New to me 2015, Thoughts on potential issue with BCM?

[conrad_vanl]

First time ram owner 2015 1500. 60k miles. I don't commute and needed a truck for side projects/occasional usage. I put maybe 3k miles on it a year.

Brought it home from the dealer and noticed the instrument cluster lights won't turn off when the vehicle is off. They just stay on. There's a couple of other posts around here on this forum and others, appears all FCA vehicles can have this problem, but I'm not clear on any singular cause of this issue. The dealer is going to look at it this weekend as they'll have a certified FCA master tech in (they're a non-dodge dealer, but really top rated and have been great to work with). First time I've bought a used vehicle without either factory warranty remaining, or CPO. Has been nerve wrecking.

Anyways, I noticed something else strange. The low-beam headlights won't come on manually. We've been driving around with headlight switch in auto. When I checked car out at dealer, we had it pulled into a garage when I checked the lights and it was just on auto. I was looking at it in my driveway in the daytime and so I switched the headlights to manual on...and nothing. High beams work, fog lights work, emergency / blinkers work. But not manual low beam.

Is that a sign of a bad BCM? Or is there potential that there's a wiring fault on the headlight switch, which is also causing the instrument light issue? FWIW, the vehicle "acts" like the headlights are on when I switch it to on....the headlight light illuminates and the cluster dims. Just no headlights. Switch it back to auto at night, and headlights are on no problem.

Thoughts?

 

[huntergreen]

I would wait and see what the tech finds.

 

[patchelect]

Get the issue resolved with the selling dealer, regardless of who he is. If it was a Mopar dealer you might even find you have an opportunity to purchase a Mopar extended warranty (don't waste money on an aftermarket one) but no matter what, you have a minimum of a 30 day coverage by law (at least as of this writing, Washington may change things by tomorrow!) Be persistent and don't accept the "they all do that" line about anything. Document visits and results so if anything goes South later you have proof of your attempts to resolve things now.

Hopefully it's just a small problem that the dealer will repair with a smile.

 

[Arth]

First time ram owner 2015 1500. 60k miles. I don't commute and needed a truck for side projects/occasional usage. I put maybe 3k miles on it a year.

Brought it home from the dealer and noticed the instrument cluster lights won't turn off when the vehicle is off. They just stay on. There's a couple of other posts around here on this forum and others, appears all FCA vehicles can have this problem, but I'm not clear on any singular cause of this issue. The dealer is going to look at it this weekend as they'll have a certified FCA master tech in (they're a non-dodge dealer, but really top rated and have been great to work with). First time I've bought a used vehicle without either factory warranty remaining, or CPO. Has been nerve wrecking.

Anyways, I noticed something else strange. The low-beam headlights won't come on manually. We've been driving around with headlight switch in auto. When I checked car out at dealer, we had it pulled into a garage when I checked the lights and it was just on auto. I was looking at it in my driveway in the daytime and so I switched the headlights to manual on...and nothing. High beams work, fog lights work, emergency / blinkers work. But not manual low beam.

Is that a sign of a bad BCM? Or is there potential that there's a wiring fault on the headlight switch, which is also causing the instrument light issue? FWIW, the vehicle "acts" like the headlights are on when I switch it to on....the headlight light illuminates and the cluster dims. Just no headlights. Switch it back to auto at night, and headlights are on no problem.

Thoughts?

I sold my 2013 outright to a guy and he called me saying the same thing about the gauge lights. Turns out it was his blue tooth connection from his phone was somehow keeping the system on and keeping the gauge lights on. Not sure if that's what you've got going on here or not.

 

[conrad_vanl]

but no matter what, you have a minimum of a 30 day coverage by law

Not true in Texas. Also, it's a Toyota dealer.

Turns out it was his blue tooth connection

Not the problem here.


Been pouring rain tonight, found out that the windshield has a slow drip leak that's dripping from the top right hand side of the windshield on to the passenger floor board. So..... the saga continues.

I'm just hoping the two are related. The speaker grill on the passenger door was pretty wet too...so I could see if something gets wet it causing a short. Words can't describe the feels if the truck has this many unrelated issues.

 

[RamCares]

First time ram owner 2015 1500. 60k miles. I don't commute and needed a truck for side projects/occasional usage. I put maybe 3k miles on it a year.

Brought it home from the dealer and noticed the instrument cluster lights won't turn off when the vehicle is off. They just stay on. There's a couple of other posts around here on this forum and others, appears all FCA vehicles can have this problem, but I'm not clear on any singular cause of this issue. The dealer is going to look at it this weekend as they'll have a certified FCA master tech in (they're a non-dodge dealer, but really top rated and have been great to work with). First time I've bought a used vehicle without either factory warranty remaining, or CPO. Has been nerve wrecking.

Anyways, I noticed something else strange. The low-beam headlights won't come on manually. We've been driving around with headlight switch in auto. When I checked car out at dealer, we had it pulled into a garage when I checked the lights and it was just on auto. I was looking at it in my driveway in the daytime and so I switched the headlights to manual on...and nothing. High beams work, fog lights work, emergency / blinkers work. But not manual low beam.

Is that a sign of a bad BCM? Or is there potential that there's a wiring fault on the headlight switch, which is also causing the instrument light issue? FWIW, the vehicle "acts" like the headlights are on when I switch it to on....the headlight light illuminates and the cluster dims. Just no headlights. Switch it back to auto at night, and headlights are on no problem.

Thoughts?

Hi conrad_vanl,
We understand that you are just reaching out to other forum members for advice, but we would like to offer our assistance while you are working with your dealer. Please send us a private message with your VIN, phone number, current mileage and servicing dealership.
Julie
Ram Social Care Specialist

 

[steven_sbs]

First time ram owner 2015 1500. 60k miles. I don't commute and needed a truck for side projects/occasional usage. I put maybe 3k miles on it a year.

Brought it home from the dealer and noticed the instrument cluster lights won't turn off when the vehicle is off. They just stay on. There's a couple of other posts around here on this forum and others, appears all FCA vehicles can have this problem, but I'm not clear on any singular cause of this issue. The dealer is going to look at it this weekend as they'll have a certified FCA master tech in (they're a non-dodge dealer, but really top rated and have been great to work with). First time I've bought a used vehicle without either factory warranty remaining, or CPO. Has been nerve wrecking.

Anyways, I noticed something else strange. The low-beam headlights won't come on manually. We've been driving around with headlight switch in auto. When I checked car out at dealer, we had it pulled into a garage when I checked the lights and it was just on auto. I was looking at it in my driveway in the daytime and so I switched the headlights to manual on...and nothing. High beams work, fog lights work, emergency / blinkers work. But not manual low beam.

Is that a sign of a bad BCM? Or is there potential that there's a wiring fault on the headlight switch, which is also causing the instrument light issue? FWIW, the vehicle "acts" like the headlights are on when I switch it to on....the headlight light illuminates and the cluster dims. Just no headlights. Switch it back to auto at night, and headlights are on no problem.

Thoughts?

Get your money back. Full refund. The truck is forever going to be one problem after another.

 

[conrad_vanl]

Update:
First, I realized I was misunderstanding how the headlight switch worked. The headlight switch is working correctly (I thought the running lights were the low-beam headlights).

Second - took to dealer today. They are taking onus on everything and repairing. They had the windshield replaced by a third party vendor while they had possession of the truck, and they screwed up. So they're replacing the windshield again, and their FCA tech found two electrical issues that they are going to replace. I don't recall exactly what it was (will make sure to get better details), but IRC, one issue has to do with a radio frequency hub module keeping the instrument cluster awake, and another with some wiring connector that they're replacing.

Which sounds inline from what I'd expect based on seeing this issue posted elsewhere.