Archived Dead truck this morning...!

[fkovalski]

I went out to start the truck as I do every morning and something was different when I hit the key fob to click it open. There was no clicking or lights going on.



I get inside and there is a small red light that is located between the temp gauge and tach that is blinking in time with a very slight "clicking" sound. It sounded remotely similar to a flasher sound when the hazards are on.



There was no light nor starting. I checked the battery voltage and it read about 9V with the meter dipping down in time with the "clicking" sound described above.



Obviously there was some sort of draw down of the battery overnight. I have never had an issue before with this truck. I have never seen the little red light as I mention above and do not recall noticing it when turning the ignition on in the past.



The truck is stock with about 67K miles. I will put a charger on the batteries tonight and see what I come up with.



Any one ever experience similar... ideas?



Thanks,

-frank.

 

[lil red cummins]

Sorry to hear of your problem.



The light flashing sounds like the security system has activated. it will not crank when this happens.



Disconnect the right side battery and check the voltage of each one separately to see if one has gone bad (lower voltage than the other). Leave just the driver side connected (assuming it is ok) and charge until the voltage is at 12 or higher and try using the lock and unlock buttons again on the remote to see if it will reset.



not sure what else to tell you.



good luck



Jim

 

[p-Bar]

You may want to have the batteries load tested once they are charged

 

[fkovalski]

Thanks for the info. The batteries are the originals (5 years old. )



Tell me more about this security system of which you mention: I did not get this option on the truck when I bought it. Is it some sort of default that somehow tripped that i can reset? Would it enact because of a low battery? (the voltage was definitely low. )



With respect to checking voltage: I only checked the driver's side batt this morn. Would not the reading be the average of the two? I did not check the other one. Is it possible that 1 is bad and the other was good, but the combination of the 2 dragged the both of them down?



If 1 battery were to go bad would it take down the other? There were no indications up to now that a battery could be the problem. Wouldn't it give an indication rather than going down suddenly?



When I charge the batteries, I take it that I want to do them in dependently and not just throw the charger on the truck with the batteries hooked up... . correct?

 

[lil red cummins]

If your ignition key is Grey, you have a security system. if it is black, it does not have a security system. that is my understanding of it. if you do not have the security system, i am not sure what that red light represents. it may just indicate that the truck will not start. Only guessing on this.



yes, when you took your initial voltage measurement, you were looking at "both" of the batteries and yes one could be bad and one still OK, which would drag down the overall voltage. that is why i recommend disconnecting the ground off of the right battery and then check them individually. if they show the same voltage, separately, they may still be OK but discharged. if the voltage is different by say more than 1 to 2 volts, one may be bad (the lower voltage one) and the higher voltage one may come back up slightly on its own once it is isolated. check about 10 minutes after they have been isolated to see if the voltage goes up from the initial reading.



the truck will start on one battery and it is easier to charge just one as it will take half as long to charge up one battery. this assumes that both batteries are good and it was just something left on that ran them down.



if you do have the security system, it should work fine once the voltage is back up to 12+ and you lock and unlock your doors once.



hope this helps



Jim

 

[p-Bar]

I would charge them seperately but you can charge together it just may overcharge the good one. The problem with parallel battery systems is that one battery starts going south then it takes the other down with it. You have probably do a lot of winter start ups that's hard on the batteries due to the grid heater coming on so I think you got good life out of these. A lot of guys are buying the Die Hards good quality batteries replace both of them

 

[ChrisOlson]

Hello
Usaly when I wake up to the dead truck syndrome I have done something stupid like leave the bed cargo light on or the inside dome light on. I call AAA they come, it takes about 8 mins of charge time to start the truck if it is cold out side the preheater will draw down the charge so wait till the heater cycles off before you try to start. Leave the key on while the assist vehicle charges that way the heaters will not cycle till the truck starts this is my procedure for my second gen truck.

Hope it helps

Chris

 

[fkovalski]

I usually leave the parking lamps on every night. It has auto shut- off of all lamps except the flashers. This auto turn off has always worked.



Is it possible that this feature to turn off any errant components is no longer working?

 

[ChrisOlson]

Hello

I cannot answer that question as I am a 2nd gen guy I apologize.
I will add with batteries you get what you pay for I have had major problems caused to the ECM of a durango I once owned by the dodge batteries. so when it came time to buy new batteries for the 99 CTD I purchased the NAPA spiral wound gel cell Very pleased, the batteries have lasted 6 years now I have hadead batteries 4 times with these batteries due to MY fault. otherwise these have been great batteries.

my 2 cents worth

Chris

 

[lil red cummins]

Is it possible that this feature to turn off any errant components is no longer working?

As with anything electronic, it is possible that this no longer works correctly. once you get the battery issue resolved, just try it again and watch for the auto shut off. if the lights don't shut off after 30 minutes, i would say the auto shutoff feature stopped working. Mine only stay on for 10 to 15 minutes



Best of luck



Jim

 

[04blackcherry]

I had a bad horn pad. Even if the fuse is pulled the horn is still told to honk buy the control module. The horn is silent but there is still a draw thru the system and the batteries are drained. You may have another system that doesn't show itself like the horn circuit does buy honking for no reason. If the truck will start with a jump and act like nothing happened, that may be a possibility. There are a number of systems that run thru the forward control module and the interior control module. Something may be telling the truck to supply power to something when it shouldn't.

 

[ryecreek]

think batteries are in your future

mine does the same with dead batts

10v or less nothing works

THANK GOD FOR CPU CONTROLS

even 1 bad will do it did doors open from key fob?

 

[WMoroni]

I'm having the same exact issue with an 04 2500 CTD that I just bought with 135,000 miles on it. If it sits for more than 12 hours, dead. The only light on will be the little red light mentioned above. It was apparently doing this before it was sold to me because the batteries are brand new.

 

[fkovalski]

Thank to all who replied for advice and moral support. Here's the latest:



I got home and tested the batts with a volt meter only. Both were reading 13+ volts, yet when I re- connected them (they were disconnected all day)... there was still a lot of "strangeness" on the dash pod. I could not start the truck. In the ignition position, the dash was flashing very strangely and there was a weird clicking in and under the engine compartment. This was only in the "Ignition" position... not the "Start" position.



Anyway... the hook came over ('cause I was all set to have it flat bedded to the dealer... ) He put a batt pack and a jump to it and we were able to start the truck. I ran around the neighborhood in low gear (high RPM) to sort of "charge it. " Got it home and shut it down to then have it start up normally right away.



Tow man said that I may be running on borrowed time with 5 year old batts. I will get it to NAPA to get a load test on them. It is possible that 1 is getting bad dragging down the whole schmee. I will see if it starts tomorrow.



The whole strange thing about this whole episode: It came on suddenly with absolutely no indication of any sort of problem and the very strange reaction of the dash lights flashing in a haphazard and random fashion.



I left the lights on purposely to see if the auto shut- off was functioning... it was. So I am left with the possibility that the batts (or one of them) is bad... . or something still very strange and remote is still causing the draw. Starting tomorrow will tell a lot.

 

[JMarketos]

my 0. 02:

Yes, it could be one or both batteries defective. One mode of failure for batteries is to develop an internal problem wherein it won't hold a charge. And because the two batteries in these trucks are directly wired in parallel, then if one of the batteries develops a fault it will also discharge the 2nd battery- that was mentioned by someone above.



Another possibility- Unfortunately, these trucks occasionally develop problems with their electrical systems- all this automated computer controlled "module" stuff... When you turn the truck off, various modules are supposed to recognize that it's turned off, and within a minute or two, the modules are supposed to "go to sleep". That means they're supposed to stop drawing current from the batteries. The problem is, sometimes a module develops a defect and doesn't "go to sleep" and continues to draw current from the battery. Depending on which module has the problem, determines how much current is being drawn from the battery after you (think you have) shut everything off, and this explains why sometimes the truck will start OK an hour or two later, but not the next morning etc.



I went through this same thing with my truck last year. Previously, it could sit for a month and start up no problem. Then last fall, I went to start it one day and it was dead as could be. (The clicking you're hearing and flashing red light might just be a sign of a very discharged battery).



With my truck last year, in the troubleshooting process I did discover one of the batteries was bad. I replaced them both, but that didn't fix the "going dead" problem. I had to do a parasitic draw test, and I eventually found (and confirmed, with help from another member of this site) that the instrument cluster in my truck had become defective and wasn't going to sleep.



https://www.turbodieselregister.com...nstrument-cluster-dead-battery-batteries.html



I'll be glad to help you with troubleshooting steps etc. Maybe easier to PM me with a phone number- I'll try to check in over the weekend.

 

[WMoroni]

I had a breakthrough with mine today. After reading some of the post above I went to checking fuses etc. . Horn fuse was missing put it in and horn blows continously until the fuse is pulled. I asumme the button is bad going to look deeper into it tomorrow.