Started a case with RAM today - lemon law??

Do your heated seats stay on


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firemedic10584

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Well...Ram called me. They said since the dealer said there was no problem with the truck that there's nothing they could do and they're going to close the case. Absolutely unacceptable. I'm going to go back to the dealer hopefully today and go speak with them and see what we can come up with. If nothing else, I guess I'll have to maybe get a lawyer involved. This really sucks!
 

Hootbro

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Request an area rep to come out and look at it. With a copy of the owners manual in hand on the statement of operation, have them explain to you why they think it is normal in difference to the owners manual?

Dealerships are lazy and avoid problems like this because their troubleshoot rates for warranty reimbursement are next to nothing. They rather tell corporate FCA "it is normal" than deep dive the issue. Getting a area FCA rep involved can cut the ******** in-between stuff.
 
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firemedic10584

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Request an area rep to come out and look at it. With a copy of the owners manual in hand on the statement of operation, have them explain to you why they think it is normal in difference to the owners manual?

Dealerships are lazy and avoid problems like this because their troubleshoot rates for warranty reimbursement are next to nothing. They rather tell corporate FCA "it is normal" than deep dive the issue. Getting a area FCA rep involved can cut the ******** in-between stuff.
Yep. I just wrote my sales guy to see if he can get me in contact with that person for my area. If he cant do you know how I can locate that representative?
 
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firemedic10584

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I contacted my dealer. They contacted another dealer here locally who I guess might be the "boss" over this area, not sure. But anyway, they said they are looking into what we can do and to give them a few days. So, the wait continues.
 
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firemedic10584

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Here are the pages right out of the owners manual of how the heated seats should function.
 

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  • Owners Manual Heated Seats.pdf
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firemedic10584

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and in case any of you missed it. Here is the video I made showing what the seat does. You can see me turn it on and then less than 3 minutes later, they're completely off. No one was in the seat during this video but it does the same thing with someone in it also.

 

Kukailimoku

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I'm a tad upside down since I like to buy new vehicles often lol

Oh. Thx.
I'll be looking very late in the '19 model year or more likely in the '20 model year, is why I pee'd my pants when you said 50k and sport in same sentence. Thx for the clarification.
 
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firemedic10584

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Oh. Thx.
I'll be looking very late in the '19 model year or more likely in the '20 model year, is why I pee'd my pants when you said 50k and sport in same sentence. Thx for the clarification.
lol ya. If you can get a sport for around the low 40s out the door you're do pretty good in my opinion. The '19s may be different, but it just depends on the rebates and offers the dealer may have at the time.
 

Aaron Gilliam

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Just my two cents worth but you might want to ask people who are experiencing the same issue what their computer code is or the module for the heated seats part number is and compare. Also compare with the module for the ones with the limited that have the cooled and heated seats. It could be just a simple module that needs to be reprogrammed with the on and off times. I completely disagree with the people that are saying that it’s normal for to function that way. Why would the driver seat be normal but the passenger seat reach temperature faster than shut off sooner and not be as warm that does not make any sense. I would definitely. Get a list of trim levels put together and module numbers or part numbers of the heated seat module and see which ones are doing it and which ones aren’t. It may be just a simple module problem. Me being a programmer I can probably tell you it’s probably the firmware programmed into the heated seat module that’s incorrect values

So I've only had my new truck about 2 months now. 2018 1500 sport. I noticed that my passenger side heated seat turns completely off in about 3 minutes. Driver side functions as it should, although it does not get real warm. Anyways - I took the truck to the dealer today and got the magical response of "there's nothing we can do about it". So while at the dealer, I had my sales guy take me out to another 2018 model with heated seats only and that truck did the same thing. Passenger side shut down after 4 or 5 minutes. We tested a limited with cooled and heated seats and those functioned as they should. So, there's a defect somewhere. My question is, is this something that if they can not get it fixed, does it qualify for the lemon law? I expect my $50K truck to work as it should or at least be able to be fixed if an issue does arise. What do yall think?
 
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firemedic10584

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Just my two cents worth but you might want to ask people who are experiencing the same issue what their computer code is or the module for the heated seats part number is and compare. Also compare with the module for the ones with the limited that have the cooled and heated seats. It could be just a simple module that needs to be reprogrammed with the on and off times. I completely disagree with the people that are saying that it’s normal for to function that way. Why would the driver seat be normal but the passenger seat reach temperature faster than shut off sooner and not be as warm that does not make any sense. I would definitely. Get a list of trim levels put together and module numbers or part numbers of the heated seat module and see which ones are doing it and which ones aren’t. It may be just a simple module problem. Me being a programmer I can probably tell you it’s probably the firmware programmed into the heated seat module that’s incorrect values

I agree it's probably a software issue. However, another member on here is experiencing the same issue. His issue however began on the driver side and then switched to the passenger side. So, that being said - how would the programming some how change on his truck without him having any thing done to it by the dealer initially? I'm going to give it a couple days and see what my dealer says when they call me back. I'll be going up there Friday if I haven't heard back from them by then.
 

JohnnyMac

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Being an electronics tech, I naturally gravitate to circuit failure. If I had to put money on it, my bet would be that the thermistor that senses the temperature of the seat is faulty. Perhaps FCA got a bad batch, and the reason that the heated/cooled seats work better is probably because they have a different model thermistor that detects both heat & cold. I recall reading that someone on this thread had a new seat put in and had the same results, but who's to say that there aren't other bad sensors out there that have been installed in both trucks and spare seats and he just got (un)lucky and his new seat had one of the bad ones. You, yourself saw this in another truck on the lot and other's have reported similar issues in their trucks.
In regards to firmware, one other member had the problem it move to the other seat. I don't recall if that was in addition to the driver's seat or just moved and magically the driver's seat started working. If in addition, it would be easy to assume that the second thermistor failed as well, if it just moved, well that's a little harder to explain..... Either way, unless someone got into his PCM and changed the firmware, I can't see the passenger seat start failing (after previously working fine) because of a programming issue. It seems to me that it would have always been bad.

Just my 2 cents.
 
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firemedic10584

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No new news today. I'm going to see my dealer Friday to see what options we can come up with.
 

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So today I used my cooled seats it was like mid 80s out and the truck read in the 90s, I just realized it does the same thing my heated seats do - they will not stay on high for longer then say 5 mins before switching back to low.

I remote start the truck, its on high, pulling onto the freeway and looking down, im on low..... errrr ok.
 

GLucas

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The dealership had my truck for 6-8 wks. With the RAMCARE, 2 different dealerships Service mgrs, Area Rep, Chrysler engineering, and Mopar parts engineering all working on it. I brought it in with the Driver side not working. After all their efforts, switching out the seats, reprogramming and testing the system. The only differences now is the driver seat works as expected but the passenger side will not stay on for longer than 2mins. The Passenger seat is the most important! Now the BOSSES seat - my lovely wife’s seat doesn’t work. I got the heated seats for her.
SMH
Here is the link to my video that tells my story. - posted a few pages back. Sorry the video quality is not better.
I have about $50k ******* in this rig after I paid extra for the dealership to put a 6” lift on before I bought to protect the factory warranty.

They are trying to swap me out into another truck since these seat have whoop their a$$. Not sure how that is going to work out. I meet with them tomorrow. More to come...
Thx for all the support, ideas and suggestions. I have been so frustrated for the last 3 mo dealing with this. I hope it’s over soon.





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firemedic10584

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The dealership had my truck for 6-8 wks. With the RAMCARE, 2 different dealerships Service mgrs, Area Rep, Chrysler engineering, and Mopar parts engineering all working on it. I brought it in with the Driver side not working. After all their efforts, switching out the seats, reprogramming and testing the system. The only differences now is the driver seat works as expected but the passenger side will not stay on for longer than 2mins. The Passenger seat is the most important! Now the BOSSES seat - my lovely wife’s seat doesn’t work. I got the heated seats for her.
SMH
Here is the link to my video that tells my story. - posted a few pages back. Sorry the video quality is not better.
I have about $50k ******* in this rig after I paid extra for the dealership to put a 6” lift on before I bought to protect the factory warranty.

They are trying to swap me out into another truck since these seat have whoop their a$$. Not sure how that is going to work out. I meet with them tomorrow. More to come...
Thx for all the support, ideas and suggestions. I have been so frustrated for the last 3 mo dealing with this. I hope it’s over soon.





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I'm hoping that I can reference your case and avoid going through all the unnecessary steps you've already went through with my dealer. I'm meeting with them tomorrow to see what they have to say.
 
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firemedic10584

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@GLucas please keep us informed
I'm hoping however they solve his case, my dealer and RAM will just do the same for me. I'm pretty disappointed that even though I pointed out to my dealer another BRAND NEW truck on their lot is doing the same thing, they still have it for sale. I understand they can't take the hit on it, but you'd think they would be calling RAM and telling them to either fix these trucks or buy them back.
 

JB1

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I'm hoping however they solve his case, my dealer and RAM will just do the same for me. I'm pretty disappointed that even though I pointed out to my dealer another BRAND NEW truck on their lot is doing the same thing, they still have it for sale. I understand they can't take the hit on it, but you'd think they would be calling RAM and telling them to either fix these trucks or buy them back.

I’m just curious if all similarly equipped 2018 trucks have this same issue but some owners don’t know it’s a problem. There could be 1000’s like this so they aren’t going to do anything.
 
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firemedic10584

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I’m just curious if all similarly equipped 2018 trucks have this same issue but some owners don’t know it’s a problem.
I'd venture to say yes. As I mentioned, we tested another brand new truck on their lot and it too has the same issue. So I'd imagine a lot, if not all, 2018s with only the heated seats are having a similar issue.
 
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