Any thoughts... 2008 Ram 2500 6.7 Start Voltage Drop
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Any thoughts... 2008 Ram 2500 6.7 Start Voltage Drop
Thought I would share this...My new '08 RamLaramie, 2500 4X4,6.7, top of the line, with every option known to man and with only 800 miles developed a radical and fluctuating voltage drop when cold starting (California cold 55 degrees) not the common slight drop withheater grid activation,but possibly related.
The volt meter would drop to the peg at the8 volt mark and then slowly work its way up to 14.5 in about 20-30seconds, headlights, interior lights dimmed and then turned off andwould notrecycle for over a minute, any additonal load ie: heater fan, seat warmer, fog lights, caused the same events to reoccur. Thetruck was undriveable during the event time.Stepping on the electronic acceleratorto increase RPM caused the same above result and made the diesel run roughly,"Holy****" diesels run no matter what I thought. The "problem" went away after what seemed like forever but in reality was three to fourminutes and did not replicate during the rest of the day.
When I talked to thedealer they said itwas normal operation due to grid heater cycling. Being new to Dodges, I thought they can't be serious, not at those prices!
I saw the threads on the grid heater loads on this site and comparedmine with other like diesels. The drop was not even close to what I experienced which was almost total electrical failure.Left it overnight sodealer so they could see the problem first hand and the next morning they were able to see the same problems.They troubleshot and discovered;No fault codes,batteries checked very good as didalternator output. The bottom line: "We don't know what's wrong," and called they called the Tech guru @ Dodge factory. No help there, they too said normal for grid heater operation.
I wasn't convinced and started feeling big time Buyer Remorse. TheService Manager noticed Recall #G30 had not been incorporated into mytruck. G30 wasbasicallyreplace o2 sensor module and reprogram the ECM/PCM. We didn't see the relationship to my problem and the recall but.... the work was done and I drove off into the afternoon gloom.
The planets have realigned and the world is right once again! It's been two 36 degree mornings now and no cold start problems.(36 degrees iscold for Southern California).I don't know if the G30 was the cause or maybe just the reprograming of the ECM/PCM fixed the problem.
The volt meter would drop to the peg at the8 volt mark and then slowly work its way up to 14.5 in about 20-30seconds, headlights, interior lights dimmed and then turned off andwould notrecycle for over a minute, any additonal load ie: heater fan, seat warmer, fog lights, caused the same events to reoccur. Thetruck was undriveable during the event time.Stepping on the electronic acceleratorto increase RPM caused the same above result and made the diesel run roughly,"Holy****" diesels run no matter what I thought. The "problem" went away after what seemed like forever but in reality was three to fourminutes and did not replicate during the rest of the day.
When I talked to thedealer they said itwas normal operation due to grid heater cycling. Being new to Dodges, I thought they can't be serious, not at those prices!
I saw the threads on the grid heater loads on this site and comparedmine with other like diesels. The drop was not even close to what I experienced which was almost total electrical failure.Left it overnight sodealer so they could see the problem first hand and the next morning they were able to see the same problems.They troubleshot and discovered;No fault codes,batteries checked very good as didalternator output. The bottom line: "We don't know what's wrong," and called they called the Tech guru @ Dodge factory. No help there, they too said normal for grid heater operation.
I wasn't convinced and started feeling big time Buyer Remorse. TheService Manager noticed Recall #G30 had not been incorporated into mytruck. G30 wasbasicallyreplace o2 sensor module and reprogram the ECM/PCM. We didn't see the relationship to my problem and the recall but.... the work was done and I drove off into the afternoon gloom.
The planets have realigned and the world is right once again! It's been two 36 degree mornings now and no cold start problems.(36 degrees iscold for Southern California).I don't know if the G30 was the cause or maybe just the reprograming of the ECM/PCM fixed the problem.
