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1500 Limited - Completely dead, out of options.

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Hey all,

Picked up new truck 2 days ago. Went out earlier and the truck is completely dead. Have a noco genius boost gb150, did nothing. AAA came, verified it wasn't the battery. Nothing is responding in the truck whatsoever. Was going to have it towed to Ram truck service - tow guy came, pulled the neutral switch but the e-brake was engaged last night. Can't get the truck onto the bed. So now I have called the dealership and asking them to send a specialist out. Waiting to hear back.

Any ideas?
 
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Hey all. Update here. Yesterday was a **** show of a storm so I avoided dealing with a tow. Just called Roadside and they are sending a tow truck out now.
Hopefully I can figure out how to manually get it into neutral via the instructions provided in manual (because the last tow guy had no idea)

Honestly, I am quite disappointed though. $60,000 truck dead within 2 days of driving home. Plus I am seeing a bunch of issues regarding battery and other electrical issues in this forum. My first Ram - so far we are not off to a good start (pun intended)
 
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Update #3: Truck has been towed. However, we were unable to manually disengage the e-brake due to fact it requires power! 3rd Tow company was able to lift it onto some wheel dollys and get it onto bed. Waiting for service to call me with details.
 
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Update #4 - The bizareness continues. Chrysler Truck Center specialist calls me, says when the vehicle was dropped off from the tow company they were experiencing the same issue as me. Truck was stone dead, no lights, no clicks, nothing. They go out Today to start working on it and it starts right up. WTF
I says to the guy "Ok seems like maybe a ground shook loose and then back during the tow or something" they checked all the grounds and all the fuses. 100% Good!

So now WTF - at least if there was an issue we could pinpoint it. Now am I supposed to hope all is well and this never happens again?!

They'll keep it over night and continually check on it to see if anything changes. Friggin crazy.
 

geotex1

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Not so crazy. I had a brand new Interstate battery once that caused the exact same sort of problem. When I troubleshoot, it's always check the physical layer first, which it sounds like was done, and then move on to basics. See if they'll put the battery on a load tester for you immediately after the cool of the night.
 
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Not so crazy. I had a brand new Interstate battery once that caused the exact same sort of problem. When I troubleshoot, it's always check the physical layer first, which it sounds like was done, and then move on to basics. See if they'll put the battery on a load tester for you immediately after the cool of the night.
I really can't see how a dead battery could cause all of this. Especially since my booster did nothing plus 3 separate tow trucks trying to jump from their batteries did nothing. Not even a light went on. Just seems electrical to me.
 

geotex1

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I really can't see how a dead battery could cause all of this. Especially since my booster did nothing plus 3 separate tow trucks trying to jump from their batteries did nothing. Not even a light went on. Just seems electrical to me.

Not dead, defective, because it would leave an open circuit. Circuit still open if you're jumping with proper form.
 
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Not dead, defective, because it would leave an open circuit. Circuit still open if you're jumping with proper form.
OK, I hear that. However, the truck started right up normally Today with no work/ replacement / testing done to the battery or anything else.
 
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Has the battery ground recall update been performed on your truck yet? That loose ground could cause all sorts of electrical gremlins IMHO.

There was just another report of a similar truck that couldn't be towed as it was dead as yours is with the parking brake set:

https://5thgenrams.com/community/threads/dead-in-the-driveway-had-to-be-haul-away.6808/

Yup, we crossed that off the list as they checked all the grounds. Seems that recall was power steering specific, but either way I think we're good there.
 

geotex1

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OK, I hear that. However, the truck started right up normally Today with no work/ replacement / testing done to the battery or anything else.

I hear you too. Like, I said exact same thing. Ever see how a car battery is built? Surely had a broken bridge. It would work fine until the cold shrank it open again. Diagnosis would have been easier when it acted up, but may find it by a load test cold. Otherwise, have a multimeter for when it happens again and check voltage across terminals and continuity between battery and a body ground.
 
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I hear you too. Like, I said exact same thing. Ever see how a car battery is built? Surely had a broken bridge. It would work fine until the cold shrank it open again. Diagnosis would have been easier when it acted up, but may find it by a load test cold. Otherwise, have a multimeter for when it happens again and check voltage across terminals and continuity between battery and a body ground.
My boost box was reading 12.9V when clamps were attached. Later on (a day later) it dropped to 12.8V. Granted it has been quite cold around here and warmed up Today.
 
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I wonder if the e-torque battery has been checked out?
Could you elaborate as to why that might be the issue? I sincerely hope the specialists down at FCA are checking all of this - but every little piece of info I get here I am going to run by them.
 

Ramit392

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Could you elaborate as to why that might be the issue? I sincerely hope the specialists down at FCA are checking all of this - but every little piece of info I get here I am going to run by them.

I was reading in a forum back in June last year on the new E-torque and one person had his new truck to completely quit with no electrical what so ever ,they found out it was a defective battery behind the seat that had to be replaced from shorting out. I cannot remember for life of me what forum it was but it was not on this one. Good news was it was an easy fix,bad news was it took them forever to get the part back in June which may not be an issue now if its the same problem. Hope that helps you.
 

duke2001

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Glad I am following this and now scared about using my emergency brake. Up until this time I never gave it any thought since I live in flat country no need to really use it. I will at least be knowledgeable of the risks if I ever do. Also immediately turned off the auto e-brake function on my Lexus! Same risks there.
 

Browny10783

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Yup. Dropped my limited off for an oil change at dealer, called to pick it up a few days later and they said my truck won’t start, they don’t know why, and are waiting for an engineer from Chrysler to come look at it. Tue next week will be 2 weeks since I dropped it. Can’t believe how much I spent and I’m riding around in a loaner
 

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