Push Button Ignition Extreme Delays

[newram6868]

Hello, having a new issue that popped out of nowhere. I went out to my 2019 Ram this morning and when I went to start it, nothing happened. Didn't get no keyfob detected or anything. I pushed the start button again twice and still nothing happened. Sitting there perplexed, with my foot still on the break, it randomly cycled to on and started up. Then shut off. All without me touching the button. I pushed the button again and nothing happened, but then it fired up again. Then I couldn't get it to shut off. It just kept running.

Long story short, after hours of messing with this and a long (1 hour) battery disconnect, I cannot get it to a point where the push button start doesn't have an extended delay. Once it's on, everything seems to work, there is just a massive lag there. Any ideas what I could do to get this to resolve? The dealers are booking appointments for October and I am not even sure I'd be able to reliably get it started to get it there!

Thanks

 

[Eighty]

First thing I'd check is the switch. Do you know someone locally with a Ram? You can swap out the push-button switch in less than 5 minutes and see if it acts differently.

My first thought was a short somewhere to the starter or fuel pump. But the fact that it keeps running after you try to switch it off suggest otherwise.

 

[djevox]

Also worth checking the battery is still good in the truck. The oem battery is known to go bad quicker than most would expect.

 

[bigdodge]

need a new battery

 

[newram6868]

Thank you for the quick replies. It should be noted that the truck was bought in June 2019 so is 3 years old with 36000 miles on it with the OG battery. I just did a volt test and hit 12.31, and according to various websites I am finding online it I should have 12.6 when it's sitting idle. When my wife gets home I am going to get a replacement and see if that does the trick.

I am half curious if this is an idiot tax I am paying if I accidentally double tapped the car and left it in accessory all night. We'll see I guess lol

 

[Eighty]

I hope it's as simple as the battery, let us know. Although I'm scratching my head as to how a low battery would keep the truck from turning OFF in a timely fashion.

 

[newram6868]

I hope it's as simple as the battery, let us know. Although I'm scratching my head as to how a low battery would keep the truck from turning OFF in a timely fashion.

Yeah me too, I am 50/50 if this will work as low battery seems to generate all kinds of demons in vehicles I've resolved with a replacement battery in past, but not understanding why it would drag on the ignition switch once it's started running. I am wondering if in my impatience and hitting the switch a bunch of times where it would switch off it would have given it more time to charge and worked itself out?

Either way, I've got months to work on it though until the dealership can get to it though I guess, so I have time to try things haha

 

[Dewey]

Maybe the start switch is going bad. That’s a cheap fix. May as well go with the red TRX button right away.

 

[newram6868]

Maybe the start switch is going bad. That’s a cheap fix. May as well go with the red TRX button right away.

Haha I've got one in my cart ready to buy if the battery does not do the trick. The switch doesn't feel any different at all though, so I would be surprised if that's it but who knows. Maybe it's a piece inside of it that is slow to send the signal to the computer?

 

[djevox]

I hope it's as simple as the battery, let us know. Although I'm scratching my head as to how a low battery would keep the truck from turning OFF in a timely fashion.

Yeah, I wasn’t trying to say the battery is bad, I was just adding another angle as a possibility. I would’ve personally carbon pile load tested the battery before replacing, but I know most places don’t have those anymore.

Yeah me too, I am 50/50 if this will work as low battery seems to generate all kinds of demons in vehicles I've resolved with a replacement battery in past, but not understanding why it would drag on the ignition switch once it's started running. I am wondering if in my impatience and hitting the switch a bunch of times where it would switch off it would have given it more time to charge and worked itself out?

Either way, I've got months to work on it though until the dealership can get to it though I guess, so I have time to try things haha

My opinion is to stick to a methodical approach, and to go after the low-hanging fruit first (checking batteries since most places will check it for free). Then, you need to see what the bcm thinks is happening when you cycle the switch through positions and how long it takes for the bcm to recognize it. There should be parameters to see that, but you’ll need a good scan tool and/or an app with enhanced diagnostics. Unless you punch the switch each time you cycle it, the chances of it being bad already are pretty low on the theoretical list of possibilities.

 

[kapinallinen2]

It is none of the above.
It is a Fiat thing, sometimes it works, sometimes not.

 

[newram6868]

Evening update: My wife got home and drove me to advanced autoparts with the battery and they performed a test on it and said it was good. Slightly low but a quick top up with a trickle charger should do the trick. I was slightly unsure of this, but not wanting to gamble 250 dollars on a new battery yet if the current one was reading ok, I decided to try charging it up figure maybe I somehow left it on ACC all night.

Went home, and now that her vehicle was there was able to connect it with jumper cables to return the voltage to 12.61v. Put it back in the car, and the button seemed to initially work as intended. It cycled on each press to the different modes of off, acc, and run. However, it then got stuck on on again and would not turn off unless the battery terminal was pulled. I was intially even able to start the truck, but then it would immediately turn off. Sometimes when left stuck in the on position, it would then randomly switch back to off and then ACC. It felt like this may be cycling old commands of when I pushed the button randomly out of frustration. While it was doing this, I had an idea and reached under the dash and released the push button ignition from the dashboard and disconnected it. It would still switch from different modes even with the switch removed (lights on dash indicated this was happening and various clicks and the like). This tells me the actual button is probably fine, and it's probably downstream somewhere or still a battery problem.

I think we've decided the next plan of attack is to go ahead and buy a new battery and put it in there tomorrow. I've had the same battery since new, so while I don't really want to spend the money if that's not it, the dealer is going to charge me at least $200 regardless and probably suggest battery as well so I am at least gambling that it either fixes it and no dealer, or I pay the dealer $200 and tell him it can't be battery because I just put a brand new one in if that doesn't resolve it.

Continued ideas / thoughts of issue would be appreciated. Thank you to everyone whom has contributed and provided thoughts on this so far, it's been really helpful in working on solving this. I've spent a LOT of time researching this across FCA products with push button ignition and not found ANYTHING anywhere of anyone describing a similar issue. Makes me think it was battery related since they may have just switched that and it resolved it and not warranted a post but who knows.

 

[Eighty]

Just to rule out a possibility: You didn't get your windshield tinted recently, did you? Or was there any other sort of water intrusion into the truck?

 

[newram6868]

Morning update: I went back to advanced auto parts this morning and purchased a new battery. This seems to have resolved the issue. I was able to cycle it 3 times in my driveway and it behaved normally. No delays in the engine button anymore, and it shut off on command. I am going to do some driving around town today and keep testing, but given it was immediate upon replacement of the battery, I am suspecting that resolved it.

Thank you everyone whom contributed and helped. I frankly probably wouldn't have tried the battery for a few days yet as I wouldn't have thought mine was bad already, so I truly appreciate it you helped me save a lot of time, money, and wasted effort at the dealers / mechanics. The lesson learned is if your battery is 3 years old and you've had it in both extreme climate zones (120+ and -20) and you're developing electrical oddities, replace the battery haha.

 

[bucolic]

Probably wouldn't hurt to replace the FOB battery either. Then everything is fresh.

 

[FLiPMaRC]

I'm a little late in replying since you've already replaced the battery. I was going to suggest getting an EverStart Maxx battery from Walmart. I use it for all my vehicles and they last 5yrs or more, but I still replace them every 5yrs. The H7 or H8 are around $150.

 

[bigdodge]

Evening update: My wife got home and drove me to advanced autoparts with the battery and they performed a test on it and said it was good.

if you want to take this farther
did you get the new battery from advanced? if so complain to the management that who ever tested the old battery they need instructions on how to put a load on it for a proper test.