2010 1500 Interior Electric Problems

[socker_dad]

I am the new owner of a beautiful 2010 Ram 1500 4DR truck. However, it just started having electrical problems. These are intermittent occurrences with nothing happening consistently, just "when it feels like it."

1. The light on the fan control speed knob started flickering every now and then.

2. When walking up to the locked truck, sometimes it unlocks itself without the fob being touched. First, it was just the driver's door, then all 4 doors, now back to the driver's door.

3. When the doors didn't unlock by themselves, one touch of the unlock button on the fob will sometimes open all 4 doors at once. The next time it's back to the driver's door, with the remaining opening at a double click.

4. When locking or unlocking the doors, the windows on the front doors will roll down a couple of inches or all the way, depending on the truck's mood (the only way to describe it!). I've had to put the fob back into the key slot and switch to "on", roll the windows back up, remove the key and relock the doors.

5. The Air Direction Control knob (far right knob of the climate control section) often will not change the air flow from defrost to panel. However, when it changed to panel air flow, the blower "revs" up like the outlets are blocked (and yes, nothing comes through the outlets at this time). But on another occasion, the change works fine.

I wish the problems happened consistently so a mechanic could diagnose it, instead of sending me home looking like an idiot. I love this truck and sure don't want to trade it in. Does anyone have any pertinent suggestions on what I am looking for?

(Oh yeah, I've changed the batteries in the fobs - and it does not have a start button - good ole twist to start)

6. Almost forgot this one: Evey now and then the MPG gauge will reset itself back to zero. Everything else remains unchanged.

 

[tron67j]

First thing to ask, is there rust inside on places like seat frame, bars that support dash underneath, and/or in the engine bay up high and centered around air intake connection? If there is in various places your truck may have been in flood conditions. You should also take the door panels off, not that hard, and see if there is rust in there. Also check the fuse box and see if the connector points are rusty or corroded. Maybe spray some contact cleaner in each and re-seat each fuse.

If that doesn't reveal any problems, my next suggestion is to take all ground wires off, clean contacts, and reattach. The intermittent and diverse problems could only be related if it is a very central item like a ground wire. You could also load test the battery to see how that is. Once you do that all, disconnect the battery and let sit for a while. Then run a couple cycles of start/run 1/2 hour/turn off and let sit for 1/2 hour.

 

[socker_dad]

No rust (nice!). Cleaned all the connections, but problem persisted. I finally realized that the problems occurred when I used the key fob. Took out the battery and now everything works fine. Freaking engineers. I'll go to my local locksmith and get a new key fob. You can have a Rembrandt, but still have one tiny flaw!

 

[jawzs2]

No rust (nice!). Cleaned all the connections, but problem persisted. I finally realized that the problems occurred when I used the key fob. Took out the battery and now everything works fine. Freaking engineers. I'll go to my local locksmith and get a new key fob. You can have a Rembrandt, but still have one tiny flaw!

A common issue is the little metal contacts inside on the back of the rubber, they come loose and float around in there. You can take it apart and super-glue them back on if you didn't want to buy new FOB's