What's new
By:
Ram Heavy Duty Forum

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Stop Sale due to Grid Heater Relay Recall

Anyone know the details about how the fire goes down? Does it randomly happen (seems odd) or does it overheat and combust when the preheat is going on (I’d be in the car at the time )


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I'm affected by the recall, as well. Truck was delivered to the dealer on February 27th.
 
mountainears said:
Anyone know the details about how the fire goes down? Does it randomly happen (seems odd) or does it overheat and combust when the preheat is going on (I’d be in the car at the time )


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Just an educated guess but I suspect something goes wrong in the solid state relay and it creates and uncommanded activation of the heater grid. Solid State Relays by their nature generate heat. Also this type of relay shorts to output when it fails, whereas a mechanical relay stays open when it fails. In other words, a failed SSR activates the heater grid. A lot of amps flows through the relay to power the grid. Since the relay is only designed to carry that amount of current for short periods of time, the constant high current flowing through the relay starts to heat it up. The heat builds up to the point where the relay ignites and lights up all the plastic crap around it, taking your truck with it. That is why disconnecting the large cable to the relay from the battery prevents this; no current flows through it to the grid. No current; no heat build up. At least that is my theory.
 
Last edited:
Just spoke to Ram's recall group regarding the grid heater relay, as I, too, have a truck built in December sitting on the dealer's lot. The representative put me on hold, and I was transferred to a group other than those handling recalls. I was given a tentative date of mid-April before the parts will be available to the dealerships. I was also told that the dealerships would have the information and to call them for more information. Wish I had better news to share.
 
deserttech said:
Just spoke to Ram's recall group regarding the grid heater relay, as I, too, have a truck built in December sitting on the dealer's lot. The representative put me on hold, and I was transferred to a group other than those handling recalls. I was given a tentative date of mid-April before the parts will be available to the dealerships. I was also told that the dealerships would have the information and to call them for more information. Wish I had better news to share.
Click to expand...
Not what I wanted to here. I was hoping that the timeline posted earlier meant that "phase 1 dealership notification on 3/23 " was going to be when dealerships would start receiving the parts for the trucks stuck on they're lots.
 
Add me to the list of trucks stranded at the dealer. What makes it worse is that AEV completed my upfit on the vehicle but can't ship it until this mess is fixed. This truck was ordered in October 2022, and AEV completed their upfit in February 2023. So, I'm stuck with this vehicle and Ram's shenanigans on the heater relay. I can't even swap out for another truck. Ram needs to make this right ASAP!!! You hear me, @RamCares ? What is Ram going to do to make us whole on this?
 
BroadStBully said:
Not what I wanted to here. I was hoping that the timeline posted earlier meant that "phase 1 dealership notification on 3/23 " was going to be when dealerships would start receiving the parts for the trucks stuck on they're lots.
Click to expand...
I’m skeptical as to any time line given by Ram at the moment. There are just too many varying ETA’s. I feel we are just being told any ol time to shut us all up!! I‘m still at a loss why RAM cannot or will not give us a more accurate timeline, particularly 6 weeks after the issue surfaced. I guess they don’t want to us to know the truth in case we all go to alternative brands. I am seriously considering this if I don’t get some honest answers soon. Hopefully we will get firm answers from our dealers on the 23rd March 2023 as per the NHTSA notification.

 
apanossi said:
Add me to the list of trucks stranded at the dealer. What makes it worse is that AEV completed my upfit on the vehicle but can't ship it until this mess is fixed. This truck was ordered in October 2022, and AEV completed their upfit in February 2023. So, I'm stuck with this vehicle and Ram's shenanigans on the heater relay. I can't even swap out for another truck. Ram needs to make this right ASAP!!! You hear me, @RamCares ? What is Ram going to do to make us whole on this?
Click to expand...

More exclamations should help.
 
CdnHO said:
Just an educated guess but I suspect something goes wrong in the solid state relay and it creates and uncommanded activation of the heater grid. Solid State Relays by their nature generate heat. Also this type of relay shorts to output when it fails, whereas a mechanical relay stays open when it fails. In other words, a failed SSR activates the heater grid. A lot of amps flows through the relay to power the grid. Since the relay is only designed to carry that amount of current for short periods of time, the constant high current flowing through the relay starts to heat it up. The heat builds up to the point where the relay ignites and lights up all the plastic crap around it, taking your truck with it. That is why disconnecting the large cable to the relay from the battery prevents this; no current flows through it to the grid. No current; no heat build up. At least that is my theory.
Click to expand...
Nice explanation. I mentioned this issue to a good friend of mine that is Maintenance Electrician in a mfg plant. He said they've seen several solid state relays go up in smoke. Lucky for them, in the plant they're always inside an electrical enclosure.

Hopefully this new relay that's coming is not solid state!
 
apanossi said:
Add me to the list of trucks stranded at the dealer. What makes it worse is that AEV completed my upfit on the vehicle but can't ship it until this mess is fixed. This truck was ordered in October 2022, and AEV completed their upfit in February 2023. So, I'm stuck with this vehicle and Ram's shenanigans on the heater relay. I can't even swap out for another truck. Ram needs to make this right ASAP!!! You hear me, @RamCares ? What is Ram going to do to make us whole on this?
Click to expand...
I agree.
Parts are already existing (there's a factory fix apparently from the 1st of Feb).
Ram decided to prioritize the factory, so they can push cars to the dealers and make the money.
Existing customers are left behind... because out of the 300,000 cars to fix, only a few hundreds are like us: in limbo.
Plus, our cars already have been paid by the dealers, so Ram got the money and can wait for the fix.

This is bad... we should ask Ram for either a discount or some free stuff like years of free connected services, something like this.
 
I have a 2022 3500 it had the recall when I checked on the ram app. A month ago I checked today and it shows no recalls. Has any one else checked if they still show the recall ?
 
Adam06 said:
I have a 2022 3500 it had the recall when I checked on the ram app. A month ago I checked today and it shows no recalls. Has any one else checked if they still show the recall ?
Click to expand...
That's a bug in the RAM app, mine shows no recalls and I know I have 3 open. Then the app gives an error message
 
So, on a different forum there is a member that posted that he had the grid heater relay recall done yesterday. Maybe dealerships are starting to get the parts in.
 
ShowKiller1 said:
So, on a different forum there is a member that posted that he had the grid heater relay recall done yesterday. Maybe dealerships are starting to get the parts in.
Click to expand...
This would be a positive development that goes counter to everything we have heard but hopefully its accurate. I was at the dealer on Monday having some minor warranty work done and asked about this recall, the service manager had no timeline on parts for this recall.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top