Climate Control Module

[BNic05]

I hav

Have you tried it again after thoroughly drying it out?

I have tried multiple times, disconnected the battery, reinstalled last set for an hour or so. Then reconnected the battery, still nothing. Did a factory reset, nothing. Took it back to the dealer for a diagnostic, still says Climate control module. Part is still on back order since Oct last year. This heat wave in Arkansas and other parts of the country is brutal, don't think I can go another winter without heat.

I went to a junk yard and bought a part, no dealer will touch it. Now the dealers have enacted anything over 100,00 is not allowed in the shop without prior approval. So where does that leave us the owners?

 

[SitKneelBend]

I hav

I have tried multiple times, disconnected the battery, reinstalled last set for an hour or so. Then reconnected the battery, still nothing. Did a factory reset, nothing. Took it back to the dealer for a diagnostic, still says Climate control module. Part is still on back order since Oct last year. This heat wave in Arkansas and other parts of the country is brutal, don't think I can go another winter without heat.

I went to a junk yard and bought a part, no dealer will touch it. Now the dealers have enacted anything over 100,00 is not allowed in the shop without prior approval. So where does that leave us the owners?

Seriously? That's an odd decision in my opinion. You would think vehicles over 100,000 would be a large part of their service revenue. At that mileage, you probably should be at an independent mechanic though for the cost savings.

If it is the climate HVAC module junk yard parts can get you going. Many of us have used salvaged parts to upgrade with over new with little issue...

 

[ShadowMntnSean]

Yeah.. Hoorayyy I'm in the same boat.. or leaky truck..? Been trying to find a replacement module under $569 and ended up google-ing with pic and I've found this .. I'm not sure if anyone has any updates, but it would be nice to hear if anyone has had better luck with this situation. Initially looked up "Ram climate control module" and found stuff around $100+ ish.. now that I've got the PN I looked it back up and... whoa.. 600 if I want it within 2 weeks. I'm currently cleaning on it with isopropyl while my reflow station heats up.. hoping I can reflow the board, plug it in, and *magic*.. but without being able to find the right schema and test parameters, I'm unable to figure out if it's a lost cause until I'm finished. Absolutely unhappy to find that they put this board in a KNOWN leak-prone area. I used to work at an FCA dealer during the Era that this truck was made, and thought them to be better than this.. my view of them has been tarnished somewhat now.. just like this tarnished green board.. will update if I manage to get this solved...without having to pony up 600+USD. The affected areas are in red

 

[ShadowMntnSean]

There anyone here who KNOWS the climate control setup on a gen4? Of course my efforts at repairing the board yielded little to no positive results. Decided to bust out the alfaobd after countless resets, updates, etc.. and it is showing me some odd things.

First I'll preface this by saying the screen still shows 'off' and won't turn on.. no response or function with the hard-buttons.. it's a bit of a frustrating nightmare.. I usually have a love-hate relationship with troubleshooting and repairing electronics, and rarely ever have to resort to replacing things.. especially if they're expensive.. usually I'll find a work-around or do some custom wiring/board component swap with the solder station and arduino/similar to flash chips.. it's nice to spend 3 hours and <$5 rather than pay the inflated costs of new or dealer service.. anyhoo I digress..

Alfaobd. Connected to the ICS and did a live monitor of button and know status.. it shows all functioning when I move or press whatever, but.. the a/C, rear and front defrost as well as recirculation as 'pressed' when they aren't.. and 'depressed' ( like me at the moment..) when I AM pressing them. This may be, I'm hoping, a side effect of the wonky module..but it definitely has me concerned that there's more to the story than a fritzed module.. tried to reset the VIN on the module, hoping that maybe it could self-program the eeprom, resulting in a fix. Nope. Got a notification I've never seen before on alfa, stating failure due to "beyond module params" or something similar.. with all the varied menus, options, etc in alfa..I'm wondering if I go to the ECU section and set VIN there, if it'll carry over and branch to the ICS.. and set the VIN parameters in the modules due to its tree-like nature.. ? Idk anymore. Spent way too much time tracing wire, reading diagrams, pin-testing harnesses n connectors.. fuse checking.. and doing scans of the other bits that are integrated in the circuit that the hvac module resides..

Believe I lost my trane if thought regarding the intention of this post. But I needed to take a break, and vent a bit so I could reset myself haha.. anyone who has alfaOBD experience with 4th gen rams, experience in the ICS system, hvac and advanced features that this is tied into (which seem to include the sensors for auto-dim, auto high beam, auto rain-sensing wipers.. and a few other things) or anything of the sort? If so, I welcome aaany and all info, advice, experience, knowledge..anything helps right now. I'm coming to the point of accepting that a new or used module will be a necessary purchase.. over the past week prices have been dropping at least. Starting to find them near the $400 price range as opposed to the $600+ used and 900+ from Mopar, new.. but I'm curious what options I might have not tried yet, if there are any.. and if I'm in for more than that, since the automatic rain/lights/dim/etc are on the same line..and throwing fault codes as well. Really hoping that it's just due to the module, and with a new one, the rest in the series will act like they're supposed to.

Really wish Mopar/FCA would make this issue a recall, as the more I'm searching for specs, wiring and vcc info.. I'm finding this to be a rather widespread issue with the truck.. 4th gen AND 5th classics.. and seeing a wave of failures starting with the season change this year. Glitchy and buggy hard-button issues with the dual/auto hvac setup..boards failing.. some not even caused by obvious water damage..Although the cabins of these things do tend to have moisture issues.. thought it was just my 3 rams, and the crazy climate swings of Oklahoma.. but nah. Turns out it's sorta common outside of dry climate regions..

Enough of my ranting. It's back to the diagnostic tools, in a last ditch effort to save me a few hundred bucks..

OH! And if aaanyone happens to have a Mopar wiTECH2.0 subscription.. and would be willing to let me borrow the sign-in credentials for a day..You would be my hero. It would make short work of this whole deal.. plus I've been wanting to test-drive that system. I've seen it perform miracles haha-

Sorry for the long winded, possibly incoherent-at-times post. Anything helps at this point.
Love to the Ram Fam.
No other truck group compares.

And if you see me working the corner, don't judge me.. I'm just trying to afford parts for my truck-
XD

 

[SitKneelBend]

There anyone here who KNOWS the climate control setup on a gen4? Of course my efforts at repairing the board yielded little to no positive results. Decided to bust out the alfaobd after countless resets, updates, etc.. and it is showing me some odd things.

First I'll preface this by saying the screen still shows 'off' and won't turn on.. no response or function with the hard-buttons.. it's a bit of a frustrating nightmare.. I usually have a love-hate relationship with troubleshooting and repairing electronics, and rarely ever have to resort to replacing things.. especially if they're expensive.. usually I'll find a work-around or do some custom wiring/board component swap with the solder station and arduino/similar to flash chips.. it's nice to spend 3 hours and <$5 rather than pay the inflated costs of new or dealer service.. anyhoo I digress..

Alfaobd. Connected to the ICS and did a live monitor of button and know status.. it shows all functioning when I move or press whatever, but.. the a/C, rear and front defrost as well as recirculation as 'pressed' when they aren't.. and 'depressed' ( like me at the moment..) when I AM pressing them. This may be, I'm hoping, a side effect of the wonky module..but it definitely has me concerned that there's more to the story than a fritzed module.. tried to reset the VIN on the module, hoping that maybe it could self-program the eeprom, resulting in a fix. Nope. Got a notification I've never seen before on alfa, stating failure due to "beyond module params" or something similar.. with all the varied menus, options, etc in alfa..I'm wondering if I go to the ECU section and set VIN there, if it'll carry over and branch to the ICS.. and set the VIN parameters in the modules due to its tree-like nature.. ? Idk anymore. Spent way too much time tracing wire, reading diagrams, pin-testing harnesses n connectors.. fuse checking.. and doing scans of the other bits that are integrated in the circuit that the hvac module resides..

Believe I lost my trane if thought regarding the intention of this post. But I needed to take a break, and vent a bit so I could reset myself haha.. anyone who has alfaOBD experience with 4th gen rams, experience in the ICS system, hvac and advanced features that this is tied into (which seem to include the sensors for auto-dim, auto high beam, auto rain-sensing wipers.. and a few other things) or anything of the sort? If so, I welcome aaany and all info, advice, experience, knowledge..anything helps right now. I'm coming to the point of accepting that a new or used module will be a necessary purchase.. over the past week prices have been dropping at least. Starting to find them near the $400 price range as opposed to the $600+ used and 900+ from Mopar, new.. but I'm curious what options I might have not tried yet, if there are any.. and if I'm in for more than that, since the automatic rain/lights/dim/etc are on the same line..and throwing fault codes as well. Really hoping that it's just due to the module, and with a new one, the rest in the series will act like they're supposed to.

Really wish Mopar/FCA would make this issue a recall, as the more I'm searching for specs, wiring and vcc info.. I'm finding this to be a rather widespread issue with the truck.. 4th gen AND 5th classics.. and seeing a wave of failures starting with the season change this year. Glitchy and buggy hard-button issues with the dual/auto hvac setup..boards failing.. some not even caused by obvious water damage..Although the cabins of these things do tend to have moisture issues.. thought it was just my 3 rams, and the crazy climate swings of Oklahoma.. but nah. Turns out it's sorta common outside of dry climate regions..

Enough of my ranting. It's back to the diagnostic tools, in a last ditch effort to save me a few hundred bucks..

OH! And if aaanyone happens to have a Mopar wiTECH2.0 subscription.. and would be willing to let me borrow the sign-in credentials for a day..You would be my hero. It would make short work of this whole deal.. plus I've been wanting to test-drive that system. I've seen it perform miracles haha-

Sorry for the long winded, possibly incoherent-at-times post. Anything helps at this point.
Love to the Ram Fam.
No other truck group compares.

And if you see me working the corner, don't judge me.. I'm just trying to afford parts for my truck-
XD

@Jimmy07 is pretty knowledgeable on these vehicles in this realm. He might be able to chime in?

 

[ShadowMntnSean]

Called salvages all over the state, shockingly NONE have this part. It's mind boggling. 14-17 models (most bighorn and above) have this stupid Lil module, and I KNOW people wreck 4th gen Rams.. for the 'need-asap' situation I'm in, I got lucky..ish... and managed to find one on ebay for under 400.. 2-day delivery.. this isn't over for me by a Longshot.. I'm determined to figure out how to get the old module up and going.. then probably sell it on ebay for the price I bought the used unit.. maybe cheaper.. bc I know there is probably some other unlucky Ram owner that will find themselves in this unfortunate situation I'm in. Having to pay 900ish for a module like this just doesn't feel right.. somewhere, I feel, is someone hoarding these Lil bits of green-gold..and doing the whole upsell with an 8.4 upgrade 'kit' or something.. as, apart from ebay and MOPAR, the only place I've found them is in custom upgrade (UC5 to UC8.4) kits from random online retailers selling on Amazon etc.. which, don't get me wrong, I'd totally purchase...if I had another Ram that needed the UC head unit.. but.."say-lah-vee".. or however it goes. Haha- but really, would love to find someone who knows the board and how it communicates/syncs with the system.. if I manage to figure it out, I'll create a post and a how-to, as this seems to be a more widespread issue than originally thought.. and for us who prefer to do our own work..and prefer avoiding (or can't afford) paying near-four-figure prices for a simple, yet vital, control module from the factory; hopefully I can engineer/reverse engineer solution for it.. the right-to-repair issue is one I feel strongly about.. e-waste is something that can be avoided with the tools and knowledge available these days.. and with the "chip shortage", inflation, etc harming the average-joe's wallet even more lately.. I try to do what I can. I'm not really a tree-hugger, I've got 3 Hemis in the fleet ~haha~..but this is an obvious flaw that can be remedied in many ways, and improve many issues.. it's green, saves green (currency), and opens up a line of trade; skilled repair.. one that hasn't been tapped into enough for our ever-evolving tech based lifestyle. Trashing a board and shelling out big money for a new unit is just ludicrous..especially when the flaw resides in a tiny, inexpensive, already available IC that someone can simply de-solder and solder in a new one.. or be solved by a simple re-flash..

Yea. Anyway. This rant will hopefully be my last. Just frustrated that the company is a truck-down due to this issue during a busy project. For insurance based reasons, and the big temp swings causing window fog..If something happens, the liability falls on me..due to faulty equipment/negligence and.. yea.. it gets messy.. I'll be a much happier man once my hvac is back up.. it's cost me on multiple levels.. money for the part, money lost as we're down a truck, and the toll on my sanity haha-
It's the first REAAAL issue I've had on this particular Ram, (sitting at over 230k) so I believed it to be a unicorn.. I no longer believe in unicorns.. Lmao-

Thanks to all who read or responded on any of the forums I've been participating in with this issue. Still love this Ram, but damn.. :/

 

[ladamsrva]

Having the same problem after some heavy rain last week. Pulled out the HVAC module and connector was damp. HVAC will turn on and responds to manual controls, but screen indicates climate controls are off. Assuming the HVAC module is to blame?

Does anyone know if the 2018+ HVAC module will work in a 2016? Found this for $142 (https://www.mymoparparts.com/oem-parts/mopar-a-c-and-heater-module-68366552aa) versus the $400+ for my year replacement (P68268186AA).

 

[Ecoturd850]

have you figured this question out I’m in the same 400-600 is crazy. Also will a 2500 module work for the 1500?

 

[turkeybird56]

There anyone here who KNOWS the climate control setup on a gen4? Of course my efforts at repairing the board yielded little to no positive results. Decided to bust out the alfaobd after countless resets, updates, etc.. and it is showing me some odd things.

First I'll preface this by saying the screen still shows 'off' and won't turn on.. no response or function with the hard-buttons.. it's a bit of a frustrating nightmare.. I usually have a love-hate relationship with troubleshooting and repairing electronics, and rarely ever have to resort to replacing things.. especially if they're expensive.. usually I'll find a work-around or do some custom wiring/board component swap with the solder station and arduino/similar to flash chips.. it's nice to spend 3 hours and <$5 rather than pay the inflated costs of new or dealer service.. anyhoo I digress..

Alfaobd. Connected to the ICS and did a live monitor of button and know status.. it shows all functioning when I move or press whatever, but.. the a/C, rear and front defrost as well as recirculation as 'pressed' when they aren't.. and 'depressed' ( like me at the moment..) when I AM pressing them. This may be, I'm hoping, a side effect of the wonky module..but it definitely has me concerned that there's more to the story than a fritzed module.. tried to reset the VIN on the module, hoping that maybe it could self-program the eeprom, resulting in a fix. Nope. Got a notification I've never seen before on alfa, stating failure due to "beyond module params" or something similar.. with all the varied menus, options, etc in alfa..I'm wondering if I go to the ECU section and set VIN there, if it'll carry over and branch to the ICS.. and set the VIN parameters in the modules due to its tree-like nature.. ? Idk anymore. Spent way too much time tracing wire, reading diagrams, pin-testing harnesses n connectors.. fuse checking.. and doing scans of the other bits that are integrated in the circuit that the hvac module resides..

Believe I lost my trane if thought regarding the intention of this post. But I needed to take a break, and vent a bit so I could reset myself haha.. anyone who has alfaOBD experience with 4th gen rams, experience in the ICS system, hvac and advanced features that this is tied into (which seem to include the sensors for auto-dim, auto high beam, auto rain-sensing wipers.. and a few other things) or anything of the sort? If so, I welcome aaany and all info, advice, experience, knowledge..anything helps right now. I'm coming to the point of accepting that a new or used module will be a necessary purchase.. over the past week prices have been dropping at least. Starting to find them near the $400 price range as opposed to the $600+ used and 900+ from Mopar, new.. but I'm curious what options I might have not tried yet, if there are any.. and if I'm in for more than that, since the automatic rain/lights/dim/etc are on the same line..and throwing fault codes as well. Really hoping that it's just due to the module, and with a new one, the rest in the series will act like they're supposed to.

Really wish Mopar/FCA would make this issue a recall, as the more I'm searching for specs, wiring and vcc info.. I'm finding this to be a rather widespread issue with the truck.. 4th gen AND 5th classics.. and seeing a wave of failures starting with the season change this year. Glitchy and buggy hard-button issues with the dual/auto hvac setup..boards failing.. some not even caused by obvious water damage..Although the cabins of these things do tend to have moisture issues.. thought it was just my 3 rams, and the crazy climate swings of Oklahoma.. but nah. Turns out it's sorta common outside of dry climate regions..

Enough of my ranting. It's back to the diagnostic tools, in a last ditch effort to save me a few hundred bucks..

OH! And if aaanyone happens to have a Mopar wiTECH2.0 subscription.. and would be willing to let me borrow the sign-in credentials for a day..You would be my hero. It would make short work of this whole deal.. plus I've been wanting to test-drive that system. I've seen it perform miracles haha-

Sorry for the long winded, possibly incoherent-at-times post. Anything helps at this point.
Love to the Ram Fam.
No other truck group compares.

And if you see me working the corner, don't judge me.. I'm just trying to afford parts for my truck-
XD

When I get a big swing in temps, I can find my front windshield soaked, and I have a 19 DT. Here now, I keep this lil goody sitting in the center console to assist with moisture: I end up refilling every 2 months more or less: