I have a brand new 2012 Ram 2500 diesel truck that has got me completely puzzled as to what could be going on. It all started about January 1, 2013 (truck purchased in September 2012). The truck is getting to the point that I can't depend on it to crank. Below listed in order of events is what I have currently have experienced:

-1. I had been driving on the road for about 2 hours and stopped to get a drink. When I returned to my vehicle, I went to crank my truck, and it would not start. I had turned the vehicle to on and let the heating coil light go off, and my truck would not crank. I got a gentlman next to me jump me off which took approximately 2 seconds to do. I honestly thought that maybe I didn't pay attention and I had let the heating coil stay on to long to which drained my battery. I didn't fully believe that in my head, but it seemed to be the only logical reason at the time.

-2. Approximately one month later, I attempted to remote start my truck, and I noticed that it seemed to be taking an extra long time to start. I got in my vehicle and realized that it would not crank at all. I could not find any evidence of any components being left on from the night before that could have drained my battery, but it appeared that the voltage on my battery was low based on the dash information. I proceed to get one buddy to try to jump me off. After having him hooked to me for approximately 30 min and no success in getting the truck to grank, a fellow passer by decided that maybe we needed to try to hook up to my second batter for I "must have been completely dead". We proceed to have both batteries hooked up to vehicles for another 30 minutes, and my truck would still not crank. Out of frustration a buddy and I decided that we would go get lunch and wait for a dealership to open for it was a Sunday while in a foriegn city. After we got done with lunch, I had a tow truck on the way to tow it in, and I decided to just try cranking it one more time. My truck proceeded to crank with absolutely no issue.

-3. A few days later, I went to go grab so lunch one day after being sick, and I tried to normally crank my vehicle again. My vehicle would not start. My vehicle at that point had been sitting for approximately 48 hours since I had been sick. I waited for a buddy to get off work to try come and jump me, so that I could take it to the dealership. After having his vehicle hooked up to mine for 30 minutes trying every few minutes to get it to start we were unsuccessful. I was in the process of calling another tow truck, and I decided to try to start my truck with no jumper cables attached. My vehicle started up just fine. I immediately took it to the dealership who had it for the next 3 days. Over the next 3 days they tried cranking it both ways (key and remote start), and they never got it to act up.

-4. One day after having it home, I was headed to dinner. I selected to try to remote start my vehicle to see what would happen. My truck did not start. I proceeded to try the key, and I could still get nothing to happen. I had a buddy on his way to come get me for dinner about a hour later and once he arrived I decided that I was going to just try my truck one more time. During this attempt of cranking it it started up just like normal. We did not attempt to jump my truck on this occurence.

-5. The next day I went to work for a few hours to catch up on some paperwork. My truck started fine that morning even though it had been in the 20s the night before. When I went to leave work for home, I attempted to crank my truck, and I could not get it to crank. I decided that I would just leave it at work and borrow a company vehicle for the night. When I returned to work this morning, my truck started up with no issues twice in a row.

I am at a complete loss and so is the service department as to what could be the issue at this point. Does anybody have any ideas of what could be causing this? Every time that I tried to start my vehicle all of the compenents come up just like a normal start for the only thing that would alarm you is approximatley 10 volts on the battery gauge. The dealership has supposedly checked the battery, and they could find nothing wrong with it for it appears in "good condition". The last couple of times I have put a voltmeter across both batteries, and I get a reading of approximately 14.2v across both batteries. After the first incident I have stopped waiting on the heating coil light to go off in fear that it was draining my battery down low to the point that my vehicle wouldn't crank, but I find that hard to believe. Does anybody else have an opinion on that part?

Please help for my job requires me to be on the road a lot with a truck, and I have to be in 4 different cities over the next 3 weeks and am scared that I am going to get stranded somewhere.

 

Pachall,

Did the dealership contact Chrysler about the issue? If not I would suggest a call to the Chrysler Customer Assistance Center and they will get a Chrysler tech involved to help solve the issue. Numbers below.

800-992-1997 United States
800-465-2001 Canada

 

I actually contacted Chrysler first because it is such a tempormental problem before taking it to the dealership. They said that I needed to take it to the dealership, and I was offered no other assistance from them. The dealership said that they were going to create a "star" report this morning, but I haven't heard anything back.

 

PM me the Vin so I can make sure a STAR case has been opened.

 

Are they sure the battery is good? This sounds a lot like a dead cell in a battery. Did you put a voltmeter across the battery when it wouldn't start? The battery is only warranted for 12k miles so they might be trying to string you along until you are past it.

I'm actually in the market for a new truck and mainly work on all my own rides but dealer support for this brand is at best...laughable it seems!! I'm really starting to consider another brand.

 

easy test, turn your head lights on while your cranking it.. if they go REAL dim, you can pretty much say 1 of 2 things, either your drawing one HELL of a load or your batteries are going dead.. and usually it's the batteries going dead.

 

If it were the batteries would it start later without charging them? It sounds like an electrical issue like a bad starter, bad ground etc. something hard to recreate.

 

I just had my vehicle returned to Chrysler for a problem that is much like yours.

I would leave it for 3 or 4 days and the battery would drain. Two batteries and a computer later, including several trips to the dealership I was done. It ended up being returned as a lemon.

I bought a New 2012 Power Wagon, so far so good.

PP

 

Just an outside chance but I had a vehicle do that a few years back,
What I found was a bad battery >> it had a cracked plate in one of the cells.
What was happening was some times the plates were touching and it would start other times they were not touching and it would not start.
A load test would not catch this.
At least if you can try another battery.
Hope this is helpful !

 

You might be able to convince the dealer to replace the battery. I think people here may be onto something.