8.4AN Start Up Errors

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

JKRam

Junior Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2016
Posts
4
Reaction score
1
Ram Year
2014
Engine
3.6L
My 8.4AN system in my 2014 Ram 1500 with about 40,000 miles has started only working about half the time. Sometimes when I start the truck the screen just remains black. The other frozen screens I get are below--most common to least common from top to bottom. Half the time it starts and works perfectly.

I have downloaded the most recent software update via USB and loaded it on the system twice, but it doesn't have any effect. Has anyone else had this issue? Is there a way to fix it or am I going to have to buy a new unit?

Most common freeze screen:

picture.php


Second most common freeze screen:

picture.php


One time I got this:

picture.php
 

NoveskeFan

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2015
Posts
538
Reaction score
476
Location
Historic Triangle area in VA
Ram Year
2017 Crew Cab Short Bed Copperhead Sport 4x4
Engine
Hemi 5.7
You can reset the radio by following the below video. It takes a few hours for the radio to fully reset...for instance, mine will restart with an SRT screen and it will take a few hours before the screen corrects to RAM and for the Alpine amp to kicks on. I've done the reset before going in for the night and everything is working the next morning. You will need to put your radio presets back in, etc.

https://youtu.be/SJKRr2V8spo

EDIT: If you have an extended warranty, the dealer might take care of it.
 
OP
OP
J

JKRam

Junior Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2016
Posts
4
Reaction score
1
Ram Year
2014
Engine
3.6L
Thanks for the help NoveskeFan. I'll give it a shot tonight.
 
OP
OP
J

JKRam

Junior Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2016
Posts
4
Reaction score
1
Ram Year
2014
Engine
3.6L
Just wanted to post a follow up on my theory as to what the problem was--my battery.

While I was having these issues, my battery would read 12-13V. Eventually it got to the point where my truck wouldn't start and I had to get a new battery.

Since I got a new battery (which has been about 3 months now) I have never had the issue again. New battery reads 14V on the "Vehicle Info" screen on my dash.

Not saying this is the reason, bc frankly I don't understand how it all works enough to know for sure. Just throwing it out there.
 

00R/T

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2016
Posts
1,278
Reaction score
808
Location
CT
Ram Year
2013
Engine
5.7 HEMI
Just wanted to post a follow up on my theory as to what the problem was--my battery.



While I was having these issues, my battery would read 12-13V. Eventually it got to the point where my truck wouldn't start and I had to get a new battery.



Since I got a new battery (which has been about 3 months now) I have never had the issue again. New battery reads 14V on the "Vehicle Info" screen on my dash.



Not saying this is the reason, bc frankly I don't understand how it all works enough to know for sure. Just throwing it out there.



Thanks for the update. Lately my radio has been refusing to start and just stays on a blank screen. It did it the first time a month or so ago. I disconnected the battery for a few seconds and it was fine for a week or so. Now it's done it a few more times, and the other night the battery disconnect did nothing. This seems to have happened ones it started getting colder out. The other night when I couldn't get it going again we were in single digits.

Yesterday it started warming up a bit (high 30s), and the radio came on suddenly while I was warming up the truck in my driveway. When I went out later it was dead, and came on about 5 minutes into my trip. I parked a few minutes later and had the truck off for about 20 minutes. When I started it the radio was dead again, but came on after about a minute. Today it's warmer out (low 50s), and it fired up immediately. So, I'm beginning to think it may he temperature related.

I had considered a battery voltage issue, but my battery is only a few months old and I'm not having any other power-related issues. I think I may keep and eye on the voltage, though.
 

JRG18

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2016
Posts
393
Reaction score
191
Location
Northern VA
Ram Year
2015
Engine
6.7 CTD
Haven't had a no boot before but a couple days ago when I shifted into reverse the picture quality was awful and there was a message that said system unavailable (I think). Shut off truck to go into Wawa and it worked fine when I powered it back on again.

I'm running two batteries with cold weather group so it's the higher amperage. Coulda been a glitch. Could have no correlation to any of this. Maybe the radios just have random bugs due to the cold?! Who knows.
 
Last edited:

00R/T

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2016
Posts
1,278
Reaction score
808
Location
CT
Ram Year
2013
Engine
5.7 HEMI
I tried a bunch of stuff to see if I could get the radio to come back on. I disconnected all the electronics I've added and also pulled the radio out to check the connector. Nothing had any effect.

One thing I did notice is that the compass heading on my cluster is being populated, so the radio is getting power and communicating on the CAN bus.

I checked the battery voltage and it's only 12.1, so it's definitely lower than it should be. It would be great if that is the problem, but I'm not super optimistic. I have it charging anyway and we'll see what happens.
 

00R/T

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2016
Posts
1,278
Reaction score
808
Location
CT
Ram Year
2013
Engine
5.7 HEMI
I think the battery discharge and the radio are related. It looks like the low battery could be responsible for the radio not turning on. What I don't know yet is if the radio is to blame for the low battery.

Yesterday, when the battery was at 12.1v, nothing I did resulted in the radio coming back on. After I charged the battery, the voltage was around 13v. The radio was still off, but disconnecting the battery for a second brought it back to life.

This morning the battery was down below 12v and the radio was dead again. I couldn't get it to turn back on until after I had charged the battery.

At this point the radio is a secondary issue. I need to figure out why my battery is draining first and then worry about the radio. But, the evidence so far makes me think they're related.
 

12sportmc

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2016
Posts
797
Reaction score
356
Location
NC
Ram Year
2014
Engine
5.7 Hemi
What's the voltage metered at the alternator outputting? Could also be a cell going bad in the battery itself. Easy check at the parts store, they usually have a tester for that. Good luck. Let us know what you find


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

00R/T

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2016
Posts
1,278
Reaction score
808
Location
CT
Ram Year
2013
Engine
5.7 HEMI
The charging voltage looks fine. I drove around quite a bit this afternoon and the battery was still full when I got home, so I'm pretty confident the charging system is doing its job. If it wasn't charging I would expect the battery to die eventually, but having it be substantially drained after sitting overnight points to an excessive ignition-off draw.

The battery has a reserve capacity of 140 minutes, so it's going to take a draw of at least a few amps for a good portion of time to draw it down significantly. I've been monitoring it for the past hour or so and once it stabilizes, it's only around 35mA. I believe that's a bit above what the factory specs, but certainly not enough to be a concern.

It looks like whenever the CAN bus wakes up (like when you open a door), the current shoots up to around 4A. I believe from past testing that the radio is responsible for at least half of that.

I did notice that twice over the past few days my truck was unlocked when I went out in the morning. This was unexpected because I'm pretty **** about locking it when I park it. My remote start is cellular-connected, and I'm wondering if it is going haywire during the night and unlocking the truck repeatedly (Maybe the Russians got into Directed's servers. Lol). Between everything waking up and the lights all coming on, I could see that draining the battery in a hurry.

I think the remote start and the radio are the most likely culprits because both can trigger a large current draw and both are not original to the truck. So, I pulled the fuses for both and will see how the battery looks in the morning. If it's still discharged, I'm going to need to come up with a plan to test further. I'm not completely ruling out the battery itself, but it's only 3 months old.
 

12sportmc

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2016
Posts
797
Reaction score
356
Location
NC
Ram Year
2014
Engine
5.7 Hemi
You pulled both fuses? Or one tonight to see if the drain happens if it doesn't you would know it's the radio or remote start... just my thoughts on process of elimination. Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on the troubleshooting. And yeah a 3 month old battery with a bad cell is pretty unlikely.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

00R/T

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2016
Posts
1,278
Reaction score
808
Location
CT
Ram Year
2013
Engine
5.7 HEMI
You pulled both fuses? Or one tonight to see if the drain happens if it doesn't you would know it's the radio or remote start... just my thoughts on process of elimination. Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on the troubleshooting. And yeah a 3 month old battery with a bad cell is pretty unlikely.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



I pulled both. I figure I'll somewhat shotgun it for now since it's time consuming waiting overnight. If the battery is full, I know it's one (or both) of those and I'll have to figure out which one. If it's drained, it's neither of them and I need to look in a completely different direction. I'm really hoping it's the first one.

I have read reports where people had batteries draining overnight and the dealer replaced their RA4. They theorized it was something to do with it constantly trying to communicate via cellular and not going to sleep properly.
 

00R/T

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2016
Posts
1,278
Reaction score
808
Location
CT
Ram Year
2013
Engine
5.7 HEMI
Welp, without the remote start and radio the battery is down to 12.08v this morning. I really don't know what else could be draining it down. It's not something that's on constantly because then I'd be able to catch it with a meter. It would need to be something that switches on at some point and draws significant current for a prolonged period.

I'm starting to give more consideration to there being a problem with the battery itself.
 

00R/T

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2016
Posts
1,278
Reaction score
808
Location
CT
Ram Year
2013
Engine
5.7 HEMI
So, I didn't have a chance to charge the battery before I went out to do some errands (in a different vehicle). I left everything as it was this morning when I checked the battery. I didn't connect or disconnect anything, turn anything on, or even shut the door. I simply checked the voltage before I left and then lowered the hood. I went out a little while ago planning to disconnect the battery, charge it, and leave it disconnected overnight to see if it would discharge on its own. Before I did, I checked the voltage to see if it had dropped further. To my surprise, it is now reading 12.59!

I'm really not sure what to make of it, but I think it's more evidence that the problem is the battery and not the truck.
 

Mpgrimm2

Senior Member
Preferred Vendor
Military
Joined
Mar 30, 2014
Posts
6,084
Reaction score
4,167
Location
SC
Ram Year
2022 Ram 1500 (5th Gen)
Engine
5.7L
Thanks for the updates. Watching this closely in case it ever happens to me.

Sent from my non-flammable Galaxy S7!
 

00R/T

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2016
Posts
1,278
Reaction score
808
Location
CT
Ram Year
2013
Engine
5.7 HEMI
After I left the battery cable disconnected last night the battery was showing fully charged (12.71v) this morning. I would have previously taken this to mean that the truck is, in fact, drawing down the battery. But, I still can't explain why the charge went up yesterday without me doing anything.

Every morning the battery has shown low voltage we've had an overnight low in the teens or below. Last night the temperature stayed near freezing Combined with the fact that I've been unable to measure an excessive draw, the voltage went up yesterday when the weather warmed up, and I only began seeing this problem when it started getting very cold at night, I'm thinking there may be something going on with the battery when the temperature gets too low. Or, it's just a coincidence and there is an unrelated intermittent battery failure.

The temperature trend is going to be about the same tonight as it was last night, so I've reconnected everything and will log another data point. If I don't see an issue, I'll just continue to monitor it and wait until it gets cold again to see if it acts up. I also have an older battery that is still OK sitting on my maintainer. If things continue to act up and I still can't find an excessive draw, I'll swap in the old battery and see how it works. If the problem goes away, I'll know it's something up with the battery.
 

00R/T

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2016
Posts
1,278
Reaction score
808
Location
CT
Ram Year
2013
Engine
5.7 HEMI
Another update (I probably should start a separate battery thread).

I just went out and checked the battery now. 3hrs 29mins has elapsed and the temperature has increased from 29F to 41F. The voltage has gone from 12.71v to 12.09v. I don't think there are enough electronics on that truck to drain a healthy battery that much in that short a period of time.

I'm pretty well convinced the battery is giving me false voltages that are dropping under any sort of sustained load (even a normal one) or there is something else going on with it. I'm swapping in the other, fully-charged battery and will monitor it. If everything looks OK like I suspect it may, I'll go get the new battery swapped for a replacement
 

12sportmc

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2016
Posts
797
Reaction score
356
Location
NC
Ram Year
2014
Engine
5.7 Hemi
Hope the battery fixes your issues and that you can get it replaced for free since you said it was only 3 months old


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

00R/T

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2016
Posts
1,278
Reaction score
808
Location
CT
Ram Year
2013
Engine
5.7 HEMI
Ok, so I figured out what's going on with the voltage fluctuations on the battery. After the truck has been sitting for a while and everything has shut down, the voltage drifts up close to where it should be. However, when I open the door and there is a load (~4A) on it, the voltage drops down below 12. So, what I was measuring that caused me to think the battery was discharged is not actually the open-circuit voltage and is not an indicator of the battery being at a low state of charge.

That said, I wouldn't have expected the voltage to drop that much under such a small load. At this point I don't think the battery is being drained nor do I think there is a major problem with the battery because it's apparently holding a charge and capable of starting the truck.

Basically, I think I've been chasing down a dead end.

What I need to figure out now is:
A)If it's normal for the voltage to drop that much just by waking up the truck?
B)What's actually wrong with the radio?

Ugh. [emoji17]
 

clifford15

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2015
Posts
859
Reaction score
452
Ram Year
2015
Engine
CTD
Have you tried to put an ammeter between the + cable and battery terminal? You could measure parasitic draw to see if is excessive. A quick Bing search says rouhly <30mA.
 
Top