Ram Jon
Junior Member
I have had my 2012 Ram 1500 Express 4x4 Crew cab for almost 5 years. It has been a great truck. Recently I have had it parked for days at a time and the battery would end up dead. The battery is an EverStart from Walmart that is only 6-8 months old. I took it back and they charged it and tested it and said it was good (I also took it to O'Reillys to verify this) Anyway, after the truck had gone to "sleep", we tested the Amp draw and it would cycle from 0.238 to 1.090 Amps and then back down to 0.238. This is still too high. I have read that 0.044 is the Amp draw the Ram dealer said was normal. We pulled fuses for the radio, TPMS, and instrument cluster. It ended up being the M20 fuse for the "Instrument Cluster Interior Lighting / Sw Steering Wheel/ Sw Bank". When we pulled this fuse it ended up staying in the 0.010 range constantly.
I found a video of a guy changing out the cluster on a 2012 and the dome lights turned off when he unplugged the cluster, so the dome lights are controlled thru the cluster. When we pulled this fuse, the dome lights quit when I opened the door.
So after several hours of testing, my question is...
Has anyone experienced a similar problem and replaced the cluster? Did it help?
I am finding used clusters (out of wrecked trucks) for less than $200 on Ebay and new ones for $400-500 ,but will have to have them set up by the dealer or "cloned" by some technician to my mileage.
I found a video of a guy changing out the cluster on a 2012 and the dome lights turned off when he unplugged the cluster, so the dome lights are controlled thru the cluster. When we pulled this fuse, the dome lights quit when I opened the door.
So after several hours of testing, my question is...
Has anyone experienced a similar problem and replaced the cluster? Did it help?
I am finding used clusters (out of wrecked trucks) for less than $200 on Ebay and new ones for $400-500 ,but will have to have them set up by the dealer or "cloned" by some technician to my mileage.
