Remote start not working when cold

[Sherran]

Update: The first time I took mine to the dealership on 1/12 they reprogrammed my key fob. Again, my remote start working the very next day, 1/13, but not 1/14 or 1/15.

1/15 I took it back and the mechanic said he reconfigured the vehicle with Chrysler files which resets everything. He asked me how I lock my truck when I park it. I told him that I pretty much 50/50 use the fob or the buttons on the inside the truck. He told me that this "confuses" the programming and I should ONLY use the fob from now on and when I use the fob I should always double hit the lock so it honks. I thought this was strange but I'm not a mechanic. He also said that before I remote start it in the mornings, I should always lock it this way as well.

Also, he said when he looked at the logs, he did not find any errors for remote start failures.

Morning of 1/16 it was about 32F outside and I did as I was told - locked the truck and tried to remote start. Remote start did not work. To be fair, when they reconfigured my truck I did not think to look at my settings to be sure that the truck would not honk when remote starting. I usually have this setting off as I live in a neighborhood and I actually like my neighbors so I cringed and panicked a bit when it was honking with the remote start attempts. I didn't try more than twice so this could've been user error tbh.


Morning of 1/17 it was about 41F outside and did the same thing as the previous morning but this time the remote start worked. Could've been the increase in temp.

The lowest it is supposed to get this week in my area is 51F so I guess when it's colder again I will report back.

 

[MeOff]

Bought my Ram in Feb of 19'. A year later I had the remote start issue also. Ck'd everything, battery, no cel. I replaced the fob battery. No more issues! I figured the fob battery was weak or old and the signal from the fob wasn't strong enough to be picked up by the truck?

 

[securityguy]

He asked me how I lock my truck when I park it. I told him that I pretty much 50/50 use the fob or the buttons on the inside the truck. He told me that this "confuses" the programming and I should ONLY use the fob from now on and when I use the fob I should always double hit the lock so it honks. I thought this was strange but I'm not a mechanic. He also said that before I remote start it in the mornings, I should always lock it this way as well.

Sounds like a typical dealer crock of **** to me

 

[UnloosedChewtoy]

He asked me how I lock my truck when I park it. I told him that I pretty much 50/50 use the fob or the buttons on the inside the truck. He told me that this "confuses" the programming and I should ONLY use the fob from now on and when I use the fob I should always double hit the lock so it honks. I thought this was strange but I'm not a mechanic. He also said that before I remote start it in the mornings, I should always lock it this way as well.

Sounds like a typical dealer crock of **** to me

securityguy is correct, the mechanic is pulling that out of his butt. I'd love to see where that is documented by Stellantis/FCA.

I've remote started with the truck unlocked and after using the lock buttons inside the truck. The only time I've ever had a failure was when I accidentally left one of the doors not-quite-shut. If the truck is unlocked, when you remote start it, it will lock itself first and then start.

 

[Hrspwr88]

Bought my Ram in Feb of 19'. A year later I had the remote start issue also. Ck'd everything, battery, no cel. I replaced the fob battery. No more issues! I figured the fob battery was weak or old and the signal from the fob wasn't strong enough to be picked up by the truck?

What were your symptoms? The truck responses to the key fob. It just doesn't go through with the start itself. I cant see this being a fob battery issue.

 

[MeOff]

What were your symptoms? The truck responses to the key fob. It just doesn't go through with the start itself. I cant see this being a fob battery issue.

I'd hit remote start, about 80' away. (Master Bedroom is back of house and truck is parked out on street) park'g lights would flash twice, no start. Tried several times. Different distances to truck. Different temps. No good. I would stand next to truck and remote start again. Started! This went on a couple of weeks. Winter temps in Colorado are 40's to Teens. I ck my battery. Ok. Had fuel. Same symptoms as you. Then I thought I would change out FOB Battery. It's been a year now. Always remote start. Did not do anything else. No trip to Dealer. Don't know what else to say. Those batteries are cheap. Worth a try Sir?? Plz let us know.

 

[Hrspwr88]

I'd hit remote start, about 80' away. (Master Bedroom is back of house and truck is parked out on street) park'g lights would flash twice, no start. Tried several times. Different distances to truck. Different temps. No good. I would stand next to truck and remote start again. Started! This went on a couple of weeks. Winter temps in Colorado are 40's to Teens. I ck my battery. Ok. Had fuel. Same symptoms as you. Then I thought I would change out FOB Battery. It's been a year now. Always remote start. Did not do anything else. No trip to Dealer. Don't know what else to say. Those batteries are cheap. Worth a try Sir?? Plz let us know.

Interesting, ill keep you guys posted.

 

[Hrspwr88]

Dealer tested the engine battery said it was ok. They did a software update that is suppose to potentially fix a voltage drain problem. Not sure...

The most interesting information they said is that since its an ecodiesel sometimes its normal to only honk once and fail the remote start as it needs to run the glow plugs. If you wait an min and remote start again it will start.

Personally, last winter I never experienced this. It would honk twice and do its thing everytime. Can anyone confirm if what they are saying holds any water?

 

[securityguy]

Dealer tested the engine battery said it was ok. They did a software update that is suppose to potentially fix a voltage drain problem. Not sure...

The most interesting information they said is that since its an ecodiesel sometimes its normal to only honk once and fail the remote start as it needs to run the glow plugs. If you wait an min and remote start again it will start.

Personally, last winter I never experienced this. It would honk twice and do its thing everytime. Can anyone confirm if what they are saying holds any water?

Personally, I just think you're being fed more dealer Bull$hit IMPO. You said it worked fine last winter and now it's not? Nothing should have changed related to how you start your truck so I call BS!

 

[Hrspwr88]

Personally, I just think you're being fed more dealer Bull$hit IMPO. You said it worked fine last winter and now it's not? Nothing should have changed related to how you start your truck so I call BS!

Lol exactly what I told them. But they know all...

Stay tuned.

 

[Hrspwr88]

Where to begin.... LOL

Dealer called and told me they recreated the issue. And again they told me that its normal, an ecodiesel doesn't start the first time. I knew this was wrong, but let's go with it... lol (I've had the truck for a year, its never done this)

I went to my truck, tried to remote start, one honk, no start. I wait like they told me. Try again, one honk, no start. I grabbed the service tech so he could try. All of a sudden things start to make sense and they finally scan the truck and check the remote start faults. As I initially requested!

They found out that a module wasnt communicating so they reflashed it and it seems to be fine. I'll check it again tomorrow as it was fairly easy to recreate if it sat overnight.

Aside from them trying to give me a bit of a story at first the dealer seems to be trying to help... we'll see.

 

[MeOff]

Where to begin.... LOL

Dealer called and told me they recreated the issue. And again they told me that its normal, an ecodiesel doesn't start the first time. I knew this was wrong, but let's go with it... lol (I've had the truck for a year, its never done this)

I went to my truck, tried to remote start, one honk, no start. I wait like they told me. Try again, one honk, no start. I grabbed the service tech so he could try. All of a sudden things start to make sense and they finally scan the truck and check the remote start faults. As I initially requested!

They found out that a module wasnt communicating so they reflashed it and it seems to be fine. I'll check it again tomorrow as it was fairly easy to recreate if it sat overnight.

Aside from them trying to give me a bit of a story at first the dealer seems to be trying to help... we'll see.

 

[MeOff]

I sincerely hope this takes care of your remote start problem. It is very frustrating when your vehicle or the options on it don't work or operate, especially when everything was fine, then one day there is an issue and you know you didn't do anything different in your routine. Technology is great, but it comes with glitches. It's a shame that the dealers are never up to speed or have experience to help their customers. It's neat to have this forum that we can share or bounce ideas off each other! Good luck in your remote start in the morning hrspwr88.

 

[HydroRebel]

Ok, I just recently experienced some karma with my remote start after previously stating in this thread that I had no issues yet (go figure). I had a 2014 Ram 1500 sport for over 6 years and never experienced any issues whatsoever with the remote start. The truck was traded in with the original battery still going strong.

I use the Uconnect app to remote start when I'm at work as the truck is far away and I can't see it and I usually use the keyfob when I'm home cause I can hear the truck start but on occasion I use the app at home. My issues with the remote start on my 2020 Rebel started about 2 weeks ago. At the end of my shift one day I opened the app and gave it the start command. A minute later I received the "Remote start failed" message. I tried again and same thing. I started walking toward my truck and when it came in sight I used the keyfob and it remote started no problem. I thought that was rather weird. For the next several days I never had any issues remote starting with the app or fob. Actually, at this point in time I never had a remote start fail with the fob so I started to think maybe it was a software issue with the app until recently.

Temperatures really took a dive here over the weekend. On Saturday morning it was in the -40's (celcius). I went outside and plugged in my truck and my wife's van. About 5 hours later I attempted to remote start the truck via the app when I was in the garage. I could hear the horn beep once and I received the message that the truck started (when it didn't). Weird. I than attempted to start with the keyfob and same thing (one horn honk and no start). I than went out and started manually. The truck started fine (no sign of struggle). After about 10 minutes I went out and about (groceries and stuff) and kept the truck running the whole while I was out. When I came home I let the truck sit for a few hours (plugged in) and attempted the same process as before (app followed by fob) with the exact same results as before.

Grabbed my multimeter this time and low and behold: 11.66 volts. Odd thing the truck manually starts with no issues at all even at that voltage. That's where I'm at right now. It was too cold to do any further troubleshooting and it's Monday so I'm back to work. Luckily I carpool with someone and they offered to drive all week. This is driving me crazy though. We spend all this money on these trucks only to have certain features not being reliable. Remote start is pretty much mandatory where I live! I plan on digging into this further this weekend. Right now it's looking like my battery is causing the issue. I plan to check the battery current when the vehicle is off in case I have excess draw. One thing I won't be doing is taking the truck to my local dealer. I'll update this thread when I get some more info this coming weekend.

The attached image below is from the Challenger forum. I thought it was rather odd as they state that remote start battery range is between 11-15 volts. First I heard of it. I was always under the impression that a normal battery voltage is around 12.6 volts. 12.4 is acceptable but anything under 12v was an indicator of a bad battery. Maybe someone out there can shed some light. Did batteries change that much over the last few years and I'm out of the loop?

Sorry for the long post I wanted to include as much significant information as possible.

 

[HydroRebel]

Update: Got home from work today and didn't bother trying a remote start. I measured my battery voltage instead before attempting anything and it showed 11.46 volts down from 11.66 volts in roughly 30 hours of just sitting there. I hopped inside and the truck started right away. This time there was a tiny struggle but honestly nothing worth talking about as the truck fired right up. It's currently only -25 deg Celsius outside (I know pretty bad when I say only). It's -40 with the wind chill. That doesn't affect the truck but it does affect me! I let it run for about 10 minutes while keeping the meter on. While running the voltage was 14.7-14.8 volts which is totally normal. I shut the truck off and waited about another 10 minutes and the voltage steadied out at around 12.3 volts (I know it will decrease more over time). Tried a remote start with the fob and it worked. That's all the cold I can take for one day. My conclusion right now is totally against my past knowledge of batteries. I wanna say my battery is bad but how can I if it starts the truck no problem. It's starting to look like a remote start requires more battery voltage than a manual start.

 

[Trevor89]

What I don't really understand is if it is caused by lower battery voltage, why isnt there any kind of warning on the dashboard? From other remote start failures at least on my 4th gen truck it would say "remote start disabled" or something to that affect. This truck doesn't say anything on the dash.

I have had this issue anytime I have let the truck sit for more than 24 hours and not even with these current bitter cold temperatures, at -5 it was doing the same thing to me. The dealer told me they found no issues but they reflashed a module and said if it keeps doing it we will send a report to engineering.

My last truck I had for 5 years, ecodiesel, and there was never a remote start failure other than the odd time and usually for a reason I could identify and it acknowledged the failure on the dashboard. -30 here right now and I have to get bundled up to go start this thing instead of being able to do it like a civilized human being, from my bed, haha.

The lights flash at least once, I have the honk option disabled, and then nothing. Truck starts with essentially no hesitation when started the old fashioned way. If the remote start is that sensitive to a slight drop in voltage then Ram is hopefully working on an update to fix this. As the weather gets colder this issue is becoming all too common on these trucks as I see this issue popping up on Facebook ecodiesel groups I'm a part of. Its not isolated to just a couple 'weak' batteries.

 

[Hrspwr88]

Its crazy how many of us have this issue this winter. Last year I had no issues in the cold.

 

[HydroRebel]

What I don't really understand is if it is caused by lower battery voltage, why isnt there any kind of warning on the dashboard? From other remote start failures at least on my 4th gen truck it would say "remote start disabled" or something to that affect. This truck doesn't say anything on the dash.

I have had this issue anytime I have let the truck sit for more than 24 hours and not even with these current bitter cold temperatures, at -5 it was doing the same thing to me. The dealer told me they found no issues but they reflashed a module and said if it keeps doing it we will send a report to engineering.

My last truck I had for 5 years, ecodiesel, and there was never a remote start failure other than the odd time and usually for a reason I could identify and it acknowledged the failure on the dashboard. -30 here right now and I have to get bundled up to go start this thing instead of being able to do it like a civilized human being, from my bed, haha.

The lights flash at least once, I have the honk option disabled, and then nothing. Truck starts with essentially no hesitation when started the old fashioned way. If the remote start is that sensitive to a slight drop in voltage then Ram is hopefully working on an update to fix this. As the weather gets colder this issue is becoming all too common on these trucks as I see this issue popping up on Facebook ecodiesel groups I'm a part of. Its not isolated to just a couple 'weak' batteries.

I'm able to see some warnings related to remote start. My kid never fully closed the back door one day and it showed that on the display as the reason for not starting. Same if you left the hood up. You're right about the voltage though, no warning at all and what's even more annoying when using the Uconnect app is seeing a successful start when it didn't happen. I've been very happy with this truck until now with this remote start issue. While this might sound like a minor issue to some people having a reliable remote starter is a must for me and will be a deal breaker if I can't get it resolved. I just pulled the trigger on a new battery this morning. Ordered an Odyssey AGM94R as I can't get one locally. According to the tracking info it should arrive on Friday. I put a trickle charger on my stock battery last night and the truck remote started this morning no problem. A band-aid fix and very inconvenient with these current temperatures here. My truck is only 7-8 months old so having to face this kind of issue already is quite annoying.

 

[HydroRebel]

Its crazy how many of us have this issue this winter. Last year I had no issues in the cold.

Yes it is crazy. Not just Ram's either this issue is mentioned on other Chrysler forums as well. Hard to believe I had a 2014 for 6 years on the original battery and never experienced one issue remote starting and I barely plugged that truck in.

 

[Hrspwr88]

Best yet...

Truck is back at the dealer for remote start issues when cold. They checked the logs and surprise surprise each fail is because low battery voltage!! BUT when they test the battery it says pass so they told me everything is ok, come get my truck.

They agree it needs a battery and they are happy to install a new battery if I foot the bill but can't warranty it since the tester said pass. Amazing.

FCA Canada is now dealing with my concerns. Lol