26 Rebel First Issues - Electrical 446 Miles

[Ripper]

First bad omen. When I sent to test drive the truck with 4 miles on it the "Warning Light Illumination Unavailable Service Required" message was on display as I scrolled through the displays. Message cleared when I picked it up.

3/10/26 11:57 446 Miles
Truck starts fine. Premium Level Instrument Cluster display blank. Then assorted warning lights displayed and eventually the complete display. I would estimate time to go from no display to complete display approximately 30 seconds I guess.

3/10/26 18:54 468 Miles
Get in truck. Push start button. No start. Push brake and hit the start button again, nothing.
Lift foot off brake and hit button to get into "Stop" mode.
Step on brake again and hit start button. This time it starts.
Same experience with the Instrument cluster as earlier. Blank, assorted waring lights, then full display.
This time I am greeted with the "Warning Light Illumination Unavailable Service Required" message.
I quickly scroll through the panel and check the voltage, 12.8V
Go into garage and get jump pack to throw in the back seat
Drive 27 minutes approximately 10 miles or so.
Check voltage, still 12.8V
At assorted times during the trip the voltage reached as high as 13/.1V which seems low.

Will call the dealer in the morning and get it in. This is highly disappointing. Debating if I am going to go plug a code reader in it and see what it says.

 

[Ripper]

Went out this morning. First thing I did was pop the hood and measure the battery voltages using digital multimeter.

Main Battery: 12.46 - 12.48 VDC
Secondary: 12.54 - 12.55 VDC

Truck started right up without hesitation.
Instrument cluster came on as expected and everything appeared fine.
Error Message ("Warning Light Illumination Unavailable Service Required") was cleared
Voltage reading according to dash: 13.1 VDC Initially. Slow constant rise to 14.8 VDC over about 30 seconds

Things appear to have "reset" for the time being. Still going to call the dealer and see what they have to say.

 

[70runner]

Check parasitic draw. If >30-50mA, a trickle charger is your friend.

 

[Rammy1201]

Check parasitic draw. If >30-50mA, a trickle charger is your friend.

That doesn’t address the root cause. Batteries need to be replaced.


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[Ripper]

That doesn’t address the root cause. Batteries need to be replaced.


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I don't know how long the batteries sit around before installing them but I can't imagine it is that long.
Build date on the truck was 01/26. Delivered to dealer on 02/19. I took delivery on 02/26. Seems like a short time for the batteries to be toast. If the batteries do need to be replaced I would suspect there is something going on in the truck that is killing them. Sure you can have bad batteries however it just seems way too many are being replaced on basically new trucks for it to be a battery issue. I will admit I could be wrong but ...

 

[70runner]

That doesn’t address the root cause. Batteries need to be replaced.


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True, but a trickle charger will stabilize a battery that is being drained by parasitic draw. I had a parasitic draw in a 21 Rebel, varying between 50mA and 200mA. After 2 weeks of troubleshooting, dealer was unable to isolate the cause, then tried to convince me it was "normal". I asked for the truck back, put the truck on a trickle charger, no more electrical gremlins. The complex, networked electronics in these modern vehicles can exceed the dealer capability to troubleshoot, particularly for intermittent issues.

Replacing the battery likely won't address the cause.

 

[KrustyKush]

My 2021 5.7 Laramie, completely stock, will draw the battery down pretty quickly just sitting in the garage. If I let three days go by without driving the truck, I put it on an Optimate 6 smart charger and let 'er go for a couple of hours. I learned this the hard way. First battery died at 3 years, and was way weak when it finally expired. The next battery, I pay a lot of attention to, noticing how it is charging while driving, and keeping it topped off if the truck needs to sit more than a couple days.

 

[Ripper]

I guess I'm a stubborn old man set in his ways. Shouldn't have to keep a trickle charger on it unless I'm not going to be around for a week or so. Replacing batteries every couple of years or sooner seems like you are treating the symptom and not fixing the problem. Also my truck won't fit in the garage so I'd have to run a cord out to the truck unless I used a solar trickle charger which is what I use on my boat.

Waiting to hear back from the dealer and see what they say. At a minimum I want them to look at it and write a ticket up so I have a record in case I need it in the future.

 

[RamCares]

Hi there, feel free to send our team a private message for an extra layer of assistance alongside the dealer. We're happy to help!

Diamond
Ram Cares

 

[Rebellion is Duty]

Good thinking. I read that Ram had a bad batch of batteries and was replacing a lot of those. My secondary battery had a cell go bad, so it was continuously draining the primary. They replaced both.