No power, no start, barely a click

[ja3118]

Good morning, 2019 Ram 1500 with 58k miles. All original parts. No issues ever before. Today I ran a couple errands, then came out to parking lot after lunch and no life in the truck. Odd dinging from dash and no display. The dash would then try to cycle the startup display but not for more than a second. Acted like it was trying to supply the juice but just wasn’t enough to start. The dash just kept flickering. No response from start button. Hooked up jumper cables and still did not have sufficient power. Start button though did elicit a response; the dreaded single click.
Truck behaved like a dead battery would, but I expected to be able to get it going with a jump. Had to get it towed to dealership. Now am waiting for an expensive phone call.
Do I have a battery problem, a starter problem, or a computer problem?
And why just out of the blue did it do this? No warnings and was fine just before.

 

[BlueHemi1500]

My W.A.G. - old battery has reached end of life. Try the cheaper route of a new battery and see what happens.
I just, last month, I replaced my battery as it just barely started the truck; it gave me a warning sign. Batteries these days sometimes they just drop dead. At 5 years, you got your money's worth, and the new battery as a rule out for potential problems.

I hope it is as simple as a new battery, just be warned that when the battery dies, a known problem of several warning lights/HVAC problems and some features/options will not function for about 24 hrs or so, your mileage may vary. So if the dealer calls and says something about the above, let the truck sit for about 24 hours to see if it self-heals.

BlueHemi1500

 

[kapinallinen2]

5 years on the battery, most likely just failed from old age.

 

[ja3118]

Update: Was the battery needing replaced. Again, I had tried to jump it myself before towing it in and had zero luck so I was concerned it was something more. Turns out that the supply battery wasn’t strong enough to supply the juice needed. Shoulda known better, it was a pretty small car that offered to help.
PS, batteries have gotten real expensive since the last time I needed one.

 

[Willwork4truck]

Probably a dead cell. If you've had it since 2019 it doesn't owe you anything.
Back in 19’ there were a lot of peeps who had battery replacements within a year.

The day I sold mine (in 2020) it had to be jumped to get it to the dealer…
14 months old and kept on a tender every day.

 

[SD Rebel]

As always, just in case, double check your fuse box in the engine bay, in front of the battery, flip it open, check to make sure all the bolts are tight. Should take about 1 minute to do, but a loose bolt will cause all kinds of battery and charging issues.

My truck was built on Jan 2019, still have the original battery, still going strong even with long periods between drives.

 

[Willwork4truck]

OP, all good now? What kind of battery did you replace it with and what cost?

 

[KrustyKush]

I just replaced my original battery. 2021 Laramie 5.7, 33k miles. Four years old. I replaced it with what appears to be the identical battery from Autozone, exact same case though slightly better specs than the oem. Like the oem, a flooded design, not AGM. I put the new battery on a charger before installing it. It took about 5 hours total to get the thing up to full charge. Using a smaller Optimate 5-amp smart charger. I'm glad I did that before hitting the start button the first time.