Dealership has no idea what’s wrong - Help!

[Konrad]

I posted here once or twice already, but an interesting thing tonight. I'm sitting in my truck in my garage for about 10 minutes and four times I heard distinct switching noises coming from my dash. two of them were around the center and one of them was off on the passenger side. It almost sounds like what a CD sounds like when it loads in a player, but I don't have a CD player in my truck. My door shut there's no key nearby but I've heard it, as I said, a number of times. Anybody ever hear that before, and if so do you know what that is?

It's normal in modern cars / trucks loaded with electronics controlled by Can-bus. There are various systems switching to standby mode with delay, some other are arming themselves (like theft alarm etc). These modern trucks never sleep, even though they look like they do.


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[tron67j]

It's normal in modern cars / trucks loaded with electronics controlled by Can-bus. There are various systems switching to standby mode with delay, some other are arming themselves (like theft alarm etc). These modern trucks never sleep, even though they look like they do.


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Thanks. I am reading up on all of the electronics in the truck. One thing I don't yet understand is why it repeats the cycle multiple times. I'm sure there is a reason. But sharing here because it could be that the OPs system is recycling some heavy draw process over and over.

 

[tjkoen01]

I posted here once or twice already, but an interesting thing tonight. I'm sitting in my truck in my garage for about 10 minutes and four times I heard distinct switching noises coming from my dash. two of them were around the center and one of them was off on the passenger side. It almost sounds like what a CD sounds like when it loads in a player, but I don't have a CD player in my truck. My door shut there's no key nearby but I've heard it, as I said, a number of times. Anybody ever hear that before, and if so do you know what that is?

I’ve heard similar noises that were the HVAC system shutting down. I think it is the dampers going to their home position.


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[OCDTech]

Sitting in the parking lot while my wife goes into wal mart. Key off and out of the ignition ( like i'm not in the truck) about 5-10 minutes later i hear all the hvac motors having a party in the dash.

Drives me nuts to know it does this every time you leave the truck. Unnecessary wear.

 

[tron67j]

My concern is in the 10-15 minutes I was in there it happened 4 times. Why would they keep recycling? That's kind of a rhetorical question, it would need a technician to investigate.

 

[madtrucker2016]

Sending out for aftermarket equipment is something some dealers do, mainly because it’s cheaper than paying their own techs to do it.

That’s different though compared to actual diagnostic or warranty repairs. I know a lot of other techs at other dealers and I’d be willing to bet the amount of dealers subletting out actual repairs is fairly small. Probably more likely at small dealers.

OK my point it is done and nothing FCA can do unless they are informed about it

 

[ric221]

You might want to check your Radio fuse for current draw. Had a 10 that had a short in the Radio and would draw current even when the truck was off. Would kill the battery if the truck sat idle for more than two days.

 

[CVX20]

Ok this is old School on finding a parasitic draw with the engine off disconnect the Negative battery cable
I use a 12volt circuit tester with a light put the ground connector from your tester on the negative battery cable and put the needle from your tester on the negative battery post and if you have a draw the light will come on the tester open up one of the doors to check this the light will come on when you open the door then off when you close the door, this is saying you might have a hot to ground if the light is on continually.

Not accurate enough anymore.Hasn't been a valid test for 30+ years.

 

[Bob Hoops]

Our truck battery dies constantly. If the truck isn’t turned on/driven it will die completely within 4/5 days.

We’ve gotten 3 new batteries in the last year and this issue continues. We took it to two different dodge dealerships and they ran all electronic the tests, and cannot find anything draining our battery. The alarm also goes off randomly everyday! The dealership basically said there’s not much they can do since they ran all the tests. We have the lifetime warranty and cannot even use it, bc they can’t find the issue. So frustrating.

Has someone been through this? Please help us figure out the issue.. we don’t know what to do.

it’s a 2011 Ram 1500.

 

[Bob Hoops]

Our truck battery dies constantly. If the truck isn’t turned on/driven it will die completely within 4/5 days.

We’ve gotten 3 new batteries in the last year and this issue continues. We took it to two different dodge dealerships and they ran all electronic the tests, and cannot find anything draining our battery. The alarm also goes off randomly everyday! The dealership basically said there’s not much they can do since they ran all the tests. We have the lifetime warranty and cannot even use it, bc they can’t find the issue. So frustrating.

Has someone been through this? Please help us figure out the issue.. we don’t know what to do.

it’s a 2011 Ram 1500.

Do you have a Uconnect radio? I had a 2013 Chrysler 300. Battery died every couple of days. Current draw after everything cycled off was about 800 milli amps. Way too high! Should only be about 10 milli amps. Starting pulling fuses until until current draw dropped. It was the “RADIO” fuse. I didn’t want to spend the money to have the dealership troubleshoot it further so I wired in a relay for radio power that would shut off with the ignition. It caused an odd boot up problem with remote start but cleared up after a couple minutes. It could have been the radio itself but I suspected it was the body control module “BCM”. That is where all the switching and timers are located. You jump starting the truck could have easily caused damage to the IC’s on that very busy board. I have a 2017 Ram 3500 now that previous owner tried to install a 3rd brake light on a bed cap tapping into the drive side brake wiring causing damage to the BDC. Odd problem. When you hit the brakes with headlights on the passenger side headlight would go out. Took me a while to narrow it down but for $117 on eBay I found a used one. Not easy to swap out either. Buried under the dash. Point is, I’ve seen some odd problems caused by Body Control Module. Hope that helps.

 

[OLEJOE]

Bad diode in alternator.

 

[Yukonbill]

Our truck battery dies constantly. If the truck isn’t turned on/driven it will die completely within 4/5 days.

We’ve gotten 3 new batteries in the last year and this issue continues. We took it to two different dodge dealerships and they ran all electronic the tests, and cannot find anything draining our battery. The alarm also goes off randomly everyday! The dealership basically said there’s not much they can do since they ran all the tests. We have the lifetime warranty and cannot even use it, bc they can’t find the issue. So frustrating.

Has someone been through this? Please help us figure out the issue.. we don’t know what to do.

it’s a 2011 Ram 1500.

 

[Yukonbill]

I found bad diode in Alternator killing battery real quick. Not sure why dealer couldn’t isolate, unless issue is like a ghost, which, happens a lot. Hard to pin point problem when it doesn’t occur while testing. The dealers have the latest diagnostic tools available. The should be able to tap into body control module to perform test on systems. Let us know what the culprit was.

 

[Narg]

Vehicles today are so electrical/electronic laiden, seems there's more chance of this now than ever. However, these computers are smarter than ever too, so a vehicle should be able to tell you where a problem like this is. (key word "should") If it's not finding it, then likely it's an aftermarket part that the computer can't see/diagnose. Anyway, my 0.00002 cents worth.

 

[Tach_tech]

Vehicles today are so electrical/electronic laiden, seems there's more chance of this now than ever. However, these computers are smarter than ever too, so a vehicle should be able to tell you where a problem like this is. (key word "should") If it's not finding it, then likely it's an aftermarket part that the computer can't see/diagnose. Anyway, my 0.00002 cents worth.

I found bad diode in Alternator killing battery real quick. Not sure why dealer couldn’t isolate, unless issue is like a ghost, which, happens a lot. Hard to pin point problem when it doesn’t occur while testing. The dealers have the latest diagnostic tools available. The should be able to tap into body control module to perform test on systems. Let us know what the culprit was.

When it comes to a parasitic draw the scan tool and modules can’t really help you. They’re smart but not that smart. You also can’t have a scan tool hooked up when performing a draw test as it will keep the bus awake which will not allow all the modules to go to sleep which will increase and invalidate any draw numbers you get.

It really comes down to experience and a good meter. If a shop has something like a pico or other scope, you can leave a draw test going for hours and possibly find a module intermittently waking up causing excessive draw.

 

[Scrounger]

Have you put a new radio or such as in ?

 

[Sherman Bird]

Our truck battery dies constantly. If the truck isn’t turned on/driven it will die completely within 4/5 days.

We’ve gotten 3 new batteries in the last year and this issue continues. We took it to two different dodge dealerships and they ran all electronic the tests, and cannot find anything draining our battery. The alarm also goes off randomly everyday! The dealership basically said there’s not much they can do since they ran all the tests. We have the lifetime warranty and cannot even use it, bc they can’t find the issue. So frustrating.

Has someone been through this? Please help us figure out the issue.. we don’t know what to do.

it’s a 2011 Ram 1500.

Remove the positive battery cable. Install a DVOM in series between the cable and battery and select amps. Note the draw. If it exceeds 200 mA, take one fuse at a time out until the draw disappears. When you find the one which causes the draw, obtain a wiring diagram and trace all the circuits which that fuse protects.

You might also consider if you have cell phone chargers in power outlets. Sometimes, the el-cheapo ones can drain a battery over about a week.

 

[scott lass 18]

Our truck battery dies constantly. If the truck isn’t turned on/driven it will die completely within 4/5 days.

We’ve gotten 3 new batteries in the last year and this issue continues. We took it to two different dodge dealerships and they ran all electronic the tests, and cannot find anything draining our battery. The alarm also goes off randomly everyday! The dealership basically said there’s not much they can do since they ran all the tests. We have the lifetime warranty and cannot even use it, bc they can’t find the issue. So frustrating.

Has someone been through this? Please help us figure out the issue.. we don’t know what to do.

it’s a 2011 Ram 1500.

mine turn out to be a bad sensor and the pin switch on the hood some times turn off alarm and then turn on check it out ?

 

[Vmd2011]

Thanks for your feedback everyone.

We asked some friends and they recommended a great mechanic. Within an hour an a half he found the issue! We had an after-market gps tracking thing on our truck when we bought it. We actually forgot it was even there.. anyways he said it was malfunctioning and causing the draw.

We cannot believe 2 different dealerships couldn’t solve this issue for us!

 

[CVX20]

Out of 10 techs you'd be lucky to get 3 that are real good at this even at the dealerships.Been there.