*&%$#@ ram!!!

Last night I go out to get in the truck, (2016 Ram 1500 4x4 with the 3.6, Bighorn package, 7417 miles, build date of 5-16. I bought it brand new.), dead battery!!! No buzzers, no lights, no turning over, no clicking, just DEAD. I put the truck on the battery charger, leave in the wife's car. I come back home 5 hours later, pull in the garage walk over and fire the truck up. Take the battery charger off, go to get in the truck this morning, not completely dead, but just clicks when I try to turn it over. Any ideas what is wrong with this thing? No issues, no hesitations, no problems before last night. Nothing left on that i'm aware of and no accessories plugged in. No aftermarket lights. I'm ticked off though, that's for sure!

without knowing what the voltage coming from the alternator when the truck is running, I would suspect that the battery is bad.

more than likely just a battery, you're under warranty, let the dealer figure it out

battery also might have a accessory that should be powering down staying live and draining battery.

Say "Woooo saahhhhh" while rubbing your earlobes.

Dead battery seems to be the issue here.

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If this guy is this freaked out about a dead battery, just wait until he gets his first scratch.

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Or the 44-44 junk transfer case does not work like planned))))))))

If you have headlights that are suppose to turn off automatically, they might not have turned off after you parked the truck for the night. I had the same problem and when I parked the truck in the garage at night I ASSUMED the lights would go out automatically because they were on a "timer" and the switch was on automatic. Didn't happen and next day the battery was dead. Happened twice before I figured it out.
Jay

scubabill said:

If this guy is this freaked out about a dead battery, just wait until he gets his first scratch.

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A scratch doesn't affect the running of the vehicle, however when you have 0 problems out of your vehicle and go to use it and it doesn't start for no apparent reason I tend to get ticked off. The dang thing isn't cheap, and I don't mind paying the price for a new vehicle. BUT I do expect them to run when I NEED them to run.

I'm sure it's the battery. I just got done replacing mine. I drove mine Wednesday and it was fine, never any signs of the battery going. On Thursday I hit the remote start. I saw the parking lights flash once, then nothing. Completely dead. I tried a booster box I have, got some lights, but just clicking when I went to start it. I think the booster is about dead anyway. Next I tried jumping it with the Jeep. Still nothing. I never got any sparks when I hooked the cables up. I thought maybe the terminals were a little corroded, so I took them off and cleaned them. Tried jumping again. Still just clicking. I thought maybe the cables were bad, so I tried a different set. Same thing. So now I'm starting to think maybe it's the starter or something else. I've got an old battery charger that I hooked up and left on overnight. That at least sparked when I hooked it up. I went out to try it this morning and it still just clicked.

I decided to take the battery and have it checked. The printout said it was rated at 700cca and tested at 500cca and 13.7v. So $200 later I have a new battery and as I'm driving home I'm still wondering if it is just that battery. Trying to think of all the possibilities and driving myself crazy. I put it in and the truck fired right up. I got a big smile on my face. I had to take it for a test drive of course and got another big smile. After driving the Jeep a couple of days I was so happy to be back in my RAM. I really do love this truck.

It's statistically unlikely a battery that age would fail but not unheard of. I went down this road with our Honda Odyssey at about the age and after questioning the dealer about other problems, was pretty pissed when the new battery died. 3 trips to the dealer and they finally figured out something related to the A/C was sticking on an draining the battery. Unfortunately, dealers just do the bare minimum to get you out the door.

mtofell said:

It's statistically unlikely a battery that age would fail but not unheard of. I went down this road with our Honda Odyssey at about the age and after questioning the dealer about other problems, was pretty pissed when the new battery died. 3 trips to the dealer and they finally figured out something related to the A/C was sticking on an draining the battery. Unfortunately, dealers just do the bare minimum to get you out the door.

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It happens. I put a new battery in my brother's 200 last year. It made it a year and a week and just gave up the ghost last week. It would discharge with nothing connected. When I went to warranty it, it wouldn't take enough charge to run the load test. Definitely unlikely, but definitely not unheard of, either.

Wonder if the recall for the alternator in the Charger/300/Challenger with the 3.6 might translate to the trucks as well? There were a lot of people with the cars with almost exactly this problem. Although, I think there was a "battery saver mode" message displayed on the dash.

It's a mass produced item comprised of mass produced items. Stuff happens. It's unfortunate, but that's why they have warranties. Go get it addressed and move on

Markcuda said:

Or the 44-44 junk transfer case does not work like planned))))))))

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The bw44-44 is the best transfer case ever to be created sir.

I had a battery die twice recently, replaced the battery and it worked for 2 days then died again. I found that the cable terminals are a two piece with a bolt near the battery post. Turned out the bolt was just a little loose and corroded cleaned the corrosion and tightened it up works fine since.

Dodge, Ram, Fiat or whoever gets your money doesn't build the batteries. If the truck is draining it due to malfunction then blame Ram. The one in my 2005 lasted 11 years and was in there when I sold it.

Anything built by man will fail you at some point, some earlier than others. Yeah I would be a little chapped also but **** happens and regardless of what you paid for the vehicle, it does not mean you get "extra" quality of someone that may have paid less.

Not insurmountable to get this fixed and addressed.

Could be the alternator, could be just a bad battery. That is known to happen from time to time.
Good luck and keep us posted!

You know what they say man makeable man breakable.

RWW said:

3.6

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Found your problem.