Dead Battery? Not so fast

[PJSisk]

Hi everyone. First post so go easy on the flaming.
I have a 2015 Ram 1500 Big Horn that seemingly had a bad battery. Everything was perfectly fine until yesterday. I was installing an OBD2 scanner in the port and connecting it to a tablet installed in the car. The OBD2 scanner was one of the cheap translucent blue ones found on Amazon. I figured I would try to see what they offer before sinking any real money in.

Anyway, I installed it in the morning, checked a few things on the tablet, (Torque). then went back into the house. I went back out to drive the truck about 4 hours later and the 1st thing I noticed is the remote start failed to start the vehicle. Once at the truck I opened the doors and noticed no lights came on, uh oh....I put the key fob in and tried to start it and nothing. Not even the clicking sound that us uninformed folk use to determine a dead battery. No lights on the dash, nothing. The only sign there was any power was when I turned the key to start it, the lights around the gear dial blinked all at once 1 time and then went out.

Tried to jump start the vehicle and let it sit for 30 minutes or until I saw the interior lights turn on, nothing. WTF!?!?!?!
I also noticed at this point that the overhead light on the interior of the hood was lit, even before connecting the charging cables..... interesting.

I was getting ready to head to the auto store to buy my new battery when I found a YouTube video explaining a similar scenario on a 2014 Ram. The guy on the video advised to try and just disconnect the battery for 20 seconds and reconnect to see what happens before spending money on a new battery. He advised that with new cars there are so many computers that manage different aspects of the vehicle it could just be a reset of sorts to them. Voila! It worked perfectly. I assume the removal of all power did, in fact, do a reset to the computers in the truck and that is what caused the seemingly dead battery issue.

My question is why? The only thing done was plug an OBD2 scanner into the port. I did leave it in the port when I was done yesterday morning but figured it would lose power when the key was out.

Any ideas on that last part?

Anyway, I figured I would post here in the event some other Ram owner runs into the similar issue.

Thanks for reading,
PJS

 

[stateofdade]

Honestly, the cheap ones are prone to problems. Spoken from experience. Haven't had that particular thing happen, but it's likely the cause.

Sent from my SM-G935U using Tapatalk

 

[turkeybird56]

My only thought is somewhere, somehow, when U hooked up the OBD with the tablet, something, maybe a short, something changed and computers did an OH NO, kinda like the Blue Screen of Death. NE One who has ever played with an older IBM clone knows what that screen is. Other than that? Hmmmmmmmmmm. Good thing to remember pulling cables, keep that in my toolbox, just saying. Thinking way outside the box...

Thanks for the post

 

[gofishn]

installed a OBD scanner and left it plugged in for hours... Connected OBD Scanner to a tablet which was Installed in the truck?
Everything was fine until . . .

My Advice, leave the thing alone, until it gives you problems.
Then, do not use cheap crap to fix it.

 

[RoadRamblerNJ]

installed a OBD scanner and left it plugged in for hours... Connected OBD Scanner to a tablet which was Installed in the truck?
Everything was fine until . . .

My Advice, leave the thing alone, until it gives you problems.
Then, do not use cheap crap to fix it.

There it is in a nutshell.
Kinda miss the days when you could tell if your truck was running right just by listening to it. And if it wasn't, you could tweak it and still be done before lunch.