Over the last week I installed several new things to my new 2020 Ram 1500 Laramie with eTorque.
Everything seemed fine. Stainless Works longtube headers and full exhaust, vararam air intake, bilstein 5100's, airbags added in the rear for towing.
Once all was installed everything seemed fine, no issues. About 60 miles into driving the truck the CEL and battery light came on. Came up with codes P0AA1 and P0DE7 - both hybrid codes and nothing I could find online related to RAM. I was out already when it coded so I figured I'd just drive it home. Then it died. Battery was dead. Jumped it three times, giving it some time to charge and basically charge-hopping home. About 2 miles from home, it wouldn't turn over anymore. It was over 120 degrees on the asphalt that day so I just called in a tow and had them drop it in my garage.
In the garage I started trailing every wire that could have been touched. Mind you, all work was done with the battery disconnected, nothing coded when we pulled it out of the garage.
What it ended up being was the hardness on the starter had been plugged in but not locked in. If you've worked on these you love those little paper-thin red locks, and that's exactly what was the problem. It wasn't broken, just not seated fully - allowing the harness to slip loose. This, I suspect, caused a short and sent the hybrid system into some kind of safe mode. Since the truck battery shares a charging source with the eTorque system -- this prevents it from charging anything, even your regular battery.
My limited ODBII scanner just showed a few codes but when I took it in to the dealer on Saturday and they had a couple pages of codes, all electrical. Truck runs, drives, everything fine except the eTorque and charging, so nothing was fried like the PCM/TCM/ETC - maybe something in the eTorque but my guess is more that it just went into some kind of safety mode.
I'll post an update when I hear back from the dealer. Based on other posts I've seen from eTorque owners, I don't have high hopes.
Everything seemed fine. Stainless Works longtube headers and full exhaust, vararam air intake, bilstein 5100's, airbags added in the rear for towing.
Once all was installed everything seemed fine, no issues. About 60 miles into driving the truck the CEL and battery light came on. Came up with codes P0AA1 and P0DE7 - both hybrid codes and nothing I could find online related to RAM. I was out already when it coded so I figured I'd just drive it home. Then it died. Battery was dead. Jumped it three times, giving it some time to charge and basically charge-hopping home. About 2 miles from home, it wouldn't turn over anymore. It was over 120 degrees on the asphalt that day so I just called in a tow and had them drop it in my garage.
In the garage I started trailing every wire that could have been touched. Mind you, all work was done with the battery disconnected, nothing coded when we pulled it out of the garage.
What it ended up being was the hardness on the starter had been plugged in but not locked in. If you've worked on these you love those little paper-thin red locks, and that's exactly what was the problem. It wasn't broken, just not seated fully - allowing the harness to slip loose. This, I suspect, caused a short and sent the hybrid system into some kind of safe mode. Since the truck battery shares a charging source with the eTorque system -- this prevents it from charging anything, even your regular battery.
My limited ODBII scanner just showed a few codes but when I took it in to the dealer on Saturday and they had a couple pages of codes, all electrical. Truck runs, drives, everything fine except the eTorque and charging, so nothing was fried like the PCM/TCM/ETC - maybe something in the eTorque but my guess is more that it just went into some kind of safety mode.
I'll post an update when I hear back from the dealer. Based on other posts I've seen from eTorque owners, I don't have high hopes.
