2012 RAM 1500, Towed to Dealer, 5000 miles. Transmission/Electrical problems.

Well up until this issue started I hadn't had a single problem with my truck. I bought it brand new in May and it has been great. It is a 2012 RAM 1500 Express Quad Cab.

Last Monday my significant other and I were driving back from Tulsa to Stillwater, OK. About 10 miles from Stillwater the windshield wipers came on full speed. When it happened I thought I may have accidentally hit the switch. I tried to turn them off but they wouldn't so we pulled over. As I went to pull over I realized the turn signals weren't working. Nothing on the switch on the left side of the column was responding and my wipers were going full speed.

I'm left thinking "great, my switch has stopped working with my wipers stuck on... at least we are close to home." As I accelerate back onto the highway at about 35mph my check engine light comes on. About a second later as I am looking down at the light the transmission begins shuddering/shaking/slipping violently. I let off on the gas, roll to a stop on the side of the road, get out of my truck and look underneath. Everything looks fine with the driveshaft, there is no fluid leaking, and the fluid level is fine.

I slowly accelerate back onto the highway and the truck seems to be running and shifting fine. As I get into town (Stillwater) and come to the first stop I realize my truck has stuck itself into 4th gear. The autostick does not respond to any attempt to put it back in drive. As I take off from the stop the truck remains in 4th gear and needs a lot of gas to accelerate.

I baby the truck another two miles home. As I pull up my driveway I hear a loud POP. The pop was one of the transmission lines blowing off the radiator and of course it dumped transmission fluid all over my driveway.

I check the codes on the truck and it has a P0868, transmission fluid pressure at least 10PSI higher than desirable.

The next morning (Tuesday), Chrysler Roadside assistance comes and picks the truck up. They take it to the closest dealer (who I have heard terrible things about... I didn't buy my truck there). Roadside assistance refuses to have it towed to my dealer who is the next closest on the list.

I get a call Friday saying my truck is "fixed". The dealer claims all that happened was a C clip fell off the transmission line causing it to come off the radiator, which is why it was slipping, which caused the check-engine light. They also said the switch along with everything else on the column is working fine but the wiper motor is not working so they are replacing it. They claim the wiper motor/transmission problems are two separate issues that just happened to happen at the EXACT same time.

Anyways, the dealer's idea of what happened doesn't match up with what actually happened. They have treated me as if I am lying about driving it into town. If the transmission line would have come off when it first started having problems I would have seen the fluid when I stopped. There would have been fluid everywhere, and I definitely would not have been able to drive it home.

I feel as if my truck has some sort of electrical issue. I still do not have my truck back and I feel like when I get the truck back it won't be fixed properly.

Oh, and the truck rolled over to 5,000 miles when I was limping it home.

thats no fun! hopefully they will get you cared for!!

Damn that sucks. Hope you get it fixed soon

Man that sucks. I really hope they get it taken care of....if they don't, I'd take it right back to that dealer and make them keep it until they do. If they give you any trouble, bring it up with Chrysler.

Good luck.

That is Crazy! One thing about it your gonna be the first to know if it isn't fixed. Good luck.

Man I hope you get it fixed,

I gotta say this site scares the hell out of me, this is my first Dodge product after driving Ford's for 20 years and it seems like almost every day someone is coming on saying their brand new truck just took a dump, or after so and so miles my truck went nuts or a dealer is trying to screw me etc. I truly pray that this isn't the norm, my Ford's weren't perfect but man coming from Ford forums and ford life logging on here every day freaks me out LOL

Probably just a freak deal. Hopefully they get it fixed. If they don't fix it to your satisfaction report it to RAM. I had squeeling brakes on my RAM at 15k miles. One of the turds in the service department literally told me to "live with it". One complaint to RAM and brand new brakes all around.

Don't be worried Fstryde03. Every brand has it's issues here and there, some people will drive 100k miles without a hitch and some will go 5k like the OP and have an issue. Me personally I've gone 25k miles and outside of the brake noise at 15k I've been problem free. My experience at my dealership has been good and bad, there is one bad apple who tells me to live with a problem, but everyone else has treated me like a king. Some dealerships are shady, and have crappy service... while others will bend over backwards to help you. I think it's just a matter of luck of the draw really.

Fstryde03 said:

Man I hope you get it fixed,

I gotta say this site scares the hell out of me, this is my first Dodge product after driving Ford's for 20 years and it seems like almost every day someone is coming on saying their brand new truck just took a dump, or after so and so miles my truck went nuts or a dealer is trying to screw me etc. I truly pray that this isn't the norm, my Ford's weren't perfect but man coming from Ford forums and ford life logging on here every day freaks me out LOL

Click to expand...

Go to any brand specific web site, and its the same. People seldom make posts just to say "everything is still working great", so you get a skewed look at things. I used to frequent a Ford truck site that was much busier than this Ram site, and it made it look like every Ford left the factory with paint runs and burnt trannies.

Geez, I complete;y understand how you feel, scrible. Make sure everything is well documented!
As for forums and troubles, don't forget how many trucks are out there, and how many people DON'T say anything because their trucks are hunky-dory. People generally come on forums to vent, look for solutions or upgrades, not say how good everything is

I hear ya guys just praying my first ram experience is a great one and I stay in these trucks forever, to OP again hope you get your situation squared away asap.

Electrical gremlins can sometimes cause the wipers to turn on. Usually has nothing to do with the wipers.

Seen it a bunch when asked to do a boost on a vehicle and the wipers come on when you try and start it, rather than it starting lol.

As far as roadside not towing to your dealer. That is standard practice, in some rare instances they make exceptions, like if your dealer did some work, and messed up, they will often tow it to that dealer regardless.

Talk to the wrecker driver and ask how much extra just to take it to the desired dealer. If it isn't far it won't be much because you aren't paying for hook up, just the miles.

When I lived in Red Deer, AB, we contracted to Sykes, which handles Dodge, BMW, Mercedes, pretty much most new vehicle roadsides on behalf of the manufacturers. Now Red Deer is in between Edmonton and Calgary, both of which have BMW and Mercedes dealerships. One was like 100 miles and the other was maybe 102 or something. We were almost dead in the middle. But say you were from Edmonton, passing through, and break down, they would try and tow you to Calgary because it was closer. They didn't care that you would have to drive 200 miles each way to pick up your vehicle when it was done. Customers had to pay the extra mileage.

Now unless the customer was a Douchenozzle, I wouldn't charge them for it, because the dealers in edmonton while further, were easier to get to, with less traffic. If I did charge, it was still less than 10 bucks. Not charging just made the experience of breaking down, which sucks enough, suck that much less.

Fstryde03 said:

Man I hope you get it fixed,

I gotta say this site scares the hell out of me, this is my first Dodge product after driving Ford's for 20 years and it seems like almost every day someone is coming on saying their brand new truck just took a dump, or after so and so miles my truck went nuts or a dealer is trying to screw me etc. I truly pray that this isn't the norm, my Ford's weren't perfect but man coming from Ford forums and ford life logging on here every day freaks me out LOL

Click to expand...

No worries. Been doing the forum thing since 1992 (yeah, I was tech geek back then). The good thing about forums is they are a great way to exchange ideas and issues with others. The bad thing about forums is they are a great way to exchange ideas and issues with others. One thing you need to remember about forums like this is that they are primarily made up of two people: those looking for info about their product and those who have had problems with their product. This means you don't often see the many more people who A) don't frequent forums, and B) have no issues with their product. That tends to skew the perception a bit since you mainly only see the people with problems who are looking for help, sympathy, solutions. Just take it with a gran of salt and realize that for every one poster having a problem there are probably 100 who aren't.

welcome to RF, sorry to hear of your problems. Hopefully they get it fixed right

Wow - nothing's worse than seeing your brand new ride getting a tow. Hopeefullly all gets corrected and you get many years/miles out of your Ram. At the same time, I get your frustration... it'll be hard to shake the idea that the truck broke bad on (I'm guessing the Will Rogers) the highway when it was new and expecting something else to break. Best of luck to you.

---*Update*---

I got the truck back about a week and a half ago and have put 600 miles on it. It occasionally shudders when it shifts, "hangs" when it should upshift, and occasionally shifts overly hard.

It acts up at random more so after being on the highway for a significant drive.

I am taking it in to a different dealer tomorrow. Wish me luck. I have lost confidence in this truck.

Good luck tomorrow, I hope they can fix the problem.

Stillwater, small world...

Let me guess, barry Sanders fix it, or attempt?

Look at Vance in Guthrie...where I bought mine and like those guys ( so far)

I actually bought mine at Battison, east of Lawton. I never dealt with their service department, just drove in from Texas to sign the papers, and drove off. Sales was hassle free.

My switch did the same thing at 2 am I was not happy took it to the dealer at 845 am and had me out by 930 all it was was the ground wire from the switch had come loose. Sorry about the trany problem

I had similar issues in my 2012 and at 5000 miles I had my engine blow on my ram. When I had taken it to the shop for the engine shaking and revving out they said I ha a loose gas cap. Long story short I no longer have the ram and I traded the blown engine truck in for a new jeep rubicon.