Left ignition on for half an hour. Battery died, check engine came on

[abstraction]

Hey all, new to the forum after recently receiving my amazing truck, and a happy Mark Dodge customer thanks to the advice here. Truck has been driving and towing great for 2500 miles until today.

I was re-setting-up my WD hitch today, and as instructed in the manual I left the ignition in ON mode (engine off) while adjusting the hitch in tire jack mode. It was probably on for 20-30 minutes. Lights should have been off, but audio was on. Truck was NOT connected to the trailer with the 7-pin.

When I got back in the truck to pull away, I found the ignition was off, and engine wouldn't even turn over. Battery voltage measured 11.6 with voltmeter. Charged it up a bit and got it started, but check engine light was on. Truck drove home ok, and got a variety of TCM communication error codes from OBD2 -- Google led me to a variety of wiring problems but nothing matching my story. Seems conceivable the codes could have been triggered by a drained battery rather than something more serious?

Does this ring any bells for anyone? Thanks!

 

[Jake1050]

Sorry if I'm not much help but whenever I'm working on my truck and need the doors open I try to turn off interior lights and reduce as much battery load as possible. Radio off, Climate off, ect... I even hook up a 1 amp battery maintainer when I need to do things to the truck that I know will cause battery drain for a while.

 

[M3forged]

Similar thing happened to me, all codes went away after normal operation for a bit. These trucks really dislike the battery draining and/or disconnecting. My trucks a 21, had dealer replace battery because mine happened that fast too.

 

[silverWS6]

Codes will clear after some driving. These trucks get very finicky when the battery dies.

 

[CHeYeNNe71]

As mentioned, drain battery. You should be good after diving and full battery.

 

[abstraction]

Thanks all, some of you don't sound surprised that the battery drained in half an hour? I probably did leave the climate control on low, no A/C. Doors were closed.

I have all sorts of battery tenders and power supplies, but didn't even think to hook them up. Guess I know now.

 

[CHeYeNNe71]

I'm sorta surprised, but if it's a 24, some sat on the lots for awhile and they don't maintain the batteries. Plus OEM only seem to last around 3 years anymore.

 

[Idahoktm]

I'm sorta surprised, but if it's a 24, some sat on the lots for awhile and they don't maintain the batteries. Plus OEM only seem to last around 3 years anymore.

^^^This^^^. My TRX sat in the Toledo lot for two months which is what I believe was the reason my battery wouldn't hold a charge. Mine would drop to 12V or less after sitting for ~5 days with nothing running. If I sat in my truck with the engine off, listening to the stereo, I would be at 12.2V within 15 minutes. Rather than do a warranty swap for another battery, I bought an Odyssey H8. Problem solved.

 

[abstraction]

My truck was a custom order so only sat on the lot for 2 days, but I have experienced poor OEM battery quality on other vehicles so I know what you're saying. (Unfortunately I also had an Odyssey battery that failed days after install, after many positive experiences with them prior, so I'm not sure who to trust anymore!)

 

[kapinallinen2]

Hey all, new to the forum after recently receiving my amazing truck, and a happy Mark Dodge customer thanks to the advice here. Truck has been driving and towing great for 2500 miles until today.

I was re-setting-up my WD hitch today, and as instructed in the manual I left the ignition in ON mode (engine off) while adjusting the hitch in tire jack mode. It was probably on for 20-30 minutes. Lights should have been off, but audio was on. Truck was NOT connected to the trailer with the 7-pin.

When I got back in the truck to pull away, I found the ignition was off, and engine wouldn't even turn over. Battery voltage measured 11.6 with voltmeter. Charged it up a bit and got it started, but check engine light was on. Truck drove home ok, and got a variety of TCM communication error codes from OBD2 -- Google led me to a variety of wiring problems but nothing matching my story. Seems conceivable the codes could have been triggered by a drained battery rather than something more serious?

Does this ring any bells for anyone? Thanks!

Not surprised, these things pull a lot of amps, won`t take long to drain the battery.
Like the others commented, codes should clear after couple drive cycles.
The shop manual advises to use a keep-alive power supply in the case of a prolonged key on engine off situation.

 

[Adjutant]

Hey all, new to the forum after recently receiving my amazing truck, and a happy Mark Dodge customer thanks to the advice here. Truck has been driving and towing great for 2500 miles until today.

I was re-setting-up my WD hitch today, and as instructed in the manual I left the ignition in ON mode (engine off) while adjusting the hitch in tire jack mode. It was probably on for 20-30 minutes. Lights should have been off, but audio was on. Truck was NOT connected to the trailer with the 7-pin.

When I got back in the truck to pull away, I found the ignition was off, and engine wouldn't even turn over. Battery voltage measured 11.6 with voltmeter. Charged it up a bit and got it started, but check engine light was on. Truck drove home ok, and got a variety of TCM communication error codes from OBD2 -- Google led me to a variety of wiring problems but nothing matching my story. Seems conceivable the codes could have been triggered by a drained battery rather than something more serious?

Does this ring any bells for anyone? Thanks!

All of your CELs should clear inside of a day. My battery just died, and the CEL came on for about half a day.
my air conditioning also blew like it was on full heat. It was unbearable. I didnt even have the options in my display to change temp, or air flow.

I was really bummed out. Then, after about 3 drive cycles, everything went back to normal. I had already made an appointment to get everything fixed, and cancelled it.

 

[hogger]

Sorry if I'm not much help but whenever I'm working on my truck and need the doors open I try to turn off interior lights and reduce as much battery load as possible.

My truck refuses to even let the interior lights stay on with the doors open. Really irritating around camp. How do you get them to stay on?

The big battery drain I've found are the infotainment and dashboard systems that insist on powering up whenever there's the slightest hint of activity (FOB in the vicinity, door open, additional door opened etc). ~10A. That shouldn't drain a full battery for 6 Hrs except... The replacement battery from the dealer for the stock that died a few months in, only has about 1/3 of the capacity an H7 battery should have (H7 vs H8 Battery), according to the IBS. So yeah, not too surprised the truck died, but also severely disappointed in the the electronics design, and the supplied batteries.

 

[Darksteel165]

My truck refuses to even let the interior lights stay on with the doors open. Really irritating around camp. How do you get them to stay on?

The big battery drain I've found are the infotainment and dashboard systems that insist on powering up whenever there's the slightest hint of activity (FOB in the vicinity, door open, additional door opened etc). ~10A. That shouldn't drain a full battery for 6 Hrs except... The replacement battery from the dealer for the stock that died a few months in, only has about 1/3 of the capacity an H7 battery should have (H7 vs H8 Battery), according to the IBS. So yeah, not too surprised the truck died, but also severely disappointed in the the electronics design, and the supplied batteries.

I got an AGM H8 from Walmart for around $160. Skipped the dealership visit on my 2 year old truck and saves a bunch of time. Ram uses terrible batteries and or has terrible design when it comes to battery health.

 

[hogger]

I got an AGM H8 from Walmart for around $160. Skipped the dealership visit on my 2 year old truck and saves a bunch of time. Ram uses terrible batteries and or has terrible design when it comes to battery health.

I agree. My truck has had to go in for other issues anyways, so it was no additional time on my part to have them replace the battery, and I'll save the $160 to put towards a nice replacement once the warranty runs out.