Stuck in 1 st gear 2019 Ram 1500 4x4

[wiendog]

Truck would not start every light on the dash was going off had it jumped now the it is stuck in first gear any input would be appreciated

 

[Jako]

My Ram would not come out of first- replaced the battery, all good. How old is the battery?

 

[wiendog]

My Ram would not come out of first- replaced the battery, all good. How old is the battery?

it is approx 4 yrs old Thanks for the tip

 

[Jako]

Had the rpms, speedo and gear shifter do some funky things also. It didn't come out of first but after sitting it came back.. There is a thread on this.

Info sent to "Ram Cares"
As far as the "not coming out of first gear" a member on the 5th gen forum had a similar problem (POST 335659) and was resolved with "the tech found a split PCM connector pin". This by far is my biggest concern and I am not sure how readily it can be diagnosed and resolved. Other people have complained on "carcomplaints" with not coming out of first gear. Intermittent electrical issues are probably the hardest to diagnose. We have had some heavy rain in the previous days and I do not know if this correlates to the issue. Driving habits and use has not changed in the two years of ownership, no off roading, towing or heavy loads. For the most part it is a "pleasure vehicle".

In addition to not coming out of first gear the display stated:
1. Service Electronic Stability Control
2. Service Trailer Brake System
3. Park Sense Rear Braking Assist Off
4. Service light was on (not sure if engine or traction control)

I went out an hour or so later and the situation resolved itself.

Again the battery resolved the problem.

 

[wiendog]

Had the rpms, speedo and gear shifter do some funky things also. It didn't come out of first but after sitting it came back.. There is a thread on this.

Info sent to "Ram Cares"
As far as the "not coming out of first gear" a member on the 5th gen forum had a similar problem (POST 335659) and was resolved with "the tech found a split PCM connector pin". This by far is my biggest concern and I am not sure how readily it can be diagnosed and resolved. Other people have complained on "carcomplaints" with not coming out of first gear. Intermittent electrical issues are probably the hardest to diagnose. We have had some heavy rain in the previous days and I do not know if this correlates to the issue. Driving habits and use has not changed in the two years of ownership, no off roading, towing or heavy loads. For the most part it is a "pleasure vehicle".

In addition to not coming out of first gear the display stated:
1. Service Electronic Stability Control
2. Service Trailer Brake System
3. Park Sense Rear Braking Assist Off
4. Service light was on (not sure if engine or traction control)

I went out an hour or so later and the situation resolved itself.

Again the battery resolved the problem.

Yes that is all exactly what is going on with my truck.I disconnected the battery cables and jumped a wire between the pos and neg while disconnected from the battery to drain any left over charges saw it on youtube.That helped get my truck to shift out of first but lights on dash are still all over the place I quess I am going to replace my battery even though it seems fine.Thanks again for your input It is reassurring I hope the battery solves this problem.These trucks are so electronicaly controlled.Computers are running the world.

 

[Jako]

Yes that is all exactly what is going on with my truck.I disconnected the battery cables and jumped a wire between the pos and neg while disconnected from the battery to drain any left over charges saw it on youtube.That helped get my truck to shift out of first but lights on dash are still all over the place I quess I am going to replace my battery even though it seems fine.Thanks again for your input It is reassurring I hope the battery solves this problem.These trucks are so electronicaly controlled.Computers are running the world.

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

[wiendog]

Best of luck, keep us posted.

New battery today all is resolved. I still can't believe it can cause all that mischief The battery still started my truck but was evidently too weak for the brain.

 

[SD Rebel]

Modern vehicles, very reliant on a good strong battery, take care of that new battery.

 

[Bsteiner36]

New battery today all is resolved. I still can't believe it can cause all that mischief The battery still started my truck but was evidently too weak for the brain.

What model battery did you get. I had the same issue and I thought my new battery fixed the issue. It just happened again today with the new battery.

 

[SD Rebel]

Just to make sure, you guys aren't accidentally locking yourself in first gear but accidentally press the (-) button on the steering wheel gear limiter?

If you press that by mistake at a stop light, you will be in first gear and it won't shift up unless you press the (+) button on the steering wheel or shift out of drive or turn off/on the truck.

 

[Raydar]

Modern vehicles, very reliant on a good strong battery, take care of that new battery.

I have a theory.
Batteries act like big capacitors. They filter, and help to smooth, the A-C voltages produced by the alternator.
If the battery is in bad shape, it may not be smoothing the signal from the alternator, sufficiently.
As with any computer system, spikes and "noise" on the voltage supply can cause all sorts of random madness. That noise, even if it's random, can be mistaken for data. The computer tries to "do things" with it.
The phrase, "Does not compute" comes to mind. (Bonus if you recognize the original source of that phrase. )

Happy that your problems are resolved.

 

[Bsteiner36]

I replaced my battery and I am still having this issue. I live in ohio and it seems to happen randomly. Sometimes it comes up fine and sometimes it doesn't. Very strange. Everything checked out good at advanced auto parts when they did a battery test.

 

[bigdodge]

this is kinda long but gives some good info

 

[gturtle34]

Hello, I get this once in a while too!
I have a strange flicker of dash lights happening when my truck is left alone. I have had to jump it often and a couple of times I get these errors and stuck in 1st gear too. My work around is let it run for a bit, charging battery back up, then turn off, disconnect negative post 10 seconds the re-connect. Poof, all gone. I am suspecting as car starts with low voltage the system is not happy with voltage, errors are flagged and limits drivability to be safe.
The dealership has replaced my fuel sensor/pump and radio module. I have an appointment again this week. I hope I can say something to get the tec to inspect my PCM wires and PCM in general. I get frustrated when the just connect a laptop and diagnose. I think my electrical needs to be looked over with a fine tooth comb and PCM tested.

Thanks for comments! I needed ideas to help my dealership fix battery drain.

 

[Bsteiner36]

Mine has started happening when I go over a speed bump at a certain spot. Three times it has caused my truck to have the weird dash lights to come on including check engine. This has all started after I had the battery replaced.

 

[dski]

Mine has started happening when I go over a speed bump at a certain spot. Three times it has caused my truck to have the weird dash lights to come on including check engine. This has all started after I had the battery replaced.

Something has to be making a poor connection than. Seems plausible to check the battery related wires first.

 

[Bsteiner36]

Something has to be making a poor connection than. Seems plausible to check the battery related wires first.

So I am almost positive it was the fact that the idiots at Advanced Auto Parts smeared a bunch of the silicone grease on the poles of the battery before he connected the positive and negative. Then the didn't tighten them down enough. I ended up taking everything off and removing the silicone grease and now no more issues.

I do have a check engine light on but its not doing the same thing it was previously.

 

[jonnygobig]

Original 2019battery died today after my daughter had the truck on short trips and hanging out running the screen. Ambient temp in 60s. Had this once before last year but started it up with jump box. Couldn’t get it started with my CAT jumper box. AAA started it after a few tries, it posted stability control error and only drove in first. Changed battery out, errors clear and it drives normal after some discovery of options(only happens when off I guess) Battery had voltage but could not carry load.

Have to clear engine light, to lazy to pull code, figure it will clear in a few drive cycles.

This is a bad failure mode, how many construction sites run their batteries down then need to disconnect to get out of limp mode??? What if you pull out on the highway and stick in first and get nailed by big rig? @ramcares…do we report this to NTSB or can you get a software package out?

 

[Raydar]

...
@ramcares…do we report this to NTSB or can you get a software package out?

*crickets*

 

[jonnygobig]

All clear after new battery and drive cycles, reported to NTSB. If you had cold or weak battery in snow…people could die. You could try to pull out in traffic and realize too late you got only 1st? Software sucks. I like it when it’s working but engineering is about reliability, failure modes and safe states should there be a failure. Low battery is the most common state. Why would you limp a car if the stability control is not talking? Just revert to old school human control. This is as dumb as the leaky rear window dripping on RF hub, it fails and you have no way to start truck, even with the manual key that let you in the door. Wake up Ram, people use these trucks in the extreme, design them for that. Take your controls engineer to snowy backroad, disable the RF hub, give them a new battery, let battery die and then leave them there. If they don’t come to work the next morning, hire another. Repeat until one shows up, then you have a real engineer.