Turned my 2016 Ram Sport in to a HYBRID!

[Burla]

If you look at chart again you see top region and bottom region don't really have averages, too many variables and credit AAA for not putting hard numbers compared to middle regions. As chart says, temperature is what kills batteries, both hot and cold, hot kills lifespan and cold kills capacity. You may have a battery still starting the truck at 58 months, but the capacity is likely deeply effected.

 

[Tab2016]

Some really great help on this site, I thank you all.

 

[09SilverRam]

Also get a AGM battery and get a battery tender plus 1.25-amp battery charger and maintainer, for when you aren't driving the truck for an extended period of time, it has a wire harness you can attach to your positive and negative battery connections, many on here use this with great results.
Also purchase a toaster style battery load tester a digital meter will not tell you the condition of the battery under a load.

Then zip tie the SAE connector for the battery leads into the grill so you can plug and unplug, or get an SAE bulkhead and install it in the fender well liner.

 

[Sherman Bird]

Testing means nothing, as you can see batteries will test fine but if cold their capacity is down to nothing. What some guys are doing is making h8 batteries fit their trays and then you have more capacity from day 1, which in theory will hold more capacity for longer. Hemi's need a lot of cold crank amps, so if a battery is 3-5 years it is likely to need another replacement. Some people get more, whatever good for them, a lot of variables, but after 5 years the battery is not on back 9 but rather one foot in the coffin.

Just because your battery lifespan is good, that doesn't mean you have enough cca to start a hemi. That is two different things, see capacity chart.



View attachment 555861

View attachment 555862

Great Graphics! Down here in these parts, I learned this lesson years ago. Battery CAPACITANCE is the gold standard for assessing the battery.
Just this past week, a young fella was referred my way by another shop. He had recently purchased a 1997 Mustang with a 5 speed manual and 3.8L V-6. His complaint wasn't cranking issues, but the fact that it took a long crank time to get it to start AND several OBD2 DTC's including O2 sensors and catalyst efficiency code. He also thought it needs a new clutch due to harsh chattery take-offs.

The FIRST thing I check on cars with drivability concerns is the battery, using a very sophisticated OTC battery tester. His capacitance was only 295 CCA on a 650 CCA battery which flagged "Bad Battery" in spite of the car's cranking cadence being perfectly normal and testing voltage over 12.4V! I also noticed the "greenies" in both cables, and the fix was a new battery (his battery had a 2019 date code on it) and to graft new pos and neg cables onto the existing ones. The DTC's haven't recurred as of yet.

The car started right up and the chatter in the clutch disappeared. Go figure!

 

[TorqueWagon]

Easy first question: has the battery need replaced? Before buying one, do a load test on the battery, not just a voltmeter reading. The battery could have good volts but weak amps and a good load test will tell you that.

If this all is good, the only way I finally found a draw on a prior vehicle was removing all fuses at night but one. Then two the next night, and so on. I'm the morning I would seat them all and try to start it. Finally found the circuit that was the problem. This is laborious, but it worked for me. Good luck.

Excellent methodical way to isolate the problem. You could accelerate the fuse pulling process by doing 1/2 the fuses the first night, then the other half the next night (if the fault wasn't in the first half), and continue isolating have the remaining fuses (1/2 of the remaining group at a time) until you find the one. (Binary search)

 

[JEPomer]

Thank you for your info. Yes, took to local garage and had battery tested ok

Once fully discharged, lead-acid batteries rapidly loose their ability to recharge to their "prime". If your battery has discharged to the "click-click-click" stage several times, keeping the battery on the charger may mask its real condition. The local garage may not have done a sufficient "stress check" battery test.

 

[KerryinTN]

Folks, there is a much easier way to find the suspect parasitic draw than to pull fuses and wait a day.

In the top of each fuse while it is installed, there are contact points for each leg. They are for testing voltage across and resistance across, without pulling out the fuse.

After you’ve turned off the truck and waited about 20 min for all of the electrical activity to sleep…with ANY simple multimeter set on DC volts, touch the + and - probe tips to each fuse in the fuse box. Wait a sec or two on each one to let it stabilize.

A sleeping circuit will show 0-0.1v. An active circuit will show 1 or more volts depending on the draw. Anything capable of drawing down the battery in a day or two will be like this.

Then take that same multimeter and move the red lead to the 10A position, set it to DC Amps mode, unhook the negative battery cable, and connect the leads across the battery cable to the battery post. This will measure the amp draw. (Might have to let it go back to sleep again when doing this)

Normal modern amp draws are 30mA-70mA while everything is sleeping. Above 100mA is suspect. Above 150mA is definitely a parasitic circuit. NOW pull the fuse of any that measured above 0.1v on the first test until the amp measurement drops to the .30-.70mA range, or pull each breaker one at a time until you find the drop. That will be your offending circuit.

Then see what it powers and isolate from there. Should take a couple hours, not days.

 

[VSJ2]

Check the under hood light. On my 2016 it was staying on all the time and would kill the battery in 2-3 days.

 

[Marshall]

I have went though that with the wife's Honda, They "tested?" the battery, still under warranty and said it tested good. A bunch of BS.
It was fine unless it sat for a week, then it needed a boost, I had checked it with amp meter couple times and just normal draw when asleep, I think it was 4ma
So I went to Canadian tire and peavey mart, both those places said the load test was 40% or so.
Bought a new battery ,Not from Honda, and its fine now. Honda used a new school tester, and they charged ne 35.00 for the test to test their battery in a car I bought new from them and a replacement battery. Last time I will deal with them. Rant over

My truck has never gave me any trouble and battery is old, but that's a different story,
BTW when testing battery draw, if a meter is hooked up to cable and battery post and held on while cable removed, the computers will not wake up as a rule. also make sure you don't have a under hood light on when testing. That battery chart is silly, according to that no one would be driving in Canada or northern states in the winter time.

 

[terry9999]

I have a 2020 RAM that needed a new battery after 36 months. The battery would go dead after 2-3 days of sitting. I had the battery tested at auto parts store, batter good. The dealer tested the battery, battery good. Problem kept recurring. So I put a new battery in, and the problem stopped. It's now been 11 months with the new battery and there have been zero problems. I'm in the sunny south

 

[Tab2016]

How long did your truck sit before it was a problem? Funny when I replaced Battery the one they sold me was a name I never heard of? and swear it felt lighter in weight. I have an insurance tracker thing that has a small LED light on all the time. It's a great thing as I only pay x per 1000 KM. I'm lucky to put on 2500 KM a year. I have watched you tube and way too many different things that suck power and goes for a dump in the trucks then others say its normal to kill battery after two weeks. I have not tried the temperature camera that some say works great for finding what's warm and using power.

 

[Tab2016]

Folks, there is a much easier way to find the suspect parasitic draw than to pull fuses and wait a day.

In the top of each fuse while it is installed, there are contact points for each leg. They are for testing voltage across and resistance across, without pulling out the fuse.

After you’ve turned off the truck and waited about 20 min for all of the electrical activity to sleep…with ANY simple multimeter set on DC volts, touch the + and - probe tips to each fuse in the fuse box. Wait a sec or two on each one to let it stabilize.

A sleeping circuit will show 0-0.1v. An active circuit will show 1 or more volts depending on the draw. Anything capable of drawing down the battery in a day or two will be like this.

Then take that same multimeter and move the red lead to the 10A position, set it to DC Amps mode, unhook the negative battery cable, and connect the leads across the battery cable to the battery post. This will measure the amp draw. (Might have to let it go back to sleep again when doing this)

Normal modern amp draws are 30mA-70mA while everything is sleeping. Above 100mA is suspect. Above 150mA is definitely a parasitic circuit. NOW pull the fuse of any that measured above 0.1v on the first test until the amp measurement drops to the .30-.70mA range, or pull each breaker one at a time until you find the drop. That will be your offending circuit.

Then see what it powers and isolate from there. Should take a couple hours, not days.

This is some great advice, thank you so very much.

 

[Sherman Bird]

How long did your truck sit before it was a problem? Funny when I replaced Battery the one they sold me was a name I never heard of? and swear it felt lighter in weight. I have an insurance tracker thing that has a small LED light on all the time. It's a great thing as I only pay x per 1000 KM. I'm lucky to put on 2500 KM a year. I have watched you tube and way too many different things that suck power and goes for a dump in the trucks then others say its normal to kill battery after two weeks. I have not tried the temperature camera that some say works great for finding what's warm and using power.

 

[62Blazer]

Somebody already mentioned it, but there are much quick and easier ways to test for a parasitic draw. Simply checking for voltage drop across each fuse will point you in the right direction. This only takes a few seconds per fuse, and you can go through the entire fuse block in a few minutes. You just have to make sure the truck is fully in "sleep" mode and none of the modules are still active. Watch some videos and do a little research on how to do that.
For any battery in at least reasonable health there should be no issues sitting 7-10 days. People leave their car at the airport all the time and go on multi-week vacations with no issues restarting the car afterwards. I the battery is in decent shape you do need to verify it's fully charged. If you do let it sit for 7-10 days and only start and run it for very short distances, it may never get fully charged back up. Especially if you start it up, drive 5 minutes to the store, turn it off, start it back up, etc.... The alternator never gets the battery fully charged. Also verify the alternator is charging correctly.

 

[Tab2016]

As far as gauge shows its charging ok. Voltage check was 14 volts so think it's good, but man is there ever a list of things people found that caused the draining of their battery's. An awful lot of ABS modules and even a sticking relay, radio modules, a real variety of things to give the same end results. Also like the mini amp probe one guy has unlike the full size one I have for larger amp draws. Mili amp draw amp probe can just clamp on battery terminal without disconnecting battery now that it's cold out and truck too big to fit in my garage lol I can't thank you guys enough for ideas and help with this problem. I have heard some guys got ***** at dealerships because they say nope, we can't find the problem but spent hours looking so hand over your first born and take your truck somewhere else!

 

[Sherman Bird]

As far as gauge shows its charging ok. Voltage check was 14 volts so think it's good, but man is there ever a list of things people found that caused the draining of their battery's. An awful lot of ABS modules and even a sticking relay, radio modules, a real variety of things to give the same end results. Also like the mini amp probe one guy has unlike the full size one I have for larger amp draws. Mili amp draw amp probe can just clamp on battery terminal without disconnecting battery now that it's cold out and truck too big to fit in my garage lol I can't thank you guys enough for ideas and help with this problem. I have heard some guys got ***** at dealerships because they say nope, we can't find the problem but spent hours looking so hand over your first born and take your truck somewhere else!

I wonder about the "Scruples and Ancestors" of the owners and/or owners of shops these days. Maybe I have too much pride/ego/ID or something, because If I tell you there is going to be a charge for my diagnostic time, then By GOD!, I'd darned sure better FIND the problem. IF I do NOT find the problem, then you get your car back NO CHARGE! GRATIS! GEE WHIZZ! What has happened that people are SO damned avaricious!? Maybe that's why I stay slammed busy.

 

[Tab2016]

Well Mr. Bird I also was a service tech for Sears Canada for 38 years and did a lot of moon lighting to pay for my race cars. I know enough to be dangerous with electricity and electronics but whenever I got a chance to run a test it always showed nothing wrong. Today's shops or most of the ones I know are all about making money and are not afraid to show it. My wife bought a KIA sole, great little car but every time we took in for an oil change it came back with a list of things they recommended to do. The best one was the brake pads were drying out and should be replaced? They lied about checking cylinder walls for ring damage as these cars are noted to blow up from improper oil rings. I had paint marked bolts before service as I have no trust in garages these days. Anyways sorry for my rambling, her car is 6 years old now with 40,000 KM and now do my own service. Whatever the problem is I have faith sooner or later I will catch what is drawing power and make the repair. I love the truck, and it is loaded with options and now with only 60,000 KMs and oiled twice a year I hate to get rid of it. I'm retired and now only use for moving trailers or boat to get some fishing in and I can live with plugging it in after use. Great bunch of guys here who don't have smart comments and really are here to help people with their problems.

 

[terry9999]

How long did your truck sit before it was a problem? Funny when I replaced Battery the one they sold me was a name I never heard of? and swear it felt lighter in weight. I have an insurance tracker thing that has a small LED light on all the time. It's a great thing as I only pay x per 1000 KM. I'm lucky to put on 2500 KM a year. I have watched you tube and way too many different things that suck power and goes for a dump in the trucks then others say its normal to kill battery after two weeks. I have not tried the temperature camera that some say works great for finding what's warm and using power.

My truck has been in daily use. occasionally it will sit for a weekend as I use my other cars, but usually not longer than 2 days. I heard during COVID a lot of bad batteries were made.