Okay so here's the scoop. My battery of 7 1/2 years finally died the other week. I went and got another battery and put it in the tuck. Started up fine, at about 10mph all the ABS lights came on. I took it to the dealer. $989 dollars later they told me that Dodge engineering had come back and said my truck thinks it has a diesel transmission in it. It's funny because my truck is an 09 and was not even manufactured when Dodge had a diesel option. They said that the only way this could happen is if I hooked up a Dodge diesel TIPM to my truck (Which is ridiculous and obviously I did not). They said the only way to fix the issue was to buy a new TIPM and instrument cluster at a cost of around $2500 + labour. If nobody on here has a solution for either reprogramming my truck to think that it's a 1500 Larime 5.7L instead of a Liberty or an eco diesel then after 20 plus years as a Dodge enthusiast I'm sorry to say I'll be done with the brand. I'm used to normal maintenance and I'm not new to regular problems but being told I'm into it for now $3500 plus labour to replace a battery ($240 for the battery not included) is ludicrous. If anyone has an 2009 Ram for the love of God do not replace the battery!!! Anyone have any ideas how to tell my Ram it has a Ram transmission instead of the eco diesel or Liberty transmission it now thinks it has without buying a new Ram?
Thanks. :-(
I had a very similar problem... read below to see what happened to me!!
I had a 2006 1500 Quad Cab 4x4 5.7L Hemi that i bought on 9/19/16 with 176k miles on it. The sticker price was $13k but I ended up paying $8,700 cash for it. In the 3 months I owned it, I only drove it 3k miles, and I had already repaired the passenger side valve cover gasket, all 16 spark plugs, fuel pump, fuel pump gasket, evap canister, rear pinion seal and not to mention I put about $2k worth of mods into it.
Fast forward to the end of November and my passenger low beam stopped working. I changed the bulb. Nothing. So I changed the bulb again, with another new one hoping the new bulb i had bought was bad... no luck.
So I break out the multimeter. The low beam wire has power going to the trucks h13 plug harness right where the bulb goes into. (I had Spyder aftermarket headlights. They used 2 bulbs, an H1 for high and an H1 for low with a splitter that joined into a h13 plug to plug into my trucks harness). Anyways, I tested the low beam wires right at the trucks h13 plug; it had the proper power on the trucks side, but when I tested the low beam wire at the spyder's H13 plug it had no power. I figured it was a bad headlight assembly from Spyder (alot of people say ebay lights are garbage so I figured this was it). So i called the company I bought the lights from, DT Moto, and told them what was going on and they sent me out an entirely new passenger side headlight assembly, which was SUPER cool of them. (A+++ Customer Service to eBay company DT Moto!!!)
Guess what? Didn't work. I was stumped. Fast forward about 2 weeks and it was 12/09/16 and I was due for my very first oil change since buying my truck. So I brought it to the dealer and asked them to diagnose the low beam issue and while they were at it, to diagnose why the heat in my truck was semi-warm on the passenger side, but ice cold on the driverside, even at full running temp. Also made note of my radiator making "bubbling" noises one time when I turned it off and walked by after a 30 minute drive.
Diagnosis? 9 internal failures in the TIPM, all related to the electrical/lighting system, with all of them inactive except the passenger low beam, and right rear brake light, which were active and not working. They told me resetting my TIPM was not an option. Total replacement. $900+ just for the TIPM, then add labor.
It got even worse!! Then they tell me my heater core is bad and I need a new one!!! 8-10hrs of labor, + parts. I was looking at atleast $2,554 in repairs, before anything else that might turn up while repairing the TIPM and Heater Core.
So before I shelled out close to $3k or more, I walked down to the showroom to see if there was any good deals for a new Ram or a lightly used one. I ended up test driving 3 Rams; a 15' QCSB Express 6cyl 8spd 2wd with 31k miles for $21.5k. A 15' QCSB 4x4 Tradesman 5.7l Hemi, 8spd, 3.92's, fully loaded... I mean fully, for $24.5k. And a 12' RCSB Express ST 5.7L Hemi, 3.55's, K&N 63 series Intake, Flowmasters Dual Exhaust, Spray-On Line-X Bed Liner, Lund Tonneau Cover, 32k miles, for $19,900.
Before I even mentioned my trade, or cash down, I got them down to $16,100 on the 2012 RCSB, it's KBB & NADA Retail value is $19,990. I ended up getting $8,600 for my 06 1500 QCSB (I paid $8,700 for it 3 months earlier, so not bad at all considering they knew about the TIPM & Heater Core). Then I threw down the $2.5k I was going to spend repairing my 06 and that left only $5k left of the original $16,100 price. My aunt was with me, long story short she works for the company that owns the dealership so they gave me her employee discount; another $1k off. So now I only have to pay $4k for the 2012 Ram with 32k miles.
On top of all that, I told them the only way I would do the deal was if they swapped the rims on the 12' with my rims on my 06 (ATX Justice 20x9 w/ Cooper Zeon LTZ XL Series 275/60R20 tires) and that I also wanted the Premium, top of the line bumper-to-bumper extended warrenty. They said the wheels could be done, but the warrenty, they couldn't do. It was a $3,750 warrenty package. I told them ok, we'll it was nice talking to ya, I'm going to try my luck elsewhere. (I had no choice, my other truck was completely broken, but the salesman didn't know this). So as I started to leave the used car manager came over to me and said he could do it, but only because my aunt was an employee of the main company.
So after the $4k, tax+title+tags and finance fees, I ended up with a payment of $160/month for 38 months for a total of $6,080. Not bad considering I paid $8,700 for my truck 3 months prior, they gave me $8,600 for my truck, which needed some serious repairs, to the point that if I sold it privately as-is, I would have been lucky to get $4k- $5k.
Long story short; I got a Flame RED 2012 Ram 1500 Express ST RCSB with 32k miles in mint condition and it came with the upgraded EVIC, 355's, K&N 63 Series intake, Flowmasters Dual Exhaust, Lund Tonneau Cover, Spray-On Line-X Bed Liner and a few other factory upgrades and the $3,750 5yr/100k "Platinum" Bumper-To-Bumper Extended Warrenty for free!! Plus I got to keep my 2 week old Wheel/Tire combo, all for $160/month for 38 months totaling $6,080.
Moral of the story.... sometimes a really crappy situation can turn into a blessing in disguise. I went to the dealership depressed, with $3k cash in my pocket ready to fix my truck, but instead I got rid of a truck falling apart, for an almost brand new truck with a 5yr/100k warrenty for $160/month for 38 months.
And, of course, my 06 I ended up trading in.
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