What did you do to your Ram today???

[Dogpatch]

Grabbed this on the way to work this morning. Its the holiest that the truck will ever be...

(If you know, you know.)

View attachment 194744

I guess I don’t know, but you shoulda bought a lottery ticket with all those lucky 7’s!

 

[BowDown]

Had a cardiologist appointment today and it also happened to snow today in Dallas.

Had no trouble driving through the snow whatsoever however on the way home, I got a check engine light stating service transmission and shift to Park however I couldnt shift to park and once stopped the truck would shut off (engine) itself but would not turn completely off.

I got it restarted and drove the last couple of miles home and looked at it in my driveway.
The ignition still would not go to the off position, only accessory and run which if left on would simply drain the battery. I ultimately had to disconnect the battery and set the emergency brake to get the truck to completely power down.


In doing some digging, I found that this is a common issue with these trucks with heavy snow or wet snow which is what we got.

Check engine light is still on and called a dealer. Told him about the snow and he said ya we have had 8 of these come in with this in last snow. Always a few that have this happen but with the more snow this yr it's been a common thing. You need to thaw it out he said which I did. He said there is a cable that shifts the tranny that builds up with ice. If you need the vehicle and don't have a warm place to put it you can crawl under there and chip the ice away. Nice !! Something every owner wants to do lol. They should put a master switch in these so you don't have to remove the battery cable in -35 to be able to drive it in the winter. Just flip the switch off for 30 seconds to remove the ground to the computer so you can be on your way lol. Or better yet put a shield on the shift mechanism that allows the tranny heat to keep this area dry and free of snow.

I found this when climbing under the truck to check, it was indeed packed with snow








So if you drive in heavy wet snow and get enough packed in under the truck, you may get a "Service Transmission" error and a failure of the ability to shift into park

 

[cerbo]

Had a cardiologist appointment today and it also happened to snow today in Dallas.

Had no trouble driving through the snow whatsoever however on the way home, I got a check engine light stating service transmission and shift to Park however I couldnt shift to park and once stopped the truck would shut off (engine) itself but would not turn completely off.

I got it restarted and drove the last couple of miles home and looked at it in my driveway.
The ignition still would not go to the off position, only accessory and run which if left on would simply drain the battery. I ultimately had to disconnect the battery and set the emergency brake to get the truck to completely power down.


In doing some digging, I found that this is a common issue with these trucks with heavy snow or wet snow which is what we got.



I found this when climbing under the truck to check, it was indeed packed with snow

View attachment 194808

View attachment 194809


View attachment 194810

So if you drive in heavy wet snow and get enough packed in under the truck, you may get a "Service Transmission" error and a failure of the ability to shift into park

terrible design then.

 

[MotorcycleBoy]

.... I got it restarted and drove the last couple of miles home and looked at it in my driveway....

This also means that even if you left the truck running at idle, the exhaust couldn't heat up enough to melt the snow, right?
Sorry for the question but I don't speak English well and I would like to understand what to do if it happens to me too

 

[BowDown]

This also means that even if you left the truck running at idle, the exhaust couldn't heat up enough to melt the snow, right?
Sorry for the question but I don't speak English well and I would like to understand what to do if it happens to me too

Yeah, that thought occurred to me as well. It's 32° out, not that cold but the openness of the underbody doesn't seem to trap enough heat to melt it judging how packed it still was around the exhaust and it was a 20 minute drive each way.
Leaving it idling isn't worth burning the gas, I don't need to go anywhere else. I thought about using a heat gun but I'd need to stay there under the truck to make sure it didn't melt any wire harnesses.

If it were to happen to you, I'd say keep a 10mm wrench in the truck so you can get the ignition /ACC off and it not drain the battery then you'd need to try to knock off the ice/snow or melt it off with something

 

[MotorcycleBoy]

ok BowDown clear, thanks

 

[cerbo]

I ve lived in a snow belt for decades, never had a vehicle inoperable due to snow pack, then again I never had a RAM, LOL.

 

[BowDown]

Apparently happened to others now that I research it more

FIXED! Please help 🙏🏻 My TRX won’t go into PARK 😨

Huge snow storm here in Reno. Took me 45 minutes to dig my truck out. On the way down to the gas station had to put it in 4 low for about a mile then put it in 4 High till I got to the gas station. Pulled into the bay here, went to get out and noticed it shut itself off when I took my foot off...

www.ram-trx.com

Check engine light, service transmission after heavy snow

Hey gang, yesterday I experienced something strange and I wanted to share that with you all in case you ever come across such issue. We got about 10 inches of snow here in Michigan overnight and the next morning it started to melt which created a heavy sleet mix which is perfect for getting...

www.ram-trx.com

 

[billfraley]

That is where a main harness connection lives. I imagine there was already some level of compromise prior to the snow pack. Otherwise every RAM sold in the snow belt would be experiencing this regularly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BowDown]

I ve lived in a snow belt for decades, never had a vehicle inoperable due to snow pack, then again I never had a RAM, LOL.

I'd look for a large piece of wood to knock on if I were you

 

[JamRam]

Check your battery voltage. Everything that you described happened to me just before my battery crapped out last winter.

I changed the battery and had no other problems.

 

[cerbo]

I'd look for a large piece of wood to knock on if I were you

I ve in TN now but here s a normal day from my prior town.

 

[BowDown]

That is where a main harness connection lives. I imagine there was already some level of compromise prior to the snow pack. Otherwise every RAM sold in the snow belt would be experiencing this regularly.


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I thought about that too but I don't think that's it. I suspect it's got something to do with the MPR cable (Manual Park/Release) lever



That's where the cable connects to the lever on the trans





The harness is here



There's no electronics in that area other than the front and rear O2 sensors

 

[BowDown]

Check your battery voltage. Everything that you described happened to me just before my battery crapped out last winter.

I changed the battery and had no other problems.

Battery is only a year old but that would be an easy fix that won't bother me as its a 3 year full replacement battery warranty. I'll check that when I reconnect everything and its warmed up enough to melts the snow underneath

 

[BowDown]

I ve in TN now but here s a normal day from my prior town.

View attachment 194829
View attachment 194830

View attachment 194834

That's nice dry snow, the snow today was very wet and turned to slush quickly. TRX's in the link above had the same issue

 

[cerbo]

That's nice dry snow, the snow today was very wet and turned to slush quickly. TRX's in the link above had the same issue

View attachment 194836

I get the difference which is different every storm but I can t understand how Ram trucks are used to plow then?? I plowed for years and the company always had Fords. strange it wouldn't t be designed to handle that but I d agree that your assessment of it binding up is true.

 

[billfraley]

I thought about that too but I don't think that's it. I suspect it's got something to do with the MPR cable (Manual Park/Release) lever

View attachment 194831

That's where the cable connects to the lever on the trans

View attachment 194832

View attachment 194833

The harness is here

View attachment 194835

There's no electronics in that area other than the front and rear O2 sensors

Good logic for sure. But I still say if this was a design issue it would be happening to a lot of RAM owners on a seasonal basis. Definitely something for snow belt dwellers to watch for.


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[BowDown]

Good logic for sure. But I still say if this was a design issue it would be happening to a lot of RAM owners on a seasonal basis. Definitely something for snow belt dwellers to watch for.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

IDK, I'd have thought they would have tested in these conditions but seeing TRXs experiencing the exact same issue, maybe it slipped through testing and takes a specific set of circumstances for this to occur. There's definitely lot of slush and snow packed up under the truck.
If this turns out to be the issue, someone didn't test enough, I also agree that I'd think this would be more wide spread

 

[Mc1502]

Had a cardiologist appointment today and it also happened to snow today in Dallas.

Had no trouble driving through the snow whatsoever however on the way home, I got a check engine light stating service transmission and shift to Park however I couldnt shift to park and once stopped the truck would shut off (engine) itself but would not turn completely off.

I got it restarted and drove the last couple of miles home and looked at it in my driveway.
The ignition still would not go to the off position, only accessory and run which if left on would simply drain the battery. I ultimately had to disconnect the battery and set the emergency brake to get the truck to completely power down.


In doing some digging, I found that this is a common issue with these trucks with heavy snow or wet snow which is what we got.



I found this when climbing under the truck to check, it was indeed packed with snow

View attachment 194808

View attachment 194809


View attachment 194810

So if you drive in heavy wet snow and get enough packed in under the truck, you may get a "Service Transmission" error and a failure of the ability to shift into park

I’m in the DFW area as well. The thought crossed my mind today to run to the store, but I decided I’d rather stay by the fire and not bend the new Tungsten.

With that said, I did walk out into the wet snow in my driveway just to look at my new ride It makes me happy.

 

[1BADRAMLIMITED]

Played in the snow……