Electrical Haywire

[smankins]

Yesterday I went out to start my truck and when I pushed the brake pedal it felt tighter than normal and when I pushed the start button the electrical systems started going haywire. My shifter began moving back and forth on its own (I could feel it moving beneath the knob) and all the lights for P R D, etc. came on at once. The dash display kept cycling gauges and I don't know what else was going on. There were all kinds of things going on under the hood also. This would not stop until I disconnected the battery. I tried repeatedly with the same results. I tried my spare key fob with same results. The battery was reading 12.5 volts but I didn't know what else could be the problem (that I could diagnose). My wife was at work so I did not have another vehicle nor the portable jump pack (it's in her trunk) so I put the charger on the battery for a few hours. The truck still would not start but the electrical activity slowed down.
When my wife got home I tried the jump pack and nothing different so I decided to take the battery out and went to O'Reilly's Auto Parts. They tested the battery and their meter said "Bad Battery" even though the voltage wasn't that low. I bought a new battery (Wow! Sticker shock!) and installed it. Yay! It started and so far has been normal again. After first starting I got a message to Service Power Steering system but that went away in a few seconds. I also got a message to service the traction control system but that went away after a few miles. Hope this might help someone else having the same weird gremlins when trying to start their truck. Back in the old days it was very obvious when a battery was the problem - not so much now. By the way the battery was 4 years old - the original that came new with the truck. Batteries also used to last longer.

 

[Eighty]

Yeah, there are multiple, multiple threads on this forum about this issue. These trucks are very sensitive to voltage/amperage/whatever. The fix, 99% of the time, is a new battery (not recharging an old battery). Glad to see yours is acting better. It might take 24 hours (or even longer) for everything to be normal again.

 

[Jako]

Yesterday I went out to start my truck and when I pushed the brake pedal it felt tighter than normal and when I pushed the start button the electrical systems started going haywire. My shifter began moving back and forth on its own (I could feel it moving beneath the knob) and all the lights for P R D, etc. came on at once. The dash display kept cycling gauges and I don't know what else was going on. There were all kinds of things going on under the hood also. This would not stop until I disconnected the battery. I tried repeatedly with the same results. I tried my spare key fob with same results. The battery was reading 12.5 volts but I didn't know what else could be the problem (that I could diagnose). My wife was at work so I did not have another vehicle nor the portable jump pack (it's in her trunk) so I put the charger on the battery for a few hours. The truck still would not start but the electrical activity slowed down.
When my wife got home I tried the jump pack and nothing different so I decided to take the battery out and went to O'Reilly's Auto Parts. They tested the battery and their meter said "Bad Battery" even though the voltage wasn't that low. I bought a new battery (Wow! Sticker shock!) and installed it. Yay! It started and so far has been normal again. After first starting I got a message to Service Power Steering system but that went away in a few seconds. I also got a message to service the traction control system but that went away after a few miles. Hope this might help someone else having the same weird gremlins when trying to start their truck. Back in the old days it was very obvious when a battery was the problem - not so much now. By the way the battery was 4 years old - the original that came new with the truck. Batteries also used to last longer.

Same symptoms, same action, same results for me with the exception my battery was 2 years old. Prior to this activity the Ram would not come out of 1st gear, sat and resolved itself 1-2 weeks later your scenario occurred.

 

[scottmoyer]

I decided to purchase a new battery last week BEFORE this happens to me. The Florida temps destroy batteries, so 2.5 years and 25k miles, I felt it was safe to buy a new H8 battery before any problems came up.