ETorque ? Anyone happy with it? Reliability ?

[LakesAZ]

That makes no sense that the jump starting killed the 48v battery. They are just trying to lay blame someplace else and not with the eTorque system. Thank God for warranties, and now I know why I purchased an extended Mopar warranty. Todays vehicles are so loaded up with electronics that the backyard mechanic is unable to fix it without expensive test equipment. And the cost of parts are getting out of control.

 

[Smerberj]

From what I'm hearing the eTorque in the Hemi is made by a different company than the Pentastars eTorque system. The one in the Pentastar is built by, I believe, Continental while the one in the Hemi is built by an Italian company? Anyway, the eTorque motor in the Pentastars are awesome but I've heard of a few failures with the Hemi eTorques.

 

[Bluesurf]

That makes no sense that the jump starting killed the 48v battery. They are just trying to lay blame someplace else and not with the eTorque system. Thank God for warranties, and now I know why I purchased an extended Mopar warranty. Todays vehicles are so loaded up with electronics that the backyard mechanic is unable to fix it without expensive test equipment. And the cost of parts are getting out of control.

TOTALLY Agree with you, I purchased 8/125K, this past weekend sucked. lost my screen again, disconnected my battery to clear this "bug" and then no cameras! Took all night for them to reappear. If I didn't spend so much I would junk her. I cannot justify under our current Covid MESS, spending more money. I'll just truck on with it for now. FCA should be fined a massive amount for not even trying to fix so many of these issues. Last two weeks I now have severe grinding when turning my steering wheel right and left.

 

[LakesAZ]

This is what I found on the eTorque.

The eTorque system includes a battery pack with 12 pouch-format nickel manganese cobalt lithium-ion cells from LG Chem, supplied by the battery giant’s Holland, Michigan, facility (which also supplies the Chevy Bolt EV, Volt, and others). The modular power-pack unit, from Continental, includes an inverter and DC-DC converter.

 

[LakesAZ]

TOTALLY Agree with you, I purchased 8/125K, this past weekend sucked. lost my screen again, disconnected my battery to clear this "bug" and then no cameras! Took all night for them to reappear. If I didn't spend so much I would junk her. I cannot justify under our current Covid MESS, spending more money. I'll just truck on with it for now. FCA should be fined a massive amount for not even trying to fix so many of these issues. Last two weeks I now have severe grinding when turning my steering wheel right and left.

That is frustrating. It nice to have all these advanced features but not nice when they are riddled with bugs. FCA needs to hire a bunch of Silicon Valley programer and build it right!

 

[PowerJrod]

Who said I was talking about you?

I've read the entire thread, but thanks for the feedback, captain condescension. Not sure who you think you are talking to with that attitude. Does somebody need a hug?

You quoted my post when you said that idiot.... obviously you were talking to me lmao! Get your head outta your a$$. Just because you know your earlier post didn't make sense doesn't mean you need to attack me. And no ...you didn't read my earlier comments...otherwise you would've never had said what you said.

 

[PowerJrod]

That makes no sense that the jump starting killed the 48v battery. They are just trying to lay blame someplace else and not with the eTorque system. Thank God for warranties, and now I know why I purchased an extended Mopar warranty. Todays vehicles are so loaded up with electronics that the backyard mechanic is unable to fix it without expensive test equipment. And the cost of parts are getting out of control.

Hehe soon it will be cheaper to buy a new vehicle instead of replacing a couple of electronic parts

 

[Gman]

From what I'm hearing the eTorque in the Hemi is made by a different company than the Pentastars eTorque system. The one in the Pentastar is built by, I believe, Continental while the one in the Hemi is built by an Italian company? Anyway, the eTorque motor in the Pentastars are awesome but I've heard of a few failures with the Hemi eTorques.

Magneti Marelli. They've been doing the electrification (KERS) in Formula 1 racing for years.

FCA recently sold the company to Calsonic Kansei in Japan. https://www.motortrend.com/news/fca-sells-magneti-marelli-parts-business-for-7-1-billion/

 

[BillyCrash]

I'm only 3k mille into my 2020 Ram Laramie with ETorque but so far so good. I have nothing negative whatsoever. The gas milage isn't what was advertised but nothing ever is.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

I've had exact same experience with eTorque in 2020 Ram Rebel. System works great, gas mileage not as good as I was hoping for.

 

[JJRamTX]

If someone would have asked me about my eTorque experience about two weeks ago, I'd say "35K Miles in, not a single issue".
Well, About two weeks ago, My battery(12v) died. I tried starting the truck a few time and only got a "click" from the engine.
I always have a jump-box in my bed so i went there and try to pop it open and grab it. What do ya know, The frigging tailgate doesn't open because there's no power.
Got a jump-box that didn't have enough juice to start but it did manage to get me into the bed.
Got my Jump-box hooked up and the truck started in two seconds. As soon as i disconnected the external battery, the truck died again. It wouldn't charge. Tried a few more times and still nothing.
I figured one of the battery cells completely died and that's why it wouldn't charge nor keep a good closed circuit.
Took me an hour to disengage the stupid eBrake, and finally i got to the dealer. It was later on Friday and the service dept was closed already.
The next morning i show up 8am to check in and the service advisor told me that it'll take about 5 hours, and i'll have my truck before 3pm.
I got a call at 2pm saying that the truck would not run, no matter how many batteries they try, they suspect it's the eTorque 48v power-pack and they will know better on Monday when the master-tech comes back from vacation.
Monday came and they verified that the power-pack is bad, i fried it(Supposedly. I was being accused) while trying to jump-start the truck. They placed an order for a new one, The PP part is on back order and there's no ETA.
My truck has been sitting at the dealership service dept lot for two weeks now and would probably stay there for a lot longer, BECAUSE OF A F***ING JUMP START!!!!!!!

It sounds like you went through what I went through....I had a dead battery 3 times and got towed 3 times to the dealer. After much headache, mine wasn't the 48V battery pack at all. One of the software updates didn't take completely and it wouldn't tell the Alternator to turn on and charge the battery. They reverted my software and then updated one of the modules and haven't had a battery issue since. After the battery going dead (8V or so) they also gave me a new battery under warranty. Best of luck and hopefully they figure it out soon.

 

[PowerJrod]

Strange thing about it is that my service Tech told me (when I was first asking Q's about Etorque) that the 48volt battery pack doesn't play a factor in the engine running when first starting up....only during the start/stop cycles. Maybe he was misinformed...?

 

[Drewster]

Strange thing about it is that my service Tech told me (when I was first asking Q's about Etorque) that the 48volt battery pack doesn't play a factor in the engine running when first starting up....only during the start/stop cycles. Maybe he was misinformed...?

Yes, the lead-acid and starter are responsible for starting the car, but eTorque is *still* your alternator. If eTorque never charges your 12V system, it'll leave you with a dead 12V battery just like having a bad alternator.

 

[mikeru82]

It sounds like you went through what I went through....I had a dead battery 3 times and got towed 3 times to the dealer. After much headache, mine wasn't the 48V battery pack at all. One of the software updates didn't take completely and it wouldn't tell the Alternator to turn on and charge the battery. They reverted my software and then updated one of the modules and haven't had a battery issue since. After the battery going dead (8V or so) they also gave me a new battery under warranty. Best of luck and hopefully they figure it out soon.

They simplified the explanation (or you did LOL). Engines with Etorque don't have an alternator. According to articles I've read, the 12v main battery is charged by the 48v battery, which is charged by the generator/motor. Software controls this, so I'm not surprised the cause of your problem was software related.

 

[PowerJrod]

Yes, the lead-acid and starter are responsible for starting the car, but eTorque is *still* your alternator. If eTorque never charges your 12V system, it'll leave you with a dead 12V battery just like having a bad alternator.

That's what I was thinking too... especially since like you said...it IS basically the alternator.

 

[SpeedyV]

It sounds like you went through what I went through....I had a dead battery 3 times and got towed 3 times to the dealer. After much headache, mine wasn't the 48V battery pack at all. One of the software updates didn't take completely and it wouldn't tell the Alternator to turn on and charge the battery. They reverted my software and then updated one of the modules and haven't had a battery issue since. After the battery going dead (8V or so) they also gave me a new battery under warranty. Best of luck and hopefully they figure it out soon.

The more I read these threads, the more it seems like there have been (in reality) very few hardware failures (of eTorque or any other component) relative to software and/or wiring glitches on these trucks. The worst part is that dealer technicians (either because they are instructed poorly or don't know any better) tend to jump to quick part-swapping instead of deeper diagnosis.

 

[Drewster]

The more I read these threads, the more it seems like there have been (in reality) very few hardware failures (of eTorque or any other component) relative to software and/or wiring glitches on these trucks. The worst part is that dealer technicians (either because they are instructed poorly or don't know any better) tend to jump to quick part-swapping instead of deeper diagnosis.

Yup - unfortunately that's the norm.

In another life I made an aftermarket module, and we made the mistake of adding functionality that would create trouble codes for various issues. Rather than using those codes to diagnose the car, shops would constantly ask for replacements because "customer came in, and we got a code that pointed to the module, so we want a new module"

 

[LakesAZ]

It sounds like you went through what I went through....I had a dead battery 3 times and got towed 3 times to the dealer. After much headache, mine wasn't the 48V battery pack at all. One of the software updates didn't take completely and it wouldn't tell the Alternator to turn on and charge the battery. They reverted my software and then updated one of the modules and haven't had a battery issue since. After the battery going dead (8V or so) they also gave me a new battery under warranty. Best of luck and hopefully they figure it out soon.

Just for reference what was the software update, and when was this done. I'm hoping they figured all this out before I bought my 2020.

 

[BowDown]

The more I read these threads, the more it seems like there have been (in reality) very few hardware failures (of eTorque or any other component) relative to software and/or wiring glitches on these trucks. The worst part is that dealer technicians (either because they are instructed poorly or don't know any better) tend to jump to quick part-swapping instead of deeper diagnosis.

Thats exactly what people don't get, this is a forum of Ram enthousiast and you are going to hear a big deal made of every issue but the reality is that the people on this forum likely make up less than 1/2% of the people buying Rams and having no issues. Between that and the flat out misinformation passed around, you'd think these trucks were trash.
I read yesterday, on here, that you need a scan tool just to check the trans fluid level....SMH

 

[MannymanX]

It sounds like you went through what I went through....I had a dead battery 3 times and got towed 3 times to the dealer. After much headache, mine wasn't the 48V battery pack at all. One of the software updates didn't take completely and it wouldn't tell the Alternator to turn on and charge the battery. They reverted my software and then updated one of the modules and haven't had a battery issue since. After the battery going dead (8V or so) they also gave me a new battery under warranty. Best of luck and hopefully they figure it out soon.

Thank you for the info!
I don't think we've had the same problem... I think mine happened when i tried to start with a low battery, and it just "clicked".
Anyway, I called my advisor and told him about the software might be the problem, He told me that they tried a lot of stuff with FCA engineers, including software updates, before they totaled the part, It's a very expensive part($2000) and they wouldn't replace it before trying anything that FCA have up their sleeve.
And here goes another week without my truck.... just who-knows-how-many-more to go...

 

[peeceejay]

Thats exactly what people don't get, this is a forum of Ram enthousiast and you are going to hear a big deal made of every issue but the reality is that the people on this forum likely make up less than 1/2% of the people buying Rams and having no issues. Between that and the flat out misinformation passed around, you'd think these trucks were trash.
I read yesterday, on here, that you need a scan tool just to check the trans fluid level....SMH

Between here and Reddit, you'd think the vehicles are junk.

I've recently been shopping for a Travel Trailer - same story. Join any enthusiast group for anything - and all you'll hear are the problems people had, the modifications they had to make to overcome said problems. You never hear about the guy that bought his truck, used it for a decade and traded it in with no problem, ever