Frustrated!

[bob1340]

2018 Big Horn 1500. 27, 500 miles.
Back months ago my 8.4 screen started that de-lamination thing. I have the extended warranty so I took it in to fix it. They installed a new radio. All was good for a month or so then the radio worked intermittently for a while then went into complete fail. Just keeps booting up. Took it in again and they put radio #2 in after I waited for a 2-3 week period to get it ordered. They gave me the truck back and said the radio is in but the control panel is no good. I waited 3-4 weeks for the control panel. During this time everything went haywire. Lights flashing. The radio would just keep trying to boot. No way to shut it off. Even with the truck locked up the radio would intermittently try to boot up. Occasionally the windshield wipers would come on super slow (truck locked key in pocket!) I mean like 30 seconds for one stroke of the wipers. And of course it has a major drain on the battery at all times. I have to disconnect the battery cables or the battery (new) will go dead in a couple hours. I get a fairly impressive light show arc when I pull it off. So I go back to the dealer and they put in a control panel. Then they find out the new radio is shot to hell. They told me take it home as it'll take weeks to get the radio. I suspect the control panel went out on the 10 mile drive home as the battery went flat after being parked a short while.
So this has been a months long saga now. I'm fairly certain the new radio they will put i next week won't work, they will order a new control panel and install it sometime in November and the whole process will start again.

Any advice or suggestions? I suppose I can take it to another dealer but I honestly don't trust driving the truck now.

 

[bob1340]

BTW, I've had Dodge/Ram trucks continuously since November 1974. I am a good wrench but a lousy computer/tech geek.

1975 W100 Power wagon. 140K miles and only breakdown was the front dual cardan shaft.
1974 250 club cab. Went well over 175K miles with very little issues.
And on and on. I hate driving a computer.

 

[Augiedoggy]

cant you just unplug the radio connector? I mean I upgraded my 2015 from the dumb radio to the 8.4 model and dash cluster I got from a wrecked 2017 but the truck worked fine with the stock plain jane radio and cheaper low feature dash cluster so...

I got a stock mid model radio and dash cluster I can sell you cheap... same radio they still sell in the newer gen3 ecodiesel its got the bezel as well.. You do need to change a wiring harness to the heater control box though. I found videos on youtube when upgrading mine.

 

[bob1340]

cant you just unplug the radio connector? I mean I upgraded my 2015 from the dumb radio to the 8.4 model and dash cluster I got from a wrecked 2017 but the truck worked fine with the stock plain jane radio and cheaper low feature dash cluster so...

I got a stock mid model radio and dash cluster I can sell you cheap... same radio they still sell in the newer gen3 ecodiesel its got the bezel as well.. You do need to change a wiring harness to the heater control box though. I found videos on youtube when upgrading mine.

It is on an extended warranty $200 deductible per job. This "job" has been on going for months so I'm going the make them fix it. My wager is it's not in the radio or control panel. It is something else causing the control panel and radio to go out. Since September I've gone through 3 radios and 2 control panels. I spoke with them yesterday and said it's time they got off their butts and fixed it. I know for sure it has a major battery drain. I know all new vehicles have a small amount of battery drainage while parked. This drainage will drop the battery from 13.5-14 volts to around 8 volts in 6 hours. The arcing from removing the cable is substantial. The battery is fairly new and has been checked out. On top of the positive connector there are 2 gizmos attached. Not sure what they do but I assume they are circuit breakers. The forward one it very hot to the touch.

 

[Augiedoggy]

I was just offering an answer to your question on what you can do other than taking it to another dealer..
You can try an independent shop I guess but I the useless warranty wont help there either.. Or you can pick up a multimeter and look for the source of the current draw since you seem to already have found the source ill do a quick google search and see what your describing is for.

 

[Augiedoggy]

does your hot battery connections look like any of these? is it the power steering connector thats hot?

 

[bob1340]

does your hot battery connections look like any of these? is it the power steering connector thats hot?

Yes, mine looks just like that. The alternator/starter fuse is what gets hot, sometimes. Not always though. The battery does charge up to around 14 volts. (I did have the newer battery checked out by a very reputable battery shop and it is good) I can leave the cable on and after around 5-6 hours it gets down to around 8 volts and won't start, Key out of truck and all locked up the cargo light over the rear window comes on intermittently. And of course the radio tries to boot up. In my minds eye there is something really wrong with that, Been waiting for radio #3 for 3 weeks now. I know they'll put the new radio in and it won't work. Then I'll chance a visit to another dealer. Both places I can go are over 100 mile trips. That sort of spooks me. LOL I have zero faith my local shop can fix it. It would seem they can hook up some computer gizmo and it'd say what is what. It has never thrown a code though.

 

[Augiedoggy]

Yes, mine looks just like that. The alternator/starter fuse is what gets hot, sometimes. Not always though. The battery does charge up to around 14 volts. (I did have the newer battery checked out by a very reputable battery shop and it is good) I can leave the cable on and after around 5-6 hours it gets down to around 8 volts and won't start, Key out of truck and all locked up the cargo light over the rear window comes on intermittently. And of course the radio tries to boot up. In my minds eye there is something really wrong with that, Been waiting for radio #3 for 3 weeks now. I know they'll put the new radio in and it won't work. Then I'll chance a visit to another dealer. Both places I can go are over 100 mile trips. That sort of spooks me. LOL I have zero faith my local shop can fix it. It would seem they can hook up some computer gizmo and it'd say what is what. It has never thrown a code though.

The proper way for a real mechanic to troubleshoot this is with a simple multimeter to track down whatever is drawing current..

As far as I can tell the issue here is your expectations on the quality of service from the dealers your taking it to... Its just my opinion but I dont feel these warranties are worth the paper they are printed on... This is from experience of them costing me more money an headache vs just paying someone to actually troubleshoot and fix the issue... YMMV this is not just a FCA thing I find the warranty service terrible on my company cars as well with what should be a simple diagnosis always somehow being some BS thats not actually covered by said warranty which ends up resulting in diagnostic fees which are higher than just paying a real trusted mechanic out of pocket to correct in the first place.

My girlfriend has a 2017 rav4 for example which she bought the useless extended warranty for.. its now on at least its 4th battery and every time it randomly dies overnight they charge her a $200 diagnostic fee (as well as charging her for a replacement battery at least one) and they have yet to find the malfunction that keeps damaging her batteries. As time goes on we are more and more intimidated and taken advantage of..

 

[Divemaster5734]

The proper way for a real mechanic to troubleshoot this is with a simple multimeter to track down whatever is drawing current..

As far as I can tell the issue here is your expectations on the quality of service from the dealers your taking it to... Its just my opinion but I dont feel these warranties are worth the paper they are printed on... This is from experience of them costing me more money an headache vs just paying someone to actually troubleshoot and fix the issue... YMMV this is not just a FCA thing I find the warranty service terrible on my company cars as well with what should be a simple diagnosis always somehow being some BS thats not actually covered by said warranty which ends up resulting in diagnostic fees which are higher than just paying a real trusted mechanic out of pocket to correct in the first place.

My girlfriend has a 2017 rav4 for example which she bought the useless extended warranty for.. its now on at least its 4th battery and every time it randomly dies overnight they charge her a $200 diagnostic fee (as well as charging her for a replacement battery at least one) and they have yet to find the malfunction that keeps damaging her batteries. As time goes on we are more and more intimidated and taken advantage of..

Electrical gremlins are tough, especially in this canbus era where every signal goes to so many places.
If you can gain access to a DC amp meter, (ameter), you might isolate the source yourself.
With engine off.
Make sure meter is set to DC
Put clamp around each of the cables, one at a time, that go to the + terminal.
If there's a singular adverse draw you'll see it immediately on the meter.
It sounds like it's the head unit.
If it is one of the accessories, you'll have to pull individual fuses until it drops off.
There's a couple pages on the fuse locations in your owners manual.
It won't fix the problem, but in just a few minutes you'll know exactly what is causing to power drain.
I've found factory wiring that was not designed very well, and caused issues.
My '14 Laramie Longhorn is on it's 3rd.
I have the factory powered sub under the back seat, with 5.4 surround.
It sounds awesome, I got that for the hands free navigation.
Only problem was the GPS was heinous and totally inaccurate and the HD receiver blows chunks.
The dealer's,( I took it to a second one after same issue), just kept throwing new parts at it.
I finally just started using my phone again, which I didn't want to do because a business call would destroy directions.
Ucon finally did an update I downloaded that fixed the nav system, it took over five years before I finally got the system I paid a few thousand extra for when I got the truck new.
I'm going aftermarket now that they are available, and unless there's a problem with the DEF/ECU emissions system that is covered under the mandated 200k extended warranty we had to sue Ram to get, I doubt I'll be taking it to a dealer.
Did get a new swirl valve installed free, plus free rental, when the OEM one went bad at 104k.
That's a whole new intake manifold.

 

[Cbelt]

If the battery cable is arching like that. It is enough to destroy all the microcircuits in the entire truck. Are you disconnecting the negative cable? A spark from your finger after walking across a dry carpet will destroy a computer motherboard.