Dash lights draining the batterry.

[Rob Bunnett]

2014 Ram 2500 dash lights not staying in sleep mode. Also the antitheft is enabling at random times and honking the horn.I have pulled the horn fuse and manually lock the doors to prevent the antitheft from draining the battery which seems to take place in the middle of the night. Now the dash lights are cycling on and off after the exiting the truck and drains the battery overnight. I have also noticed my remote start is being disabled due to the " Hood Open" even though the hood is closed.
I have read several forums related to the same issues and spent hours going through wiring harnesses and checking for water and moisture and no problems found. I did find that if I popped the hood and left it adjar the dash lights will now stay in the sleep mode and when I set the antitheft with the key fob the horn no longer randomly honks . The truck is out of warranty some I am trying to avoid the dealer. Looks like I can replace the hood latch assembly but has anyone else had a similar issue and resolved it with a new hood latch replacement?

 

[NJMOPAR]

Try disconnecting the plug at the hood latch and close it.
If it behaves normally that's your problem.

 

[Rob Bunnett]

Unplugged the hood latch and so far so good, going to monitor but looks like a bad hood latch switch. Ordered the hood latch through Mopar online hopefully its available.


Update. Installed the new hood latch and the remote start now functions normally, dash lights go off and stay off and the ant-theft is working normal again.
The micro switch in the original hood latch assembly was cracked in a few places, suspect it was leaking voltage to ground. The new hood latch has resolved the issues.