'07 Ram 2500HD 4x4 Hemi, 6spd (G56) manual 165k miles. Was my daily driver until 1st week of August when my Dad gave me his old Chevy Colorado. I took it in to the dealer to have the airbag recall taken care of the first week of August. I've driven it once since then, maybe 20mi round trip to the carwash about a month ago right before I put it up on Craigslist.

I was going to meet a guy who wanted to see it this past Friday and it wouldn't crank. No click, nothing. But had all lights and radio display. I was getting a check gauges light and the ETC light. I figured the battery was dead due to sitting and jumped it. It would kind of crank and give a little woof like it was about to start but wouldn't. After prob 6-7 tries it fired up. I headed down the road thinking the alt would charge the battery but as I started to drive I realized it was in limp mode. I was trying to turn around and head back to the house when it died. Couldn't get it restarted. When I turned the key all the light come on but it doesn't even try to crank. Pulled it back to the house with the little Colorado.

Took the battery in and it tested good, but low. I charged it up and dropped it back in today. Same thing, all lights come on, check gauges and ETC lights don't stay on anymore but no cranking at all.

Any ideas on what else I can check? I'm reading a bunch of stuff about a bad key fob and unhooking the battery for 10 min to reset it, but my battery was unhooked from Friday night until this afternoon and obviously didn't fix it.

Thanks for any help you all can give!

 

Forgot to mention that when I initially went to connect the jumper cables I found that although the negative battery clamp bolt was tight the post was slightly too small in diameter so that the clamp was loose on the post. I shimmed it with a piece of copper tubing. I cut the tubing down the side so I could spread it and slide it down over the terminal. Also, I just went back out and checked the grounds where they mount to the chassis and all looks good. I also double checked the dash lights and the check gauges and engine lights dont go off, not sure if theres any reason for that other than the truck never starts and (I think) those usually don't go out until its running for a second or two.

 

I would throw the battery from the Colorado in just to be safe. Doesn't hurt to try. It could just be a bad battery.

 

Although mine wouldn't start when I tried I jump it, my 2007 Ram 1500 did the exact same thing. Turn the key and all the lights came on but no crank. Turned out to be the starter. Maybe try that and see if that helps?

 

Thanks for the posts gents. It turned out to be a junction in the wire harness connecting the battery to the pcm. It was right there near the battery. I looked right at it when I was troubleshooting but didn't pull the tape off to dig any deeper.

thanks again!