Battery light with a brand new battery

[shadango]

You and most of the members here will avoid dealerships.

Remember, going to the dealership doesn't guarantee success.
If you have the luxury of time and motivation, you may have better luck finding a solution here at Ram Forum.

Where else will you get so many obsessed individuals looking for a solution?

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I hope so.

I have long been a fan of forums like this -- not so much Facebook pages because there you get a LOT of junk replies.......I have a year left on the service contract and so far at least it doesnt seem like its gonna leave me stuck somewhere, and I carry a jump pack just in case.

I am stubborn and will keep after it a while.....but sometimes a guy just wants to move on.....LOL

But for now "obsessed" I am. LOL

 

[BossHogg]

I'll throw this out for consideration if the OP replaced his battery with an AGM, he didn't say. I doubt a 2012 charging system can maintain a full charge of an AGM battery. Perhaps a level around 80% is all a legacy charging system can do.

Also, to get an accurate battery voltage, let the battery sit idle for several hours before taking a measurement. This period will allow the surface charge from recent charging to dissipate.

 

[Curmudgeon]

@shadango My wife's 2011 Eclipse has an IBS on the negative terminal
of the battery. I know, apples/oranges.

For what Google AI is worth I asked "Does a 2012 Ram have IBS?" and every response I saw over 3 pages of results indicated your truck does (or least probably should) have an IBS.

Disregard if you are familiar and experienced with this, but IMHO this sensor doesn't look like much. It's a little surprising that it can be so important.

Lastly, I have read various posts about folks replacing their FLA (Flooded Lead Acid) battery with AGM and had no issues. I have also read here and across the internet that not all alternators can switch seamlessly between battery types because they have very different charging profiles.

Using a very good scanner it is possible to tell the PCM which battery type you are using. I'm no pro, just reading along and trying to help.
Intermittent issues are the worst. Good luck, please let us know what you find.


EDIT: Reading back over your original post this all started 10 days after replacing your FLA H7 battery with the AGM H7 battery, no issues before. I'd be looking very hard into everything that was done at that time.

 

[Slinge]

The battery light came on every morning first start. Chased it for quite awhile.
I finally checked the alternator on first start.
Wife started the truck , I watched the multimeter.
when the truck started , the alternator did not charge for a split second.
That was enough for the battery light to come on.
changed alt hasn't come on again.

 

[David Omalley]

I'm right there with You it's funny my kids both adults now will drive for months with a CEL on and it absolutely has no effect on them.
Now if my truck throws a code I'm calling in sick to work not to fix whatever might be wrong but because I'm actually worried sick something might be serious.
You should have seen my behavior after I realized I dumped a full DEF cube into my fuel tank. I blame it on the last administration rubbing off on me a bit LOL.
We are funny people when it comes to our trucks..

 

[04fxdwgi]

My truck is a 2012 -- thgey didnt start putting the IBS at the battery until 2013 from what I can gather. I do not have this.

Very mixed bag on this one. Some say yes, some say no and some say Some vehicles had it.

Other than that you mentioned it took a bit for the charge to kick in. Seeing how the charge is normally controlled by the ECM (not sure if yours has that or not) on these trucks, maybe check the connections on the alternator.

I swapped my battery a couple of months ago and put in an AGM. Did a full charge on it prior to installing and have not had a problem at all with it.

 

[shadango]

Thanks for all the recent input folks.

I have been using AGM batteries for years on this 2012 and no issues at all. I use AGM batteries in ALL my older vehicles, including a 2011 Ford, a 1992 Dodge, a 1981 Dodge and a 1972 Plymouth as well as my 2005 motorcycle. Havent used a wet flooded battery for many moons. Regular alternators can charge them just fine.

I have installed them fresh from the store some times due to the timing of the situation and I have trickle charged them overnioght, letting them rest a full day afterwards before installing (as I did with this one this time) and in either case they have always been fine.

This is the 3rd or the 4th battery I have put into this Ram, no issues before.

In my 2021 Wrangler I also use an AGM (same size , H7, as the Ram fwiw) , and that vehicle has the IBS sensor at the battery. I have seen posts on this forum, and others showing pics of the IBS setup on 2013 and up Rams at the battery. I do not have this setup. Just two battery cables/clamps.

Clearly the system has some sort of built in check of voltage "somewhere" (PCM?) even without the gizmo at the battery though since the light triggers.

The truck sits a lot.....1,000 miles (barely ) in this past year.....never mattered before but.....

I am leaning towards either the small connector on top the alt, or as someone else posted here, the alt is not charging for a split second on startup -- that makes sense to me....when the light comes on, the alt is charging at about 14.7...when the light is not on it charges at around 14.5.

FWIW the light did not come on Monday evening after work, nor yesterday (Tuesday) morning nor after work yesterday. Will see if it does this morning or not.

Not sure I mentioned this in my OP or not....This all started with an intermittant CEL (O2 sensor code)....would delete the code and turn off the CEL and it would be fine for days until I would do a hot restart.......rinse and repeat. Now, its not coming on at all either. On the Jeep the battery can cause odd stuff like this -- since the battery was 4 years into a 3 year warranty and was reading at 12.4 overnight, I opted to swap the battery out. Thats when all the battery light stuff started, but not til after like 10 days after the install. So the battery ligt was probably just coincidence and the original battery could have ben used a while longer.....


Driving me crazy. LOL.

 

[Dean2]

Have you tried gently seating all the fuses and relays in the TIPM. Many are often not fully seated and can cause gremlins. Worth a try.

Since your meter says you haave a good battery and alternator output is proper, it is also possible the sensor is going so I would check that too.

 

[fitteenhundred]

I had the same issue with a Toyota that was putting out too much voltage. Random light. Finally caught it at 15.1 volts. You mentioned 14.8 at idle. Try checking the output at 2000 rpm.

 

[TradesmanGuy]

 

[shadango]

I had the same issue with a Toyota that was putting out too much voltage. Random light. Finally caught it at 15.1 volts. You mentioned 14.8 at idle. Try checking the output at 2000 rpm.

Yep, did that...never got above the 14.7 when the light was on and 14.5 when it was not---

 

[shadango]

Just checking in ---

Came on while driving this time on 3/25...64 degrees....didnt drive it til 3/28.... didnt do it the next three times I ran her (march 28th, 29th, 30th)...with multiple stops/starts during and varying temps, after a bunch of restarts in various situations, the light has not yet come back on. Gonna keep watching for it I guess.

I am not a believer in self- healing stuff.........I am sure it will come on again.

 

[Sherman Bird]

View attachment 581622


Proper Battery Charging In-Vehicle systems is not an issue. Please note to charge through the IBS or tie negative clamp to Body/engine ground. Customers, Dealers, Mechanics, and Engineers usually want to place the negative clamp on the pole of the battery. This creates Blind charging. “DO NOT BLIND CHARGE.” See below for proper connections for charging.

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So, now batteries need "quiescent" sleep time! Methinks adding some eucalyptus fragrance might help, too!