4x4 service alert.

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Tim Fraenza

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Apr 2, 2020
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Location
Nevada
Ram Year
2012
Engine
6.7 Cummins
Towing our 8 ton fifth wheel over sisikiyou
Pass, the service 4x4 light and alert came on.
How much trouble are we in?
Thanks.
2012 cab/chassis crew cab 6.7 124,000 miles 68rfe stock.
 

csuder99

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Ram Year
2013
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Hemi 5.7
A lot. Or very little, I've seen the message pop up from low battery voltage when starting. You need to figure what it is complaining about, do you have a OBDII code reader ?
 

joeb

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Location
San Luis Obispo
Ram Year
2012
Engine
Cummins 6.7L
I have a 2012 3500 at the odometer was around 72,000 when this started. I was pulling a 28' travel trailer from California to NY and back, with the truck and trailer loaded with gear, food, water, propane. The truck was serviced by my local RAM dealer the day before the trip.

When I left California, no trouble lights. Around Grand Junction, Colorado my traction control light started coming on and off, with a couple of chimes each time it came on. That persisted for a few hundred miles, mostly staying on and then staying on full-time. By the time I got to Pennsylvania, the Service 4WD message also appeared and was intermittent. There were no other problems with the truck. I stayed in NY for about 18 days. I had the oil changed, fluids checked, etc.

On the way home, same thing. The traction control lamp and Svce 4WD messages were on and off, but mostly on. By the time I crossed the Rockies going west, both lights went off and did not appear for the duration of the trip home.

After that trip from time to time there was an occasional trouble lamp for traction control, which according to the manual, will appear now and then and then shut off. Then I ran my batteries down when I did some work on the trailer (replacing the electric tongue jack, and going up and down several times) and driving to a local campground with no highway miles. I could not start the truck, and the batteries were 8 years old so I replaced them because they did not take a charge from a battery charger. I put in AGM batteries. I have never seen a trouble light since then, but I don't drive it a lot. Now has 79,000 miles.

My conclusion is that the intermittent trouble lamps may have been related to dying batteries. I'm going to take the same trip this year in July so I'm having a shop go over the truck. I also purchased the OBDLink MX+ to view my trouble codes and other details while in route.
 

Hemi395

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Cape Cod MA
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Is the ABS light on as well? I've read a bad wheel sensor can trip the Service 4wd light...
 

PaulTGarrett

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Tampa Bay, Florida
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408 Cummins Turbo Diesel
My 2012 has had a weird "Service 4x4" light issue since I bought it... I have the manual-shift transfer case. When I pull it into 4x4 high, everything works perfectly, no warning lights. When I push it down into 4x4 low, everything works perfectly except I get the "Service 4x4" light... It goes into low range, crawls in low range, front wheels pull in low range, by every indication I can find, it is working fine, except for the service light... Two different dealers cannot figure out the problem so I just ignore it.
 

bcbouy

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pitt meadows/100 mile house
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2021 power wagon
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hemi
my slt did that 2 winters back.i parked it level and cycled through the ranges a couple times,as per directions by a ram tech and it stopped doing it.something to do with a sensor/solenoid glitch or something like that.can't remember exactly,it was a while back,but it hasn't done it since.it originally started from a heavy load in snow.
 

mtofell

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My 2014 2500 did this several times within the first couple years of ownership but the warning never stayed on long enough for me to get it to the dealer. The funny thing is it seems to have just fixed itself as I haven't seen that message for years (I'm now at 7+ years of ownership and 100K+ miles). Kind of nice when things work out on their own!
 

AZ03Softail

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A lot. Or very little, I've seen the message pop up from low battery voltage when starting. You need to figure what it is complaining about, do you have a OBDII code reader ?
2012 RAM 3500, similar code for serv 4 WD and Service Engine.
Checked error codes. One is for Low Voltage! I'm 10 years on original batteries! No issues...yet! Looking to replace batteries this week. Taking truck to independent repair shop to discuss the other 3 error codes.
 

joeb

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San Luis Obispo
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2012
Engine
Cummins 6.7L
One is for Low Voltage! I'm 10 years on original batteries! No issues...yet! Looking to replace batteries this week. Taking truck to independent repair shop to discuss the other 3 error codes.
That's a good point (low voltage). In 2020 when I had my SVCE 4WD and other lights, I was on the original batteries. I replaced them with AGMs after that trip. I did the same trip in 2021 and had no trouble lights all 6,000 miles.
 
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