INFAMOUS Red Lightning Bolt - but disconnected the battery!?

[ERS_85]

Greetings all!
Today something strange happened. I fired up my daily driver 2012 Ram 2500 ST w/Hemi 5.7….it idled for 2 minutes or so then I placed in drive. The second I put some pressure on accelerator pedal, the engine sputtered and died, red lightning bolt illuminated. Could not restart (just clicked like battery was low/dead)….all lights on dash and the info screen flickered and faded away, and the needles for rpm, speed, etc were all “twitching” slightly.

This happened once before while I was driving. Shop ended up replacing the engine ECM. Initially thought it was bad TPS in the gas pedal but replacing it did nothing. That was a few months ago.

Flash forward to today. After I found I could not restart the truck, I disconnected the batter negative cable from the battery for a few seconds. Reconnected it and made sure it was clamped on tight.
I went to start the truck again and this time it fired right up, no problems, no check engine lights or other error/warning lights remained illuminated - all was well.
Drove it around, romped on the gas and truck ran fine.

Why did disconnecting the batt negative resolve this?
Indicate I may need new battery or have a grounding issue?
(Plenty of red lightning bolt threads out there but I couldn’t find one like this)

Help is appreciated. I’m guessing this is a very temporary fix.
Thanks!

 

[MikeT]

Clean the battery terminals, tighten them very well. Check/clean/tighten all grounds (you will be surprised by what gets magically gets fixed by cleaning and tightening grounds). I think about load testing the battery while I'm at it.

Mike

 

[jws123]

like mentioned above load test battery test alternator clean terminals ect def not a pcm issue they dont really fail its a connection issue.

 

[ERS_85]

Right on! Thanks for the replies!! I’ve read some grounding threads and sounds like there may be a couple connections that are impossible to access?
Obviously the one connecting the batt neg to the truck is easy enough.

Not sure when the battery was replaced last but will test and just plan on grabbing a new one for good measure.

I did notice a small bit of corrosion on the cable connections (clamps) when disconnecting the battery the first time.

Appreciate the feedback!

 

[GTyankee]

just a reminder
always disconnect the Negative Battery post first
Reconnect the Negative Post Last

 

[Dean2]

In addition to the great advice above, open fuse box (TIPM), press down GENTLY on every fuse. Bet a bunch aren't fully seated.

 

[RamDiver]

You can de-mystify the battery as a potential fault with a simple and low-cost digital multimeter.

They have endless uses for anyone but especially when they drive a rolling micro-computer.

As previously mentioned, a battery load test is always advisable whenever a potential battery fault is indicated. Most auto parts stores will perform a free test.

Another low-cost item to own is a battery post/clamp cleaner. They make regular cleaning easy and produce consistently great results.

When you pick up a post cleaner, get a small tube of dielectric grease. After cleaning both posts & clamps, just rub on a tiny amount to leave a small film of grease.

 

[GTyankee]

when he mentioned TINY AMOUNT
he means, an amount similar to how much LIP BALM, that you would use on your lips