale, and delivery.

However, not too long after delivery I had a power issue. The battery somehow died around 500 miles and caused all sorts of electrical errors/codes when I tried to unknowingly start the truck with a weak battery. Recharged the battery, cleared the codes, and everything seemed normal. Turned off the proximity stuff thinking the truck was trying to stay awake somehow. And all was well for a while.

Fast forward to the week before last—now with around 7k miles. My wife’s been driving the truck and experienced the vehicle unexpectedly shut down on her while she was stopped. To the best of her knowledge the truck may or may not have auto stopped at the light. However, when she was ready to take off the truck unexpectedly would shut down. The display, radio, etc. all went black. She would put in back in park and the truck would start back up. There was a CEL with seemingly a hundred different electrical related codes. So cleared the codes and things were good before it happened to her two more times over the next week and a half. Virtually same story. Battery voltage seemed fine (>13.5) and it restarted easily, so again cleared the ridiculous amount of codes, even reset the radio to factory settings, and hoped it was this update that we had noticed was trying to be pushed OTA. This whole thing never happened while I drove it. Maybe it was related to me always disabling the auto start/stop since it’s become a habit from breaking the engine in and it’s something she doesn’t routinely do when driving the truck, but I don’t know.

Well the straw that broke the camels back came this past weekend. Truck started right up. We went on a short drive to get ice cream. Parked the truck. And when we came back out to leave about 15mins later, the truck would try to start, but it would not turnover. Foot was on the brake, pushed the button, and I could hear an audible attempt to start two or three times until I left my foot off the brake. Luckily, I had a 3k amp jump starter and connected it thinking it could be a weak battery. Checked the voltage, all seemed fine, hooked up the jump starter, but again it tried to start but wouldn’t turn over.

Had to get the truck towed on a flat bed to the dealer. Awaiting to find out what they discover. Fingers crossed they find something. Really worried it’s something nonspecific that may linger around until it’s luckily found.

 

[FourThreeFourRHO]

Update: Per dealer they could not replicate the issue. They were apparently able to turn the truck over when getting to it on Monday morning. Picked it up and everything seems fine. Guess I’ll have to wait for it to nuke itself again.

 

[Aldo512]

Update: Per dealer they could not replicate the issue. They were apparently able to turn the truck over when getting to it on Monday morning. Picked it up and everything seems fine. Guess I’ll have to wait for it to nuke itself again.

Just having the random CarPlay issues (and 3recalls) is really dulling my enthusiasm- If I had your issue I think I’d be done.

 

[FourThreeFourRHO]

Just having the random CarPlay issues (and 3recalls) is really dulling my enthusiasm- If I had your issue I think I’d be done.

lol CarPlay has been near flawless. Other than some occasional laggy responses the infotainment has been great too. Overall, love the truck and all its features including the hands free driving. The drivetrain has been great. I average a little over 15MPG using top tier fuels. The oil analysis reports have come back great too. Just got a new diamondback cover for my birthday that I’m loving too.

I do wonder if there’s some sort of proximity issue with the keys. Maybe related to my first battery drain issue. Disabling all the proximity stuff seemed to have worked. We have two WK2s that sit next to it so maybe there’s some sort of conflicting frequencies or handoffs. I had recently enabled it again thinking I must be in the clear and obviously began having some more trouble. But again I dunno. I will say though, after picking it up yesterday, some of the glitches like the HVAC settings not recalling at the next start up seem to have disappeared since they emerged when the truck was randomly shutting down. I guess time will tell though.

 

[rogersak1]

I just delt with a bunch of these glitches. First my gear selection lights would not light up. Then I had the flashing odometer. Then the u connect would not shut down and would stay on when opening the doors even though it was selected to do so in the settings. It would also constantly ask for a Wi-Fi connection even though I turned that setting off due to the conflict between the Wi-Fi and my android auto syncing up. It also stalled out on me one time leaving my driveway. No check engine lights or anything thrown when that happened. Started right back up without issue but that one really made me feel uneasy.
Today I disconnected both batteries and pushed on the brake and the horn to get rid of any residual energy left in the system. I tested both batteries with a load tester, and both came back at 100% health and over the listed cca ratings stated on the batteries. Charge on the batteries was a 98%. Connected the main battery first then the smaller one didn't start the engine but just pushed the start button once and let it do its thing. Everything booted correctly quickly and without issue. UConnect works the way its selected to now as well. Next is to take it for a little test drive and see how it does. Most of what I experienced was minor except for that stall out. Up until this point most of the little things that would pop up would fix themselves, but this list of issues was not.

 

[echtogammut]

So far pretty minor issues that my upcoming recall trip to the dealer (got a recall for the backup camera) should be able to fix. The Mopar app tells me there is a battery issue when I try remote starting the interior fan. The remote engine start works fine, just the "cool" feature throws a battery alert.

I was helping people evacuate from the recent Reno fires and I found out the rear cabin lights don't turn on consistently, even manually they wouldn't come on, which was very annoying trying to load people and belongings into the rear of the cab in the dark. At first I thought they didn't work at all, but then they started working and now they don't again.

 

[kaos_859]

@echtogammut Thank you for helping people of Reno evacuate.

 

[FourThreeFourRHO]

Well to add insult to injury. I just discovered the tow company damaged my receiver loading the truck onto their flatbed to take to the dealer. They had to have hooked their winch up to one the safety chain loops without me realizing it and bent the hell out of it. Looks like I have a floppy limp dog ear on my receiver now.

@RamCares

 

[mghtymous21]

I guess I just love the truck too much to care about any of the issues. To me they are just a blip on the radar and have little impact on my overall passion and love for the truck

 

[RamCares]

Well to add insult to injury. I just discovered the tow company damaged my receiver loading the truck onto their flatbed to take to the dealer. They had to have hooked their winch up to one the safety chain loops without me realizing it and bent the hell out of it. Looks like I have a floppy limp dog ear on my receiver now.

@RamCares

We can certainly check into this for you to see where support can be provided. DM us with more information such as above about what occurred, and we'll go from there.

Chris,
Ram Cares

 

[FourThreeFourRHO]

We can certainly check into this for you to see where support can be provided. DM us with more information such as above about what occurred, and we'll go from there.

Chris,
Ram Cares

DM sent.

 

[Mikey Swift]

DM sent.

Big crescent wrench and bend it back.

 

[Saints]

Big crescent wrench and bend it back.

Yep, I’d be pissed, but I’d just fix it myself and move on.

 

[FourThreeFourRHO]

The saga continued…lol

Went out of town with the family this weekend. A couple hundred miles away we made a rest stop. Anddd the truck doesn’t turn over again. Tried to start but doesn’t turnover. Ironically, let it sit for 10-15 mins and it magically turned over after trying it again.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon after we checked in to the hotel etc. Door locks aren’t working again. Vehicle wouldn’t turnover again. Hooked up the jump starter and viola got it to turn over. Ended up leaving the truck running longer than I should to make a few trips and eventually made it to an auto parts store to test both batteries. Both the main and aux batteries were bad. Maybe the dealer didn't test them after we towed it there last weekend, but I dunno.

Either way, we were between a rock and a hard place by being out of town over the weekend, so we bought new batteries. After we installed them the truck has been running better, seems more responsive, and has been trouble free. Just sucks I needed to eat this cost because we were out of town, couldn't get it to the dealer over the weekend in time to repair under warranty, and we couldn’t stay longer because we needed to get back home. I’m assuming the auxiliary battery went tits up and killed the main battery—probably poor quality control from the factory.

 

[CorysRHO]

You may be able to get reimbursed. I'd start emailing ram.

 

[ezzel]

I'm not a Ram tech or mechanic in any way, but...

I picked up my new '25 RHO with 28 miles on it May of last year and on the way home, numerous warning lights appeared randomly (but oddly enough, no CEL). and I immediately thought... there has to be a bad ground. I set the display to the voltmeter and as I was driving it was reading 12.5, 12.8, 13.0, 12.7, 13.1, 12.4, etc. I came home and right away disconnected both batteries, and as I was doing this, realized how the connections were simply not tight. I waited a full day and reconnected the batteries and tightened every nut, bolt and screw I could reach. I was amazed on how many were not tight at all.
Now immediately after the truck 'rebooted', I cleared the, I think, 13 codes with a scan tool I had ($30 on Amazon). Since then, zero issues (11,000 miles). Volts run around 14 to 14.3 and I have had no issues whatsoever.

I invite you all to at least try to tighten all connections and post if you found loose connections as well.

@RamCares

 

[FourThreeFourRHO]

I'm not a Ram tech or mechanic in any way, but...

I picked up my new '25 RHO with 28 miles on it May of last year and on the way home, numerous warning lights appeared randomly (but oddly enough, no CEL). and I immediately thought... there has to be a bad ground. I set the display to the voltmeter and as I was driving it was reading 12.5, 12.8, 13.0, 12.7, 13.1, 12.4, etc. I came home and right away disconnected both batteries, and as I was doing this, realized how the connections were simply not tight. I waited a full day and reconnected the batteries and tightened every nut, bolt and screw I could reach. I was amazed on how many were not tight at all.
Now immediately after the truck 'rebooted', I cleared the, I think, 13 codes with a scan tool I had ($30 on Amazon). Since then, zero issues (11,000 miles). Volts run around 14 to 14.3 and I have had no issues whatsoever.

I invite you all to at least try to tighten all connections and post if you found loose connections as well.

@RamCares

Unfortunately had a similar issue around 500 miles. Disconnected the battery sensors and removed the batteries hoping to reset everything and put the batteries on a trickle charger/maintainer. Put them back in and tightened everything down well. No issues until the last couple weeks.

The new batteries seem to be working like a champ. And again the original batteries from the factory tested bad.

 

[Weather Man]

DM sent.

2# hammer and massage it.

 

[FourThreeFourRHO]

2# hammer and massage it.

In all honestly I’ll probably go with 4x4 and a bottle jack. Sand it down with a dremel and repaint it before it rusts.

 

[PBRStreetgang]

DM sent.

That would piss me off.