I was a Ford technician for 20 years 20 yrs ago, lol but can still wrench and Trouble shoot, but this one has ne stumped. I performed a key off draw test w a test light, pulled each fuse, relay etc to no avail so i started disconnecting each positive cable on the left battery. ( completly removing the pos cable from the right battery did not stop draw). It came down to the heavy gauge wire that forks at the terminal w one lead feeding the fuse box and the other going to the starter solenoid. I removed the pos lead to the fuse box ( could of saved an hour had I thought of that first, would you have? Lol) no go. Still drawing! So I’m thinking trash or something loose in the starter solenoid causing this large draw. I crawl under and unhook the wire at the starter.. Yay no draw, so I re connect the pos lead to the fuse box or ( TIPM if it was like my ‘06) and the draw comes back!!! At this point it wAs 2:00 am this morning... I disconect the pos lead at fuse panel after pulling every fuse again to know avail, reconnect the starter and put it on charge and went to bed! But I cant sleep as my brain is spinning on this one!!
Any Dodge truck techs that can send me to the most common causes?
Oh, i have the cruise button and head lights wont turn off except in “ auto” mode issue pop up last week as well! In case that helps!
thanks for any brain power from y’all !

 

Im finding it a little hard to understand your post but if the headlights wont manually turn off Im guessing that is a clue? Something with h/l circuit?
I think my next step would be to start pulling relays one at a time and checking for draw. If you happen to find one that kills the draw you have narrowed down the culprit circuit. Swap that relay out for a known good one maybe? i think I would start with the lighting relays😁 then the start relays😁
You may need to use a multimeter instead of a test light to determine a more accurate draw.

 

Ok, Let me see if I can be more precise. One can tell the strength of the draw w a voltage meter/ or the brightness of the test light. I meticulously went through every fuse and relay and also every possitive lead was disconnected at the battery terminals one by one. As I stated before the heavy gauge wire that feeds the starter when disconected stopped the draw. There is no headlamp relay in the fuse box. The headlamps can be turned off in the Auto position.
With that said, today as I was running it and checking alternator output etc the headlamps started flashing random and intermittent. I pulled the switch and the headlamps continued even after unplugging the switch. I believe there is a “module” or chassis control module at fault here as the problem is random and intermittent.
In other words I once again have the Mopar ghost aboard. Lol

 

Wow. Now that is strange. Does sound like your starter solenoid is having some issues? shouldnt be any draw from starter until solenoid engages. Is the main starter feed also a junction where other wires connect? I dont believe so but thought I would ask. I believe they did away with this configuration years ago. As far as headlights I THINK the headlights are controlled thru the PCM? Guessing your presently searching for wiring schematics now? good luck. Let us know how you make out.

 

Not having spent too much time on this other than seeing if the draw has come back or not and learning something interesting. So far the draw has not come back, i don't know if it was from bangin on the starter solenoid or leaving the head light switch disconnected. Lol the funny thing is the truck works great with out the switch plugged in! Lights come on at start up and stay off when you shut it down! I did go to the NHTSA Recall check sight and found some really scary stuff! 16 recalls, 5 are open !. Several of them can be causing the issues ive mentioned and some I havent talked about. Until I get these addressed there is no sense in my wastin time nor money on it. Harness chaffing is one, can cause airbag deployment or no airbag deployment, run away cruise control, brakes failing, head lamp issues. My lord it was a heck of a read!
iI will catch you up after recalls are done. Should be fun to see.

 

Thanks for the update. Happy New Year and good luck.

 

well heres the latest on my 2014 Ram 3500..
I got the remaining 6 of 14 recalls done.
The bad key off draw was an intermittent internal shorting of the right battery coupled with a head lamp switch that would turn the lights on and off whenever it liked! Good news is, you can drive without the headlight switch! The lights come on when you start the truck and turn off when you shut it down. Havent had a dead battery since!
getting a switch payday. Oh and dont let them tell you you cant buy a belt tensioner pulley seperate! Carquest has one!

 

Interesting. Thanks for coming back and posting your update repair. Just curious with a question. In your previous post you mentioned the headlights continued acting up even tho the switch was disconnected?? is that because the truck was running at that particular time?

 

The only thing I can figure is when the battery was dead shorting the charging system trying to keep up and I was getting voltage fluctuations like when on a cold start. But in this case voltage was dropping to around 10 volts then going back up to 14 then dropping again. Before I monitored voltage w multi meter i would just see headlamps acting strange. I dont know if this severe a draw was affecting other modules or what. Once I sniffed out ( literally) the bad battery and replaced it all kinds of things started acting right again. The cruise control, horn, everything was back to normal with the exception of the headlamp switch. It is bad. Or I am assuming so until I replace it. I had to get a belt and tensioner first and dump some $$ into my 7.3. The switch is making it to the top of my list/budget. Believe me, if that doesnt cure the issue i had I will be back on here looking for input!