ETorque Issue

[rdt75]

Today, my leak was fixed (caused by the loose pano roof drain between the cab and bed that’s well documented here). No more issues with EPS. Good there.

eTorque issue, however? My high voltage battery needs to be replaced. Being shipped straight from Michigan, so 5-7 days.

For those that had this done, is this the battery behind rear seat, or the alternator/generator unit itself?

 

[MJP]

Today, my leak was fixed (caused by the loose pano roof drain between the cab and bed that’s well documented here). No more issues with EPS. Good there.

eTorque issue, however? My high voltage battery needs to be replaced. Being shipped straight from Michigan, so 5-7 days.

For those that had this done, is this the battery behind rear seats, or the 48v unit itself?

It's the battery behind the rear seat which according to my dealer is a 48 volt battery pack. I had mine done a while back. The car was in the shop for 5 weeks. So far its ok (knocking on wood as I say this).

 

[RamCares]

Hi Lydia, can you add anything?

I mean have you seen any sort of heightened activity about eTorque... internal memo's, discussions, advisories,... ?

Can you request a technical manager to come here and discuss this with us?

Hi Electrical,
At this time, we are urging anyone who is experiencing this concern to address it with their dealer. We can assist anyone who is experiencing this by have a case escalated to a Case Specialist who will work with the dealers to help find a potential solution.
Lydia
Ram Social Care Specialist

 

[rdt75]

It's the battery behind the rear seat which according to my dealer is a 48 volt battery pack. I had mine done a while back. The car was in the shop for 5 weeks. So far its ok (knocking on wood as I say this).

Yikes, hopefully mine is out next week. Glad your truck is holding up. I’m hoping this will be a distant memory after years of trouble-free ownership after all of this!

 

[OldSkull]

Well 2 weeks after the 3 TSB updates and I’m still getting 10-12 MPGs.

 

[Savagescott]

Hi Electrical,
At this time, we are urging anyone who is experiencing this concern to address it with their dealer. We can assist anyone who is experiencing this by have a case escalated to a Case Specialist who will work with the dealers to help find a potential solution.
Lydia
Ram Social Care Specialist

Lydia -

For those of us close to buying a truck, can you tell us what’s being done in design and/or production to address these issues? If you can’t tell us, who can?

Thanks

 

[Gman]

What about those of us with eTorque that aren't getting terrible mileage?

 

[rdt75]

I received my truck back today. Besides a less than stellar job of putting everything back together and having to replace bezel under my seat as they scratched the previous one while removing or putting back my seat... so far, so good. Running boards were also installed and hopefully not back at the dealer again for service for a long, long, time.

For what it's worth, I did discover my truck was manufactured in August. It was at my dealer for about 3 months before I bought it. This puts my truck right in the early build sweet spot with the others that had my issues, so I would like to think those buying later builds should be OK.

However, while my truck is on the pricier side (context, mine had a higher MSRP than the Longhorn I was also looking at and Limiteds on their lot), I find it hard to believe any 1500 would not sell in 3 months given the demand. I will be following up with my dealer on this. Something smells fishy to me...

 

[Cannonball]

... Something smells fishy to me...

That's interesting, everyone else said THE smell is skunk'd herb.... You really got a bad apple bro!

 

[JXL118]

Adding myself as one more instance of an eTorque failure which makes 10 according to my count of this thread (@Snake_chad , @travelerut , @c1die , @jeffsvolta , @MJP , @ScottLandry , @daj4256 , @Vincegg , @Griff-z71 ). Have all of you since been fixed? Any recurrence or other issues with the system since?

I was on the freeway to a client site in stop and go traffic when my dash lit up with the following error and check engine light.



I drove a couple miles after that to get to their office not too concerned since I was thinking ok just the Stop/Start. I turned off the truck and restarted it just to see if it would clear. It cranked really long before turning over and when I checked the battery voltage it was at 11.7 with the engine running. I'm over 30 miles from home at this point and wasn't sure how far I'd get if I tried driving it, so I let the boss know I had to go and took the truck to the closest dealer really hoping that the battery held out and didn't leave me stranded trying to get there. After they finally took it back to look at it, the Tech said they got the Hybrid Control Module No Communication error and that they didn't know how to fix so they were opening a STAR case. I'd literally just crossed the 1,000 mile mark right before this happened. Truck was built in January 2019.

To top everything off the service advisor initially said they had nothing to loan me. After they diagnosed my truck and figured out they couldn't fix it and talking with his manager they finally got me a Jeep Compass to drive while they're working on my truck. Best part, it's got the manual transmission in it. I sorta enjoyed driving a manual again (after the first couple nerve wracking stop lights getting used to the clutch ) but Man I just want my truck back.

 

[MJP]

Adding myself as one more instance of an eTorque failure which makes 10 according to my count of this thread (@Snake_chad , @travelerut , @c1die , @jeffsvolta , @MJP , @ScottLandry , @daj4256 , @Vincegg , @Griff-z71 ). Have all of you since been fixed? Any recurrence or other issues with the system since?

I was on the freeway to a client site in stop and go traffic when my dash lit up with the following error and check engine light.

View attachment 18020

I drove a couple miles after that to get to their office not too concerned since I was thinking ok just the Stop/Start. I turned off the truck and restarted it just to see if it would clear. It cranked really long before turning over and when I checked the battery voltage it was at 11.7 with the engine running. I'm over 30 miles from home at this point and wasn't sure how far I'd get if I tried driving it, so I let the boss know I had to go and took the truck to the closest dealer really hoping that the battery held out and didn't leave me stranded trying to get there. After they finally took it back to look at it, the Tech said they got the Hybrid Control Module No Communication error and that they didn't know how to fix so they were opening a STAR case. I'd literally just crossed the 1,000 mile mark right before this happened. Truck was built in January 2019.

To top everything off the service advisor initially said they had nothing to loan me. After they diagnosed my truck and figured out they couldn't fix it and talking with his manager they finally got me a Jeep Compass to drive while they're working on my truck. Best part, it's got the manual transmission in it. I sorta enjoyed driving a manual again (after the first couple nerve wracking stop lights getting used to the clutch ) but Man I just want my truck back.

No issues since mine was repaired (knock on wood).

 

[Northeast16SS]

what I find interesting is that it seems to just be a few of us that are getting this bad MPGs. But it’s a new system. Hopefully Ram is working to address all the issues as we speak.

Are you calculating your mileage manually to verify what the dash is telling you? Could it just be a faulty calculation in the electronics?

 

[JXL118]

I got my truck back already and so far it's running good. They claim issue was due to loose ground connections.

The codes they read were U1817 and U0293. Both related to loss of communication to Hybrid Control Module. Here's what they wrote on the work order.

Verified check engine lamp on and vehicle not charging. Contacted STAR after checking for bulletins, they recommended to perform S1908000021 case number because battery pack control module and hybrid control processor are offline. Check all the grounds under the hood and no change. Raise vehicle and check all grounds on rear frame rails. Recheck and hybrid control module back online and now charging

On one hand I'm glad it was a simple fix and I've got my truck back but if it was loose connections that's also somewhat disturbing because that should be such a easily controlled quality control issue that simply should not happen. If this had happened when i was up in the Sierra it could have been a really serious issue as cell coverage can be spotty, areas remote, and the weather life threatening.

 

[Electrical]

Exactly, JXL. How hard can it possibly be to make sure a couple of ground bolts are torqued? Silly stuff like this and the post about missing seat bolts is making me think union shenanigans is at play. What else could it be? I've been around Mopar forums for a long time and have never seen the things I'm seeing here on 2019 Rams. I think this can be a good, solid, reliable truck... it just needs to be assembled right.

 

[ExcursionDiesel]

Exactly, JXL. How hard can it possibly be to make sure a couple of ground bolts are torqued? Silly stuff like this and the post about missing seat bolts is making me think union shenanigans is at play. What else could it be? I've been around Mopar forums for a long time and have never seen the things I'm seeing here on 2019 Rams. I think this can be a good, solid, reliable truck... it just needs to be assembled right.

It's humans doing repetitive task building a complex product with thousands of assembly points. There are bound to be errors made. I work in manufacturing and this is an age old issue with no solution other than to automate as much as possible. It sucks when you end up with a defect but it happens.

The problem with electrical connections, especially grounds to chassis, is that the wire and connector crush under the bolt or screw and loosen over time. The bolt/screw can't tighten itself to accommodate so you get failure or intermittent issues. Industrial machinery has the same problems. We recommend re-tourqing grounds after installation and initial use to prevent this.

I may check my grounds this weekend. I wish we had a list of all the points.

 

[Gman]

Wouldn't that be amazing to have a list and/or diagram of the various ground connections.

 

[Electrical]

It's humans doing repetitive task building a complex product with thousands of assembly points. There are bound to be errors made. I work in manufacturing and this is an age old issue with no solution other than to automate as much as possible. It sucks when you end up with a defect but it happens.

The problem with electrical connections, especially grounds to chassis, is that the wire and connector crush under the bolt or screw and loosen over time. The bolt/screw can't tighten itself to accommodate so you get failure or intermittent issues. Industrial machinery has the same problems. We recommend re-tourqing grounds after installation and initial use to prevent this.

I may check my grounds this weekend. I wish we had a list of all the points.

I hear ya, ED. I couldn't argue against those points if I wanted to. I've been around a manufacturing floor or two myself and I get it. I guess things are bound to slip through the cracks especially at the rate Rams are being built, and especially after transitioning to a re-purposed factory where many, if not most, of the assemblers might be new to Rams. I just checked Jan and Feb sales numbers and monthly volumes are at or near all-time highs. I'm pretty sure this means there are multiple shifts throughout the day, which might add that much more room for error.

 

[ExcursionDiesel]

Seems like someone posted a list of the grounds under the hood. There's a recall for electric power steering failure due to a loose ground. I'll see if I can find that thread. All we need to do is add under chassis and in-cab grounds to that list.

 

[Ed Tamanini]

Hi Snake_chad,

We are terribly sorry to hear that you have this concern with your new Ram truck. Please send us a private message with your VIN and mileage so we can provide additional assistance while your vehicle is in service.

Darlene
Ram Social Care Specialist

Can the 3.6 etourqe run on gas alone

 

[ExcursionDiesel]

Can the 3.6 etourqe run on gas alone

Gas is all it runs on. Don't attempt to use other fuels!