Electronic issues Radio, AC, and Front Power Windows

[Tom5]

I wonder if it would be cheaper to just switch to a different LED taillight. Of course you’d have to buy 2

Looks like I bought the wrong light the one I received has no blind spot detection . Why does ram have 10 different tail light assemblies. Seems to be hard to find my tail light they are 68262531ag which are discontinued. And the one they recommend to replace it does not have the blind spot detection.

 

[theblet]

Looks like I bought the wrong light the one I received has no blind spot detection . Why does ram have 10 different tail light assemblies. Seems to be hard to find my tail light they are 68262531ag which are discontinued. And the one they recommend to replace it does not have the blind spot detection.

What does it do when you hook that one up? You would think it would work except with no blind spot

 

[PigBimpin]

Looks like I bought the wrong light the one I received has no blind spot detection . Why does ram have 10 different tail light assemblies. Seems to be hard to find my tail light they are 68262531ag which are discontinued. And the one they recommend to replace it does not have the blind spot detection.

The tail light is VIN specific, reach out to your dealer to know which part # you need to purchase. That is why mine was $1200.

 

[Tom5]

What does it do when you hook that one up? You would think it would work except with no blind spot

Yeah it works fine just no blind spot detection

 

[markahouser]

My radio screen has turned off and there is no power to the AC, front driver side and passenger side doors. The AC currently blows hot air from the font area at the base of the windshield. I have left the battery disconnected for an hour to attempt to reset the truck. I have pulled the F44 radio fuse (it was not blown). I did have a message on the tac screen that said Blind Spot Sensor Not available. The weird thing is that this is only happening when the engine is running. When the engine is off the radio works and so does the power windows

I have the same exact problem.

 

[N7GZN]

It's not only the taillights themselves, but the blind spot proximity sensors as it talks on the canbus. I wonder why the sensors were not designed waterproof, as water in taillights is not an unheard of occurrence.

 

[Lamarsh]

My radio screen has turned off and there is no power to the AC, front driver side and passenger side doors. The AC currently blows hot air from the font area at the base of the windshield. I have left the battery disconnected for an hour to attempt to reset the truck. I have pulled the F44 radio fuse (it was not blown). I did have a message on the tac screen that said Blind Spot Sensor Not available. The weird thing is that this is only happening when the engine is running. When the engine is off the radio works and so does the power windows

I use RamForum instead of this forum, but I just wanted to drop a note and let you know I literally joined this forum simply to thank the OP. I have been dealing with these EXACT symptoms now for almost 2 weeks. Once I read how you resolved your problem I remembered I've been getting a strange message for years that my rear right taillight is out, when it was never out, but I figured something must have been wrong with it so I tried disconnecting it and that resolved the problem. Pricey situation to replace that taillight since it's LED and includes blind spot detection, but it's way less than what I was imagining having a dealership diagnose it, since I am out of warranty.

So thank you! This is just one example as to why these forums are so valuable.

I also found a handful of other folks on other forum threads with the same issue. I'm in Detroit, and a close friend of mine is an engineer at Ram, and he's been closely following my problems, and I was able to tell him how we were able to resolve this. Hopefully it will lead to some different designs that don't shut down all these other electronics when there's such a small problem elsewhere.

 

[Nyuyki]

My radio screen has turned off and there is no power to the AC, front driver side and passenger side doors. The AC currently blows hot air from the font area at the base of the windshield. I have left the battery disconnected for an hour to attempt to reset the truck. I have pulled the F44 radio fuse (it was not blown). I did have a message on the tac screen that said Blind Spot Sensor Not available. The weird thing is that this is only happening when the engine is running. When the engine is off the radio works and so does the power windows

I had the same problem today sir, please for sure solution

 

[Nyuyki]

My radio screen has turned off and there is no power to the AC, front driver side and passenger side doors. The AC currently blows hot air from the font area at the base of the windshield. I have left the battery disconnected for an hour to attempt to reset the truck. I have pulled the F44 radio fuse (it was not blown). I did have a message on the tac screen that said Blind Spot Sensor Not available. The weird thing is that this is only happening when the engine is running. When the engine is off the radio works and so does the power windows

Thanks very much for this forum I was able to soft my problem, which was a small crack on the left tail light

 

[go-ram]

Looks like I bought the wrong light the one I received has no blind spot detection . Why does ram have 10 different tail light assemblies. Seems to be hard to find my tail light they are 68262531ag which are discontinued. And the one they recommend to replace it does not have the blind spot detection.

When the LED taillights gave up on my 15-year-old Toyota, the dealer wanted $800 apiece for OEM replacements. I bought replacements that were listed as a certified OEM supplier from Rock Auto for $250 apiece,. Couldn't tell them apart from the factory original taillight assemblies and they've been in service for 5 years, no issues.

 

[Bj2]

I had this same exact problem! While on a 14 hour road trip to Omaha, drove through a torrential rain storm in Wyoming. Shortly after the rain, immediately got a blind spot error on the dash, all electronics went dark, windows would not work, and the heater started blowing hot air into the cabin. Could not adjust heater or turn down. I pulled off the freeway and the truck seemed to be running fine. Disconnected battery, waited about 30 minutes, reconnected, nothing changed. Drove another 6 hours to the nearest dealer. While explaining my dilemma to the service manager, a technician happened to overhear my story. He jumped into the conversation and immediately asked if I had a cracked tail light. I told him I did have a hairline crack from backing into my garbage can. He said most likely moisture had entered the tail light and was shorting out the electrical system. He spent the prior week chasing down the same exact problem and was convinced I was experiencing the same.

Turns out he was right! Technician showed me the wiring bus under the driver side dash where everything is connected. When he disconnected the cracked tail light, everything functioned properly again. In the end, I had to replace the tail light to fully restore everything back to working order. My part with all the sensors and features in my truck was $1200. Essentially one thing gets shorted out, it affects the wiring bus and everything connected to it.

Is It a wiring harness you just unplugged under the dash? I tried just unplugging from the light itself and it’s still doing It from time to time but not like It was. I’m assuming still have moisture in the wiring plug at the taillight

 

[Kook52]

What year is the Ram? How old is the battery?
If the battery is disconnected it takes some time for things to come back.

When my battery was bad it would not come out of 1st gear. In addition when I disconnected the battery it took approximately 40 minutes (from what I can recall) with mostly highway MPH to have all things back in service.

Best of luck. There is more information (threads) on the 5th gen forum on this matter.

https://5thgenrams.com/community/threads/how-many-times-have-you-had-a-dead-battery.17149/page-27#post-740767

My radio screen has turned off and there is no power to the AC, front driver side and passenger side doors. The AC currently blows hot air from the font area at the base of the windshield. I have left the battery disconnected for an hour to attempt to reset the truck. I have pulled the F44 radio fuse (it was not blown). I did have a message on the tac screen that said Blind Spot Sensor Not available. The weird thing is that this is only happening when the engine is running. When the engine is off the radio works and so does the power windows

What did you do to fix the problem

 

[RolandEE47]

I have a 2023 Laramie with the same problem. Previously my Left Rear tail light was intermittent. I have 24,000 miles on it, and still in warranty. I am contacting the dealer tomorrow for an appointment. Hope it's covered under warranty.

 

[theblet]

I bought this knockoff light and it’s working fine

Amazon.com

 

[Tracy74]

My radio screen has turned off and there is no power to the AC, front driver side and passenger side doors. The AC currently blows hot air from the font area at the base of the windshield. I have left the battery disconnected for an hour to attempt to reset the truck. I have pulled the F44 radio fuse (it was not blown). I did have a message on the tac screen that said Blind Spot Sensor Not available. The weird thing is that this is only happening when the engine is running. When the engine is off the radio works and so does the power windows

Mine is doing exactly the same thing.Found your post while dropping off at dealership told the service manager.Thanks

 

[jjam]

so those that took it to the dealer did they figure it out? was it the tail light? mine 2022 did this today but started out differently. my 115v cargo power outlet started flicker on and off in the cluster as well as orange cargo light in the cluster. no ac no audio from factory speakers, aftermarket sub is playing very low. turned the truck off and the cargo light and sub wouldn't turn off. pulled battery power and when that took care of the light and sub but then power step error and still no ac, windows and no display.

I have the extended warranty but dealer is at least a week before they can get to it.

 

[jjam]

i just pulled both tail lights and it still does it

 

[go-ram]

so those that took it to the dealer did they figure it out? was it the tail light? mine 2022 did this today but started out differently. my 115v cargo power outlet started flicker on and off in the cluster as well as orange cargo light in the cluster. no ac no audio from factory speakers, aftermarket sub is playing very low. turned the truck off and the cargo light and sub wouldn't turn off. pulled battery power and when that took care of the light and sub but then power step error and still no ac, windows and no display.

I have the extended warranty but dealer is at least a week before they can get to it.

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1) How long did you leave the battery cable disconnected?
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2) What is the battery voltage?
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[jjam]

1. i tried multiple times 30s 1m 5min. 10min none changed it. I even changed the battery to a spare i have

2. voltage with the truck off was 12.65v

I had both taillights unplugged and the ap4-ch41 removed when i started checking fuses, and everything randomly turned back on. put it all back together and took it for a drive. everything was good. I just went back out, and it's doing it again.

Does it take time for this to clear if the offending device is unplugged or is it unplug it wait 30min and see what happens

im about to unplug one device at a time and wait see if it makes a difference

 

[go-ram]

1. i tried multiple times 30s 1m 5min. 10min none changed it. I even changed the battery to a spare i have

2. voltage with the truck off was 12.65v

I had both taillights unplugged and the ap4-ch41 removed when i started checking fuses, and everything randomly turned back on. put it all back together and took it for a drive. everything was good. I just went back out, and it's doing it again.

Does it take time for this to clear if the offending device is unplugged or is it unplug it wait 30min and see what happens

im about to unplug one device at a time and wait see if it makes a difference

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When trying to clear these random electronic issues, you have to leave the battery disconnected for at least two hours. I myself leave it disconnected overnight.
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In addition, although sometimes the random glitch is cleared upon restart of the vehicle after battery is reconnected after multiple hours being disconnected, many times it takes a few hours of driving and a few normal-use off/on cycles in order for all the updates to complete and the various control modules to get back in sync with each other.
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It's annoying for sure, and it seems like we shouldn't have to go through these gyrations, but that's the way modern vehicles are. Last week on Jay Leno's garage the CEO of Ford (Jim Farley) mentioned that today's top-level-trim vehicles can have $4,000 worth of silicon chips in them, spread across upwards of 50 separate control modules. So by some measures today's vehicles are significantly more complex than our phones and laptops. So when updates are installed, or random glitches occur, it takes more time & actions to get our vehicles back in sync than a simple reboot of our phones or computers. It's the nature of the beast today.
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If you have a bad part or a bad control module somewhere, of course disconnecting the battery for a few hours will not help that problem - the bad part will have to be isolated and replaced. But when trying to determine if it's a bad part of just one of these "routine OTA update issues", or a memory register that got full, or a specific module's data got corrupted, following the procedure I described above is the best first-step anyone can take in order to clear & reset the various modules so one can eliminate a bad update or a corrupted data register as the cause.
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