When to replace the underhood battery when you have the etorque system?

[Sherman Bird]

Yup. Mfg brochures say 3-5 yrs for flooded. Wide range cause they can't know where they're used, how they're used, and if they're abused!

I generally change flooded @ 4 yrs, regardless of load test results. You're generally on borrowed time by then, even if you've been nice to your battery, keeping it charged, not in a hot climate, etc. Because nobody wants to be dead in the water away from home. Yeah, yeah, there are start devices, but it may not get you home.

AGM's are odd beasts, I'm experimenting with them. Originally for long running trolling motors on boats, they're everywhere now. Their charge profiles are quite different than flooded. Many powersports machines use them now. Snowmobiles and motorcycles for sure.

Years ago, I owned a 1990 GMC Suburban. I bought it on October, 1998 with 116,000 miles on it... got it for a song, and it was cherry.
I had to replace the battery in 2001 with a new one.... a GOLD whatever from Auto Zone.

Along about 2008, I was commenting to a friend that my battery was still going strong and was 7 years old. I should have kept my mouth shut. I loaned the Suburban to my Sister in law while her car was in my shop... and you guessed it! The battery failed THAT night! Go figure!

 

[mikeru]

Years ago, I owned a 1990 GMC Suburban. I bought it on October, 1998 with 116,000 miles on it... got it for a song, and it was cherry.
I had to replace the battery in 2001 with a new one.... a GOLD whatever from Auto Zone.

Along about 2008, I was commenting to a friend that my battery was still going strong and was 7 years old. I should have kept my mouth shut. I loaned the Suburban to my Sister in law while her car was in my shop... and you guessed it! The battery failed THAT night! Go figure!

Should have knocked on wood LOL.
The longest I have seen a battery last was 12 years. I used to own a 2006 Pathfinder that I bought used in 2020. In 2023 I had to replace the battery. When removing the it I noticed that it was installed in 2011. It was an Everstart (Walmart) battery LOL.

 

[Hardracer]

I think the battery in my 88 Dakota went about 9 years if i remember right,....but then again I suffer from CRS syndrome...lol

 

[mikeru]

As I’ve been saying for years, CRS is real!

 

[Hardracer]

Oh its real....ask my wife of 34 years.or was it 33?...cant remember....

 

[brental1]

I have a 24 with Etorque. If you underhood 12v battery is at 12.0v then the battery is shot. Your 12v battery has a 1yr warranty according to Ram. My 2018 went bad in under 3 years and I did drain it once due to a dash cam being left on and I was able to bring it back but I know thats what killed it. You can get battery chargers that have repair modes to help bring them back but more than likely like my 18 your just buying time/extending the inevitable as the damage is done already. If your vehicle is sitting for more than 2 weeks put it on a tender no if and or buts. These trucks have a ton of electronics on all the time that kill them. When I brought mine back it was less than 1 yr old but it seemed fine, within a year I could feel the cold starts not sounding as peppy and then it died within a year and half out of no where. I luckily had a lithium jump pack in the truck. Take it to ram see if they will replace it if its less than 1 yr. If they give you a hard time get a aftermarket 3-4 yr warranty AGM or similar and don't worry about it. I've been running LifePo4's in my fun cars for years but these new cars are very sensitive to battery voltage which LifePo4 have 13.1v sitting and crank ALOT faster.

I felt like I was in the twilight zone today. My 2022 3.6 with eTorque has been slow cranking the last few days. This morning it was dead as a door nail. Made an appointment with the dealer (since the truck is still under warranty). Jumped the truck; it started. Parking brake would not release because battery voltage was showing around 9.5 volts. Called the dealer. Asked if I could just bring the battery in. Because it was showing only 9.5 V, the dealer said I'd have to tow the truck in. They said I had probably blown a fuse (forget what they called it) in the PCM. The engine was running rough and finally died. I tried started it again without jumping, and to my surprise it started and immediately the gauge showed 14.4 volts. Was able to release the parking brake and drive to the dealer. The rep wrote up my story and then said it would be $254 to start. I asked about warranty. He had assumed (without checking) that since it's a 22 it was out of warranty. I bought the truck late in the MY. $254 was scratched out. About 4 hours later, I was called and thold they had replaced the 12V. I asked what took so long. Apparently, Stellantis makes them go through several tests/routines before declaring the battery as bad. There were errors on every control module because of the 9.5 low voltage. But, after all the errors were cleared, they told me there are no other problems with the truck. I'm still puzzled why the battery went to 9.5 volts after the engine was running. The good news is that the battery was free, covered under 3 year B to B warranty. I asked if the warranty on the battery would restart; but the advisor said it's only guaranteed through the original 3 years (2 more months for me). Anyway, hopefully it will last 3-4 years and I'll buy a WalMart battery at that time.

 

[Sherman Bird]

I felt like I was in the twilight zone today. My 2022 3.6 with eTorque has been slow cranking the last few days. This morning it was dead as a door nail. Made an appointment with the dealer (since the truck is still under warranty). Jumped the truck; it started. Parking brake would not release because battery voltage was showing around 9.5 volts. Called the dealer. Asked if I could just bring the battery in. Because it was showing only 9.5 V, the dealer said I'd have to tow the truck in. They said I had probably blown a fuse (forget what they called it) in the PCM. The engine was running rough and finally died. I tried started it again without jumping, and to my surprise it started and immediately the gauge showed 14.4 volts. Was able to release the parking brake and drive to the dealer. The rep wrote up my story and then said it would be $254 to start. I asked about warranty. He had assumed (without checking) that since it's a 22 it was out of warranty. I bought the truck late in the MY. $254 was scratched out. About 4 hours later, I was called and thold they had replaced the 12V. I asked what took so long. Apparently, Stellantis makes them go through several tests/routines before declaring the battery as bad. There were errors on every control module because of the 9.5 low voltage. But, after all the errors were cleared, they told me there are no other problems with the truck. I'm still puzzled why the battery went to 9.5 volts after the engine was running. The good news is that the battery was free, covered under 3 year B to B warranty. I asked if the warranty on the battery would restart; but the advisor said it's only guaranteed through the original 3 years (2 more months for me). Anyway, hopefully it will last 3-4 years and I'll buy a WalMart battery at that time.

I'm not sure with FCA/Stellantis; but I can share this about another Asian car line.... It has a monitor in the fuse block which feeds the PCM and other modules with current and voltage reports.
Inasmuch as these cars are CAN/BUS, it stands to reason why other modules latch on to this problem and flag the dreaded "U" codes of loss of communication.

 

[British Bulldog]

my wife’s Kia hybrid has a 12v battery for engine starts etc and as we are going away I asked about the large “ motion battery” tending for a long period of storage…..that should be good. But I ALSO learnt that IF the 12v fails you can do a battery reset with a button in the cab( which I didn’t know about) that basically gives you a jump start from the cars “motion battery”
What a brilliant idea! Just what the etorque could benefit from. (As someone already said lol)

 

[Grams]

I had to explain it to my wife thusly:
If all you want to do is water the potted-plants (light the dome light)…. low water pressure (volts) is fine to deliver a gallon (amp) of water.
But if you want to put out the campfire (perform actual Work such as start an engine)…..you’ll need more pressure (volts) and more gallons (amps) to do the Work ( gallons per minute at pressure / Watts).

My Mom once told me she thought she had a problem with her battery….. because it no longer started her car…. that when she turned the key…all the battery did was “growl”. (starter-solenoid-rattled)

My wife knows that if she can’t turn on the headlights and blow the horn without the headlights dimming….. the battery is getting weak and she should tell me about it.
(but not mention the little exclamation-point on the dash that’s been illuminated for a week now……let me discover that on my own.)

 

[Sherman Bird]

I had to explain it to my wife thusly:
If all you want to do is water the potted-plants (light the dome light)…. low water pressure (volts) is fine to deliver a gallon (amp) of water.
But if you want to put out the campfire (perform actual Work such as start an engine)…..you’ll need more pressure (volts) and more gallons (amps) to do the Work ( gallons per minute at pressure / Watts).

My Mom once told me she thought she had a problem with her battery….. because it no longer started her car…. that when she turned the key…all the battery did was “growl”. (starter-solenoid-rattled)

My wife know that if she can’t turn on the headlights and blow the horn without the headlights dimming….. the battery is getting weak and she should tell me about it.
(but not mention the little exclamation-point on the dash that’s been illuminated for a week now……let me discover that on my own.)

Reminds me of my ex. I usually didn't drive her car. One day I was working on my car and needed a part. I grabbed my set of keys and took off in her car. When I hit the brakes, the metal to metal growl of the brakes shook the car.... uh, yeah!
I asked her why she didn't mention this noise to me. She said she could drown the noise by turning up thw volume on the radio!

 

[Wild one]

Reminds me of my ex. I usually didn't drive her car. One day I was working on my car and needed a part. I grabbed my set of keys and took off in her car. When I hit the brakes, the metal to metal growl of the brakes shook the car.... uh, yeah!
I asked her why she didn't mention this noise to me. She said she could drown the noise by turning up thw volume on the radio!

Did she spend some time in the oil patch in her younger days,as turning up the radio is the fix for fixing everything ,

 

[Sandevino]

My factory battery lasted 2 years and 2 months before it fell flat and wouldn’t hold a charge.

 

[blackbetty14]

I felt like I was in the twilight zone today. My 2022 3.6 with eTorque has been slow cranking the last few days. This morning it was dead as a door nail. Made an appointment with the dealer (since the truck is still under warranty). Jumped the truck; it started. Parking brake would not release because battery voltage was showing around 9.5 volts. Called the dealer. Asked if I could just bring the battery in. Because it was showing only 9.5 V, the dealer said I'd have to tow the truck in. They said I had probably blown a fuse (forget what they called it) in the PCM. The engine was running rough and finally died. I tried started it again without jumping, and to my surprise it started and immediately the gauge showed 14.4 volts. Was able to release the parking brake and drive to the dealer. The rep wrote up my story and then said it would be $254 to start. I asked about warranty. He had assumed (without checking) that since it's a 22 it was out of warranty. I bought the truck late in the MY. $254 was scratched out. About 4 hours later, I was called and thold they had replaced the 12V. I asked what took so long. Apparently, Stellantis makes them go through several tests/routines before declaring the battery as bad. There were errors on every control module because of the 9.5 low voltage. But, after all the errors were cleared, they told me there are no other problems with the truck. I'm still puzzled why the battery went to 9.5 volts after the engine was running. The good news is that the battery was free, covered under 3 year B to B warranty. I asked if the warranty on the battery would restart; but the advisor said it's only guaranteed through the original 3 years (2 more months for me). Anyway, hopefully it will last 3-4 years and I'll buy a WalMart battery at that time.

If the battery went to 9.5v after running the something was going on with your etorque system. The etorque generator aka alternator charges 48v to large battery in the back seat and that has a 48v to 12v converter to charge the 12v under the hood. Common issue with the etorque battery is that the DC to DC converter takes a dump and leaves you stranded bc the hood battery can’t charge. I’m surprised they replaced your battery honestly lucky you.