Dead Batteries Finally Got Me

[RonsSRT1]

I've got a '25 Rebel built in July of '24 and I currently have just over 12,000 miles on it. Until yesterday I was pretty much problem and gremlin free. I went outside to get inside my truck last night so I pressed the remote to start it up and nothing. I thought that was kinda weird so I put my hand behind the door handle and it didn't unlock the doors like usual. More red flags started going up when I had to use the key to get inside the truck and it wouldn't start when I pressed the brake and the button on the dash. So I thought it was the remote's battery that was dead so I went inside to get the second remote and still nothing. I tried jumping it with my jumper box and it was pretty much drained after three tries. Finally, I used cables and jumped it with my wife's '01 Dodge Stratus that has 211,000 miles on it. After about 10 minutes of just letting the cables stay connected and not trying to start my truck, it turned over. But my dashboard looked like my Christmas tree. I took the truck around the block to get a charge in the battery and it felt like I was driving a truck with no power steering. I went outside this morning to go to work and samething. My truck was dead and when AAA came to tow it to the dealer, he tried jumping it first to get it on the flatbed. It took 2 fully charged jumper boxes to finally get the truck to turn over. The first jumper box drained after 4 tries of starting my truck. When the second box started it, it was left running on the tow truck and once arriving at the dealer, a scanner was hooked up to check for codes. It showed 37 codes (dont know what the codes were, I didn't ask) and multiple system failures. The truck was brought inside the shop right away and I could tell it was in limp mode by the way it was running and misfiring. Nothing worked. Even though the truck was running, the auto door locks didnt work, the windows wouldn't go down, headlights wouldnt turn on, tail gate wouldnt open from inside or outside the truck, nothing by the gear selector ( auto stop/start, 4wheel drive auto, 2 wheel drive etc ) would light up, no heads up display, blind spot monitoring lights wouldnt turn off, heat/ac wouldnt work either. This is a stupid question but has anyone had that many codes before and if so what was the fix? I'm just glad it's under warranty and I'm in my second year of a three year lease if this is the start of problems.

 

[Peterhenric]

your experience with dead batteries doesn’t jive with my experience with dead batteries. On my truck, when the batteries went dead, it took a little bit to jump them but once the truck started it acted like normal and would charge the truck. Never had an experience like yours.

 

[RonsSRT1]

I hope when I do get it back there aren't any lingering problems. I called the dealer earlier and talked to the receptionist. She said that one of the batteries needs to be replaced and the tech working on the truck was doing several updates to the software and for my troubles, they were throwing in a free oil change since I'd be needing it soon.

 

[oe542bob]

It sounds like you had a cell go bad in the battery. I experienced this when I tried to jump start a Cat extendable forklift. I have a NOCO jump pack. I put it on and normally a low battery will fire up the engine after a couple of minutes. This time was different and I noticed my jump pack was only showing 10 volts. Thought hmmm, so I left it on for 20 minutes or so, and still nothing. A new battery was put in. All good.

 

[RonsSRT1]

OE542Bob, I noticed while driving my truck around the block last night, when I'd step on the gas, the battery voltage would drop to the low 12's/high 11's. When I'd let the truck coast, the voltage would come up to low to mid 13's. I'm usually running around 14.3-14.5 with the radio and heat/ac on. But I hope you're right about the bad cell.