Dash lights and backlight for instrument LED screen wont go out

0bnxshs · Oct 12, 2016

IC lights and transmission gear indicator light back on as of 6:40pm. Back to the dealership tomorrow morning.

3 thoughts that are different here than at dealership: it lightly rained (truck sits outside), the truck sits at a very slight incline in the driveway, neighborhood cats populate the truck off and on throughout the day and night (1 was sitting on the hood when I checked and found the lights on.) At 4pm, no rain, no cats (that I knew of) and no lights.

I will mention these seemingly insignificant things tomorrow. The SW said they'd have a loaner for me this time so they can let the truck sit.

RamCares · Oct 13, 2016

0bnxshs said:
IC lights and transmission gear indicator light back on as of 6:40pm. Back to the dealership tomorrow morning.

3 thoughts that are different here than at dealership: it lightly rained (truck sits outside), the truck sits at a very slight incline in the driveway, neighborhood cats populate the truck off and on throughout the day and night (1 was sitting on the hood when I checked and found the lights on.) At 4pm, no rain, no cats (that I knew of) and no lights.

I will mention these seemingly insignificant things tomorrow. The SW said they'd have a loaner for me this time so they can let the truck sit.

Hi 0bnxshs,

I'm sorry the issue is ongoing. Please do send a PM if you'd like me to follow up as well today.

Kori
Ram Social Care Specialist

0bnxshs · Oct 13, 2016

ramcares said:
Hi 0bnxshs,

I'm sorry the issue is ongoing. Please do send a PM if you'd like me to follow up as well today.

Kori
Ram Social Care Specialist

Thanks, Kori, I do appreciate your keeping track of this. As for now, I am leaving it in the hands of the dealership. Here's the latest:

Took it back in this morning. SW provided a loaner car. Mentioned the 3 items from my previous post. Received an update about 2pm that FCA engineers decided to have the tech replace the transmission shift module. Forgot to ask if problem was found before this point. SW stated that the part should be in soon and replaced but they wanted to keep it overnight to see if the issue reoccurs.

So far, I am satisfied that the service department is giving due diligence to this. More updates as I have them.

0bnxshs · Oct 15, 2016

Had the truck home now overnight since the dealership replaced "Shifter T 21030407" (the transmission shift module) on Thursday. When I went to pick the truck up Friday, the SW and I walked out to the truck, which had been sitting overnight, to check the IC lights. No lights were on. Since getting home, I have been checking the IC lights frequently and found no lights on. This morning I checked at 0540 and found no lights on.

Perhaps the problem has been solved. Will update later.

Addis daddy · Oct 17, 2016

Do you have interior led bulbs? It happened to my 2014 When I replaced the halogen bulbs for leds, the rear seat dome light wasn't making a good connection and for whatever reason kept my dash lit. I pinched the connection points tight and haven't had a problem since

HeavyOne · Oct 17, 2016

When mine does it, it's like it's completely locked up. Center dash display stays dark, won't get the RAM symbol at key-on, etc.. Always have to reset it by pulling the fuse or batt cables.

0bnxshs · Oct 18, 2016

Addis daddy said:
Do you have interior led bulbs? It happened to my 2014 When I replaced the halogen bulbs for leds, the rear seat dome light wasn't making a good connection and for whatever reason kept my dash lit. I pinched the connection points tight and haven't had a problem since

Yes I do; they are factory and not something I've done. I will mention it to my SW as the problem has now re-surfaced.

0bnxshs · Oct 18, 2016

HeavyOne said:
When mine does it, it's like it's completely locked up. Center dash display stays dark, won't get the RAM symbol at key-on, etc.. Always have to reset it by pulling the fuse or batt cables.

I can't say I have this problem, however I haven't tried doing anything besides unlocking the driver's door to pop the hood and disconnect the battery.

The problem has re-surfaced today. I had stopped checking for the lights since they had not been on for the last several days, since the shift module was replaced last week. Today I had stopped sneaking up to check. At about 1600 I went to pick the dog up at the groomers. I got a CEL at startup, which I did remotely for the first time since the shift module was replaced. Code is P1DCA again.

This is getting tiresome. As this truck is 2 days shy of 1 month old, this is completely unacceptable. I will be speaking to dealership management tomorrow about a course of action to solve this problem and already have a service appointment for the CEL for Thursday.

Here's a link to the video of what I am experiencing:
https://youtu.be/rmKl7MWK8RY

BLYGOAT · Oct 19, 2016

So sorry you keep having this problem.
BLYGOAT

0bnxshs · Oct 20, 2016

BLYGOAT said:
So sorry you keep having this problem.
BLYGOAT

Thanks BLYGOAT, I appreciate it.

As an update, yesterday I took the truck in to the dealership. As it was sitting in the drive locked up and the key in the service writer's desk, no one touching or messing with it, the dash lights lit up! No one was around but me to see it but the service writer and his manager came along and I pointed out the lights. They now can see what I keep getting and they were sort of amazed. Not that I ever got the feeling they didn't believe me but it was good to have it happen there.

They promptly put me in a loaner. The service manager said he thought that could be caused by a ground problem or pin problem (pin as in a connector pin.) There were lots of codes that it threw out too, but the consistent one was about the CANBUS and ParkSense system.

Today a FCA engineer was to be onsite at the dealership for a dispute resolution for another car and they promised to have him look at the truck. Hopefully he can give them some guidance. Haven't heard anything from them yet.

AGMRam · Oct 20, 2016

went to the dealer this week with the problem of the dash lights staying on and draining the battery on my 2015 RAM heres what the fix is
this is what the dealer found and did to fix the problem.

0bnxshs · Oct 21, 2016

AGMRam said:
went to the dealer this week with the problem of the dash lights staying on and draining the battery on my 2015 RAM heres what the fix is
this is what the dealer found and did to fix the problem.

View attachment 78652

That's the same idea the FCA engineer and dealership have and are running checks now on connectors, pins and grounds. Problem is finding which connector, pin or ground (or combination thereof) it is.

Mind if I send this to my SW (your photo?) Thanks for the help!

HeavyOne · Oct 25, 2016

Mine is doing it right now. Just noticed it as I arrived to work a few min ago. Fuse pull isn't working, so looks like I need to experiment more when I go back out at lunch. Glad I have two batteries. It's getting old with this crap. I've never expected much out of Dodge quality though..

0bnxshs · Oct 25, 2016

HeavyOne said:
Mine is doing it right now. Just noticed it as I arrived to work a few min ago. Fuse pull isn't working, so looks like I need to experiment more when I go back out at lunch. Glad I have two batteries. It's getting old with this crap. I've never expected much out of Dodge quality though..

Sorry to hear, HeavyOne. Mine's still at the dealership. They've had it since last Wednesday. Last I heard they were ordering a new lower switch bank to replace one they say isn't working for them. I didn't try every button in it but the trailer brake controller, ventilated seat switches and ParkSense front and rear switches were working when I gave it to them. Sent them a copy of AGMRam's photo of his RO too to work with.

Thinking they need to make a payment for me on the truck at this rate.....

Hootbro · Oct 25, 2016

0bnxshs said:
................
Thinking they need to make a payment for me on the truck at this rate.....

Good luck with that. Warranty work and your bank note are two separate worlds and the dealership does not care about your bank note.

HeavyOne · Oct 25, 2016

I was wrong, the fuse trick did work. Apparently I was pulling the wrong one before. I just hate that I feel like I constantly have to check it now. I think the Maestro unit still may have something to do with it, although I won't be able to prove it. Maybe I'll just wire in a manual cutoff switch for the instrument power or some sort of relay with power. I hate having to resort to that though.

0bnxshs · Oct 26, 2016

HeavyOne said:
I was wrong, the fuse trick did work. Apparently I was pulling the wrong one before. I just hate that I feel like I constantly have to check it now. I think the Maestro unit still may have something to do with it, although I won't be able to prove it. Maybe I'll just wire in a manual cutoff switch for the instrument power or some sort of relay with power. I hate having to resort to that though.

So which fuse did you pull? I know you mentioned it several posts ago, but are you pulling the same one?

HeavyOne · Oct 26, 2016

yeah, F84 on my 2500, which is for the I/P and switch bank apparently. Not sure if the same on all models and trims. I was pulling a fuse on the wrong row a couple of posts ago.

When I first reported on here, I had some really odd lockup where I wasn't getting the RAM symbol at start up and some of the I/P lights appeared to be stuck on as well. This last time around, everything worked fine except for the I/P backlighting staying on, as the rest of you guys are reporting.

If you scour google, a LOT of people are having this issue, so it is systemic and most likely a design issue. Perhaps firmware or bus/message related. Like I say, I had this same issue with my '11 as well. On that truck, it was very rare that it would do it though. Most of the posts I came across last night were comical in the dealership 'fixes' provided.

Sucks, because I love the CTD platform, otherwise I'd be swayed into switching brands. But I guess they all have their own issues.

0bnxshs · Oct 26, 2016

HeavyOne said:
yeah, F84 on my 2500, which is for the I/P and switch bank apparently. Not sure if the same on all models and trims. I was pulling a fuse on the wrong row a couple of posts ago.

When I first reported on here, I had some really odd lockup where I wasn't getting the RAM symbol at start up and some of the I/P lights appeared to be stuck on as well. This last time around, everything worked fine except for the I/P backlighting staying on, as the rest of you guys are reporting.

If you scour google, a LOT of people are having this issue, so it is systemic and most likely a design issue. Perhaps firmware or bus/message related. Like I say, I had this same issue with my '11 as well. On that truck, it was very rare that it would do it though. Most of the posts I came across last night were comical in the dealership 'fixes' provided.

Sucks, because I love the CTD platform, otherwise I'd be swayed into switching brands. But I guess they all have their own issues.

Thanks, I will look at my fuseblock and see if it's the same one. Gets tiring pulling the positive battery connection although it's easier on my old eyes at night.

Last update from the dealership is that the lower switch bank has been replaced and they opened the connector mentioned in AGMRam's RO. They did not find any corrosion inside but did find the pins inside the connector were misaligned and pushed nearly out of the wire end of the connector, so that was fixed. It's now sitting inside and being "watched" for further problems. Tellingly, they've spent far more time with it (8 days now) since they witnessed the problem than when they couldn't reproduce it.

I did a google search also and found the problem does cross all FCA brands and years and is not isolated. I've owned a 2010 Ram 1500, 2003 Ram 2500, 2006 Dodge Charger and still have a 2014 Jeep GC and have never seen this issue. Maybe it happened but I never saw it or found a dead battery.

0bnxshs · Oct 26, 2016

Wow, just heard from the SW. The problem is still occurring and they found it lit up again. So now, FCA says to check the engine wiring harnesses and body wiring harnesses. Damn......

Dash lights and backlight for instrument LED screen wont go out

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