Battery Disconnect What to Know IMPORTANT

[Scott Bingaman]

Not sure if this has been posted before but on newer RAM 1500s, (I couldn't' find a quick reference so I am putting it up here) there is something all truck owners should know. If you do any work to your truck that requires you to disconnect your battery, you will undoubtedly come across some electronics issues when you hook the battery up again. Here is what happened to me and what I did.

I installed a PedalMax Drive By Wire in my Ram 1500 SLT Classic. Pretty easy install and the final product has blown me away. Part of the installation requires you to remove the "positive" battery cable from the terminal to allow the PedalMax and the onboard computer to measure the new pedal/throttle body settings from the PedalMax after hooking the battery cables back up.

A few folks have reported some issues after installing the PedalMax such as the backup camera not working, satellite radio not displaying on the touch screen, A/C not blowing cold air, and internal and truck bed lighting not shutting off. All of these things just happened to occur to me after I installed the PedalMax. Considering I haven't owned this truck for more than three weeks, I was a little more than concerned but I found a solution.

Ram trucks seem to go through a computer "reboot" when the battery cables are dis/reconnected. I found that if you cycle the engine by starting it and shutting it off 3-5 times all of these electronics that were inoperative or lost will be restored. No need to go to the dealer to have them look at it. The truck will simply reboot after a few cycles of turning the truck over a few times.

Hope this helps.

 

[Johnny Grand]

Not sure if this has been posted before but on newer RAM 1500s, (I couldn't' find a quick reference so I am putting it up here) there is something all truck owners should know. If you do any work to your truck that requires you to disconnect your battery, you will undoubtedly come across some electronics issues when you hook the battery up again. Here is what happened to me and what I did.

I installed a PedalMax Drive By Wire in my Ram 1500 SLT Classic. Pretty easy install and the final product has blown me away. Part of the installation requires you to remove the "positive" battery cable from the terminal to allow the PedalMax and the onboard computer to measure the new pedal/throttle body settings from the PedalMax after hooking the battery cables back up.

A few folks have reported some issues after installing the PedalMax such as the backup camera not working, satellite radio not displaying on the touch screen, A/C not blowing cold air, and internal and truck bed lighting not shutting off. All of these things just happened to occur to me after I installed the PedalMax. Considering I haven't owned this truck for more than three weeks, I was a little more than concerned but I found a solution.

Ram trucks seem to go through a computer "reboot" when the battery cables are dis/reconnected. I found that if you cycle the engine by starting it and shutting it off 3-5 times all of these electronics that were inoperative or lost will be restored. No need to go to the dealer to have them look at it. The truck will simply reboot after a few cycles of turning the truck over a few times.

Hope this helps.

thank you Scott! That is good to know. I just experienced this yesterday (got the truck a month ago). Wish the manual was better.

 

[turkeybird56]

There is a lil device, not remember what it is called, runs on a 9 volt battery, that holds all your electronic settings when U say pull cables and change a battery. Brain dead at moment, not remember name.

Here U go, one of many on the market:

Amazon.com: OBD ll Connector Vehicle Memory Saver Reliable and Easy 9 Volt Battery Powered : Automotive

Amazon.com: OBD ll Connector Vehicle Memory Saver Reliable and Easy 9 Volt Battery Powered : Automotive

www.amazon.com

 

[GTyankee]

When Firestone replaced my Interstate battery, they did not know how long the battery would be disconnected, so they used something like Turkeybird56 mentioned.

They did disconnect the Negative post first & reconnected it last

 

[bigred90gt]

I've disconnected my battery several times, and replaced it once, and never had any issues when reconnected. Everything has worked just the same each time. Mine is a 2017 if that matters.

 

[Loudram]

I mentioned this in the post I just made about installing my steering wheel audio controls. I didn't restart it, it just started working again on its own. I checked it about 2 hours later and it was working so I'm not sure exactly how long it took.