less than a year old and dead battery?

[jadmt]

2020 Power Wagon has under 9000 miles on it. getting ready to head out to go camping and truck is deader than a door nail. Never had an issue starting before. I jump start it and if fires right up but it will not shift out of park. check engine light is on. I light it run for 20 minutes or so and shut it off. It starts back up under its own power still won't shift into gear. let it run a while longer and shut it off again and let it set a few minutes and it starts and shifts into gear and check engine light stays on for the next 20 miles or so and two stop and starts and then goes off all seems fine. volts are reading 13.9-14.2V cruising down the road. end up driving about 150 miles to camp spot and everything seems normal. This morning jump into leave and dead battery again. Nothing is plugged in no accessories etc. My buddy jumps me and it runs fine and goes into gear no issue this time. Check engine light stays on until I get home and then after two starts goes out. I know batteries can go dead early but this seems really early. Truck does not sit for long periods of time and most trips are long enough not to abuse the battery. Nothing wired, no accessories etc

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

Do a parisitic draw test it may be a draw in the trucks system

 

[jadmt]

It is new and I am just going to take it in and let them deal with it. If they blow me off and tell me it is normal I will do a parasitic draw test in their parking lot.

 

[jadmt]

So dropped it off first thing this morning. Service writer said should take a couple of hours. 5 hours later I call get put on hold for 1/2 hour finally hang up. 8 hours later same thing so decided to have wife take me to dealership. Service writer says he will check with the tech to see what is up. Gets off the phone with tech and tells me he still has it on the G8 machine and it is acting wonky and might need a new battery or new alternator or both...WTF. I told him i watch the volt readout all the time when I drive and it has never dropped below 13.9 and usually runs 14.0-14.2 consistently. He said well it should never drop below 14V or that is an indication the alternator is bad..I called my buddy who I new was on his way home in his 2020 pw and asked what his volts were reading he said 13.8V. I told his alternator was faulty he said FU lol. The service writer said they needed to keep it over night hooked up to the G8 to determine what it needed.....Unbelievable.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

So dropped it off first thing this morning. Service writer said should take a couple of hours. 5 hours later I call get put on hold for 1/2 hour finally hang up. 8 hours later same thing so decided to have wife take me to dealership. Service writer says he will check with the tech to see what is up. Gets off the phone with tech and tells me he still has it on the G8 machine and it is acting wonky and might need a new battery or new alternator or both...WTF. I told him i watch the volt readout all the time when I drive and it has never dropped below 13.9 and usually runs 14.0-14.2 consistently. He said well it should never drop below 14V or that is an indication the alternator is bad..I called my buddy who I new was on his way home in his 2020 pw and asked what his volts were reading he said 13.8V. I told his alternator was faulty he said FU lol. The service writer said they needed to keep it over night hooked up to the G8 to determine what it needed.....Unbelievable.

anything over 12.6v means its charging they are retarded, simply charge the battery and load test it no need for their fancy machines lol

these new age shops needing a machine for everything to do tests is ridiculous

 

[jadmt]

anything over 12.6v means its charging they are retarded, simply charge the battery and load test it no need for their fancy machines lol

these new age shops needing a machine for everything to do tests is ridiculous

yup first thing I would have done is a simple load test.

 

[Crusty old shellback]

Bad thing I've found out about the shops and their new fancy equipment is they are mainly button pushers. Hook up the machine, get it running, then come back later and see if the machine found a fault.
I had a miss in a motor one day. Took it to a dealer. Next day they return the car and said they couldn't find anything. I could feel the miss when driving.
Called another dealer. Asked if they technicians or button pushers. Manager said they had techs, so I took the car to them.
Next day I get a call that it has a bad coil. Said the machine couldn't detect it, but the tech could see it when he was watching the scope.
Never went back to the first dealer for any work.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

Bad thing I've found out about the shops and their new fancy equipment is they are mainly button pushers. Hook up the machine, get it running, then come back later and see if the machine found a fault.
I had a miss in a motor one day. Took it to a dealer. Next day they return the car and said they couldn't find anything. I could feel the miss when driving.
Called another dealer. Asked if they technicians or button pushers. Manager said they had techs, so I took the car to them.
Next day I get a call that it has a bad coil. Said the machine couldn't detect it, but the tech could see it when he was watching the scope.
Never went back to the first dealer for any work.

One reason i preferred working at independent shops is the dealers always wanted us to jump through hoops to find issues not just dig in and figure it out… dealerships discourage intelligence

 

[jadmt]

I found out from a helpful tech on another site that they have to have a printout from the GR8 or the dealer won’t be paid for the warranty work. He said he has seen battery and alternator issues take as long as two days being hooked up to the gr8 before getting results. He also said most likely a bad cell but it is possible the alternator is putting out the correct volts but not correct amps. Hopefully find out something today as have a camp spot reserved wed and thurs

 

[jadmt]

service writer just texted me and said it needs both an alternator and battery......fortunately they have both in stock.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

service writer just texted me and said it needs both an alternator and battery......fortunately they have both in stock.

Sounds odd but free is free, i wonder if they caused the alternator failure

 

[jadmt]

Sounds odd but free is free, i wonder if they caused the alternator failure

I guess it is a chicken and egg thing, was the alternator bad and killed the battery or the other way around or just flat bad luck. crossing my fingers that there will be no more issues.

 

[MCV]

I have a 2020 RAM 3500 with the dual batteries, dual alternators (440 amps) from the factory Snow Chief package. I cannot leave my truck parked 7 days without the batteries being so dead that the key fob won't unlock the doors. No electronics left on. I live about 100 miles from the nearest dealer, and of course, they offer no loaner vehicles and say I likely need to leave it with them a week to replicate the problem. (yes, BS) The truck is less than a year old and under warranty, so I hesitate to waste a lot of my time doing troubleshooting. Is there any way to get it into RAM's documentation that I've had this problem, short of driving to the dealer? Also, some users have talked about a technique to separate the (dual) alternators and batteries such that I could isolate one so it could not be drawn down by a parasitic draw. Any suggestions on how to do this?

 

[jadmt]

I have a 2020 RAM 3500 with the dual batteries, dual alternators (440 amps) from the factory Snow Chief package. I cannot leave my truck parked 7 days without the batteries being so dead that the key fob won't unlock the doors. No electronics left on. I live about 100 miles from the nearest dealer, and of course, they offer no loaner vehicles and say I likely need to leave it with them a week to replicate the problem. (yes, BS) The truck is less than a year old and under warranty, so I hesitate to waste a lot of my time doing troubleshooting. Is there any way to get it into RAM's documentation that I've had this problem, short of driving to the dealer? Also, some users have talked about a technique to separate the (dual) alternators and batteries such that I could isolate one so it could not be drawn down by a parasitic draw. Any suggestions on how to do this?

i think you are at the mercy of the dealers..might hit @RamCares up and see if they can help out.

 

[Brewbud]

I have a 2020 RAM 3500 with the dual batteries, dual alternators (440 amps) from the factory Snow Chief package. I cannot leave my truck parked 7 days without the batteries being so dead that the key fob won't unlock the doors. No electronics left on. I live about 100 miles from the nearest dealer, and of course, they offer no loaner vehicles and say I likely need to leave it with them a week to replicate the problem. (yes, BS) The truck is less than a year old and under warranty, so I hesitate to waste a lot of my time doing troubleshooting. Is there any way to get it into RAM's documentation that I've had this problem, short of driving to the dealer? Also, some users have talked about a technique to separate the (dual) alternators and batteries such that I could isolate one so it could not be drawn down by a parasitic draw. Any suggestions on how to do this?

My past truck had a problem I was chasing. It was a shorted cell in one of the batteries that was causing the problem. I disconnected the grounds and let the truck sit. One battery held its charge the other drained. The thing is when I first had the system checked they did not find the shorted cell. Gotta love Sears LOL. I had a similar situation with my Jeep.

 

[Motochris]

Ram seems to have battery issues. We have a number of trucks in our fleet and all the battery issues are from the Ram trucks. Most before a year old.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

Factory battery's are junk when they go i will drop a set of Optima's in like every other truck i have had and be good for years to come

 

[mwalsh9152]

Factory battery's are junk when they go i will drop a set of Optima's in like every other truck i have had and be good for years to come

Optima's arent what they used to be. They moved production from their original plant to Mexico I believe, and quality went in the toilet.

 

[H3LZSN1P3R]

Optima's arent what they used to be. They moved production from their original plant to Mexico I believe, and quality went in the toilet.

I have heard people say that for the last 10 years but never experienced it They are still great for me i put them in everything i have and never have issues, i just replaced one that was 15 years old from my diesel tow behind compressor

 

[Brewbud]

Optima's arent what they used to be. They moved production from their original plant to Mexico I believe, and quality went in the toilet.

I agree. I went through an Optima Red Top every year for 3 years in my Jeep. The only thing good was the free replacement. Maybe Canada gets the good ones still. I switched to Odyssey and had much better luck. I am now running an X2Power battery and it has been great but it is probably less than 2 years old.