Jasond78
Member
Hey everyone,
My dad, brother and myself Recently purchased our very first Rams ever. We've bought 3 rounds of Chevy's in row that nearly all had serious issues so this time we decided to try Ram hoping for a better experience.
I live in northern il and went all the way to Spokane Wa to get the truck i wanted. Got it in August and was loving it. It is pretty much my dream truck. I loved everything about it. The ecodiesel got great mileage and had plenty of power. Unfortunately the truck didn't come with a trailer break. I tried to have local dealers get the mopar break module but they all said it would not be available until sometime late October because they were switching brake controller manufacturers. I pull a 5,000 lb trailer occasionally for work and needed to get the electric brakes functioning so went online and bought the mopar controller from an out of town dealership. I also bought the avs led bug guard at this time. When both arrived i took them to a dealership that i was doing some work at and had them installed.
Truck drove fine on the way home but the next morning when i started the truck i got all kinds of error messages. Can't remember them all but it was Traction control and others.. i took it to a different dealer who was much closer and they said that the tech put the ground wire for the led on top of the smart sensor at the battery negative. He said it caused a chain of events that fried the abs module and since it was from an aftermarket part that they would not consider it warranty work even though i had only 2,000 miles on the truck. They charged me$130.00 for the pleasure and i rolled it back to the dealership an hour away that installed both the brake controller and the light. They of course said no, no that ground on the smart meter has nothing to do with anything and there's simply a transmission module that's gone out. So they ordered the part and i was back again a week later tohave it installed. After they installed the module the truck seemed ok but i did look under the hood and that led ground had been removed from atop the battery to one of the posts on the frame lol..
Truck had been running pretty good after that although i did notice that it seemed to idle at an elevated rpm when i would start it. It's been getting cold so i though maybe it was just from the cooler temps or something. About early November i had the traction control message flash again at startup, but it only came on for a few seconds and was gone..
Last night i was going through my settings and changed my trailer brake setting from electric to heavy electric. I did not connect any trailer to it afterwards, just changed the setting.
This morning when i went to leave for a job, the dash lit up with all kinds of messages. Traction control, parking brake, no parking sensors, no brake assist, check engine( not flashing), service trailer brake ..
Limped my way to my shop as it would not let me go over 30 mph and took 3,000 rpm to get there.I did a battery disconnect to reset things and all of the warnings would clear except the engine light. After driving it a few miles all the warnings would come back.
I took the truck to a 3rd local dealer this afternoon and i did not leave there with great hope that the issue would end here. They didn't seem to pay any attention to the back story on the situation. I know they're just going to mindlessly plug it in and replace whatever part the code tells them. At this point the truck barely has 10,000 miles and I'm just sick about this situation because I've never had a vehicle with electrical based issues that was truly resolved..
I feel that the original diagnosis of the abs module might possibly have been correct but i am also wondering if there's some known issue with mopar brake controllers that were made from this initial supplier? Why else would they change manufacturers right in the middle of a model year? It just seems like too much of a coincidence that i had messed with brake controller settings then the very next time the truck is started it goes to hell.. I'm hoping i might get some advice from someone here who might have had a similar situation, hopefully with a better outcome. And if anyone knows of a truly competent service department in the North/Central Illinois or south/Central Wisconsin area please let me know.
My dad, brother and myself Recently purchased our very first Rams ever. We've bought 3 rounds of Chevy's in row that nearly all had serious issues so this time we decided to try Ram hoping for a better experience.
I live in northern il and went all the way to Spokane Wa to get the truck i wanted. Got it in August and was loving it. It is pretty much my dream truck. I loved everything about it. The ecodiesel got great mileage and had plenty of power. Unfortunately the truck didn't come with a trailer break. I tried to have local dealers get the mopar break module but they all said it would not be available until sometime late October because they were switching brake controller manufacturers. I pull a 5,000 lb trailer occasionally for work and needed to get the electric brakes functioning so went online and bought the mopar controller from an out of town dealership. I also bought the avs led bug guard at this time. When both arrived i took them to a dealership that i was doing some work at and had them installed.
Truck drove fine on the way home but the next morning when i started the truck i got all kinds of error messages. Can't remember them all but it was Traction control and others.. i took it to a different dealer who was much closer and they said that the tech put the ground wire for the led on top of the smart sensor at the battery negative. He said it caused a chain of events that fried the abs module and since it was from an aftermarket part that they would not consider it warranty work even though i had only 2,000 miles on the truck. They charged me$130.00 for the pleasure and i rolled it back to the dealership an hour away that installed both the brake controller and the light. They of course said no, no that ground on the smart meter has nothing to do with anything and there's simply a transmission module that's gone out. So they ordered the part and i was back again a week later tohave it installed. After they installed the module the truck seemed ok but i did look under the hood and that led ground had been removed from atop the battery to one of the posts on the frame lol..
Truck had been running pretty good after that although i did notice that it seemed to idle at an elevated rpm when i would start it. It's been getting cold so i though maybe it was just from the cooler temps or something. About early November i had the traction control message flash again at startup, but it only came on for a few seconds and was gone..
Last night i was going through my settings and changed my trailer brake setting from electric to heavy electric. I did not connect any trailer to it afterwards, just changed the setting.
This morning when i went to leave for a job, the dash lit up with all kinds of messages. Traction control, parking brake, no parking sensors, no brake assist, check engine( not flashing), service trailer brake ..
Limped my way to my shop as it would not let me go over 30 mph and took 3,000 rpm to get there.I did a battery disconnect to reset things and all of the warnings would clear except the engine light. After driving it a few miles all the warnings would come back.
I took the truck to a 3rd local dealer this afternoon and i did not leave there with great hope that the issue would end here. They didn't seem to pay any attention to the back story on the situation. I know they're just going to mindlessly plug it in and replace whatever part the code tells them. At this point the truck barely has 10,000 miles and I'm just sick about this situation because I've never had a vehicle with electrical based issues that was truly resolved..
I feel that the original diagnosis of the abs module might possibly have been correct but i am also wondering if there's some known issue with mopar brake controllers that were made from this initial supplier? Why else would they change manufacturers right in the middle of a model year? It just seems like too much of a coincidence that i had messed with brake controller settings then the very next time the truck is started it goes to hell.. I'm hoping i might get some advice from someone here who might have had a similar situation, hopefully with a better outcome. And if anyone knows of a truly competent service department in the North/Central Illinois or south/Central Wisconsin area please let me know.
