Dead Battery?

Claasicdrive · Nov 15, 2021

Jeb said:
I will, just a major PIA not to mention I still am trying to charge the battery so I can start it...

BTW, separate note, the belt started squeaking every time I start the truck, about 3 days after purchase. I took it in and they claim it's normal! BS, had oil changed and mechanic told me belt was making noise and either tensioner needed work or new belt. Regardless, dealer did NOTHING except kept my new truck for two days.

you charge it , they wont fix anything because the truck works. you have to call them and told them to flat bed it because the truck is dead. Change dealers..

Amh4 · Sep 25, 2022

Mine did the same thing only 1700mi sat for 2 weeks battery completely dead will not take a charge and only mod is muffler delete. My jump box is brand new and will not touch it it acts as it has no battery.

2Papi · Nov 14, 2022

Well I think I joined the club, my Truck has been seating for two weeks, I'm still under warranty si I don't want to try to charge it or anything like that, I'll keep you guys posted.

Hpmaniac · Nov 15, 2022

Mine goes dead after 3 days. Tried a different battery and same problem. Haven't had time to bring it in but this looks like I'm not the only one with this issue.

2Papi · Nov 16, 2022

Tow truck driver jump started and I drove it directly to the dealer, they said they are so behind may take 2 days. I was looking at my app and location services is working which means the battery didn't die yet.

Hello4x · Nov 16, 2022

Reading this thread encouraged me to buy an additional charger/maintainer for my TRX (other one is for another vehicle). Using two different chargers/maintainers on the TRX, both error/abrupt during the battery desulfation process. Truck appears to start and run fine but assuming I have a potential bad cell?

2022 TRX
Purchased in March (assuming still under warranty)

Tom488 · Nov 16, 2022

Hello4x said:
2022 TRX
Purchased in March (assuming still under warranty)

Yes - your battery is covered under the 3yr/36,000mi factory warranty

2Papi · Nov 19, 2022

PIck it up yesterday and they try to blame it on the after-market alarm and the step bars, which I said, first the step-bars are not aftermarket and they were install by the dealer, second the alarm never had any problems draining the battery for the past 13K miles that I already put on the Truck, funny thing they didn't change anything, looks like the jumpstart from the tow Truck did the trick.

Hpmaniac · Nov 19, 2022

These trucks flat out have issues with batteries going dead. I'm a automotive technician for a living and mine is now going dead after 2 days. I haven't had a chance to diag it but when I do I will report back. I've already replaced battery. I might take it in, I don't feel like working on my new truck with a warranty but I also don't want to leave it at the dealership. I also have the suspension message everyone is having issues with and I'd bet there related.

RobR651 · Nov 20, 2022

Hpmaniac said:
These trucks flat out have issues with batteries going dead. I'm an automotive technician for a living and mine is now going dead after 2 days. I haven't had a chance to diag it but when I do I will report back. I've already replaced battery. I might take it in, I don't feel like working on my new truck with a warranty but I also don't want to leave it at the dealership. I also have the suspension message everyone is having issues with and I'd bet there related.

Where in Washington are you? If you’re in western Washington Bud Clary has an awesome service dept.

ekim33 · Nov 20, 2022

I'm inclined to explore the AUX switches on mine. I have a camera and amp on AUX switches. I've noticed the AUX switch settings don't hold their memory consistently. When my battery died with truck sitting for a week, I charged the battery and the circuit for AUX switch #1 had reverted to "battery" instead of "ignition" setting. I don't have any way of knowing this is what killed the battery, but I do note a lack of memory when I set the defaults for the AUX switches.

Tom488 · Nov 20, 2022

ekim33 said:
battery, but I do note a lack of memory when I set the defaults for the AUX switches.

If you're referring to the "remember last state" setting, there's now a TSB and a BCM flash update that addresses that.

ekim33 · Nov 20, 2022

Tom488 said:
If you're referring to the "remember last state" setting, there's now a TSB and a BCM flash update that addresses that.

Thanks. That's what I was referring to. I'll try to look into that.

Tom488 · Nov 20, 2022

ekim33 said:
Thanks. That's what I was referring to. I'll try to look into that.

The TSB is 08-192-22. Looking for the original post about it now.

ETA: Found the post:

Auxiliary Switch Info

Let me preface that I haven't even received my TRX yet. I am however beginning to plan for some auxiliary light, etc. Can someone provide me a wiring diagram on the Auxiliary switches and the AMPs for each switch. Do the provide this info in the owners manual? Thanks in advance for the help!

www.ram-trx.com

TGertz777 · Nov 20, 2022

I had mine in for UConnect issues two weeks ago and they said my Internal Battery Sensor went below 80% charge which cut power to the UConnect

Didn’t have any symptoms of weak battery other than every once in awhile when I try to start it it seems to go to ACC mode then starts up next time I press the button

I told him sometimes I let the truck sit for a week or so and he said that could cause battery drain on these trucks. Pretty disappointing that you can’t expect to let the thing sit for a week without worrying about the battery

Should be able to let this sit for 10 weeks and start it up no problems

PapaPaka · Nov 20, 2022

It’s probably just a bad battery. Same thing happened to me on my 2020 Gen 5 after 1 year. Then it happened to my wife’s 202o Jag 1 month later. The batteries these manufactures use nowadays are garbage. I was told they come from some high volume manufacturers over seas and they pay next to nothing for them. I half expect to have to replace my battery next year in my TRX. Hopefully it will last longer than that but who knows.

Tom488 · Nov 20, 2022

TGertz777 said:
I told him sometimes I let the truck sit for a week or so and he said that could cause battery drain on these trucks. Pretty disappointing that you can’t expect to let the thing sit for a week without worrying about the battery

Should be able to let this sit for 10 weeks and start it up no problems

And how, exactly, do you figure that? Typical IOD (ignition off draw) for these types of modern vehicles is around 50mA (milliamps). Even without periodic bursts of higher current draw, that's 1.2AH's (amp hours) per day, or 8.4AH per week. Our batteries are rated somewhere around 50AH total capacity. That's TOTAL capacity - meaning at the end of those 50AHs, the battery has nothing left - not even enough to energize the starter solenoid, let alone turn the starter.

It's very possible, with several short trips prior, that leaves the battery in a less-than-fully-charged state, that an extra week of sitting, drawing down another 8.4 AHs, will draw enough out of the battery that it can't deliver enough current to crank over a cold engine. Or, even if it could, it wouldn't be at a high enough voltage to keep the computer and other electronics happy (in the old days, it didn't really matter if your battery voltage dropped to 10V while cranking... the coil still fired. Today's fuel injection systems don't like it when the voltage drops much below 11.5V). At 10 weeks, it would be COMPLETELY drained, probably to the point beyond recovery.

This is why I keep my vehicles on battery tenders, and why I got 16 YEARS out of my last set of Optima red tops in my '03 Cummins.

Hpmaniac · Nov 20, 2022

A modern vehicle should be good for 6 weeks sitting no problem. My 2019 Colorado has sat for a month and fired up no problem. 2021 hellcat will sit 3-4 weeks at a time in the winter and she starts right up. My 2021 TRX I had would start up no problem after a couple weeks. My 2008 duramax has sat for 2 months and started no problem but it has 2 batteries. There's something wrong with my 2022 trx and these trucks seem to have a bunch of issues with dead batteries. Something isn't shutting down. I scanned it this weekend and spent a little time and haven't figured it out yet. I've already replaced the battery.

AW608 · Nov 20, 2022

If you have/ know how to use a meter check for parasitic draw

TGertz777 · Nov 22, 2022

Tom488 said:
And how, exactly, do you figure that? Typical IOD (ignition off draw) for these types of modern vehicles is around 50mA (milliamps). Even without periodic bursts of higher current draw, that's 1.2AH's (amp hours) per day, or 8.4AH per week. Our batteries are rated somewhere around 50AH total capacity. That's TOTAL capacity - meaning at the end of those 50AHs, the battery has nothing left - not even enough to energize the starter solenoid, let alone turn the starter.

It's very possible, with several short trips prior, that leaves the battery in a less-than-fully-charged state, that an extra week of sitting, drawing down another 8.4 AHs, will draw enough out of the battery that it can't deliver enough current to crank over a cold engine. Or, even if it could, it wouldn't be at a high enough voltage to keep the computer and other electronics happy (in the old days, it didn't really matter if your battery voltage dropped to 10V while cranking... the coil still fired. Today's fuel injection systems don't like it when the voltage drops much below 11.5V). At 10 weeks, it would be COMPLETELY drained, probably to the point beyond recovery.

This is why I keep my vehicles on battery tenders, and why I got 16 YEARS out of my last set of Optima red tops in my '03 Cummins.

The issue (for me) is that I don’t do short drives

My truck might sit for a week, 2-3 weeks tops, but I have 19,xxx miles in 13 months

When the truck gets started, it’s going a minimum of 50 miles on that start and the following start

Also I’ve never had an issue starting the truck: just some internal sensor cutting power to the UConnect while the truck is actually running and operating.

I still stand by the idea that letting the truck sit for a week, could cause battery problems, is ridiculous. That’s my gripe, Service Advisor states that he’s “not surprised” this could happen if the truck sits for a week. If I wanted to have my truck plugged in all the time I would have just bought a Lightning