figure this one out

[NLeach]

Last drove the truck on saturday,highway about 80 miles round trip. Full tank of fuel. Got in it today,wait to start lamp goes out,cranks but doesnt start. FP good,voltmeter good,all else good. Sat radio stations are all gone,none of my presets are there. Try it again,no go. Wait about 15 seconds,try again,starts perfectly. Drove for a bit,stopped,started first try like she always does. Never an issue. The only thing I can think of is we had some bad thunder/lightning storms on tuesday,maybe she got a jolt or something struck near by causing this?Battery terminals are fine and tight,no other issues,ever. 18k miles trouble free. Anyone?

 

[magothy1]

I can hardly wait to hear from somebody that knows something, but if lightning was involved, anything can happen. I've seen some pretty strange results from hits and near misses, if the radio presets were gone that would seem to be a clue, but the how and why is way way beyond my feeble capabilities.

 

[JLandry]

I was going to suggest maybe an intermittent relay... like the ASD (Auto Shut Down) relay which is located in the Integrated Power Module under the hood. But I'm not sure how that would have anything to do with the radio presets disappearing.



John L.

 

[Mobius1]

Check connections on pcm? disco both batteries for a few hrs or overnight if you can. Will reset all electrical system in vehice. sounds like a loose connection.

 

[DPKetchum]

Disconnecting the batteries for 1 minute is the same as for hours.

 

[NLeach]

but would disconnected batteries cause a hard start?Never had discoed batteries cause a hard start in any other truck I have had.

 

[Grizzly]

Were there any codes?

 

[Mobius1]

but would disconnected batteries cause a hard start?Never had discoed batteries cause a hard start in any other truck I have had.

My truck had one of the battery terminals come off and the truck did have a longer than normal crank time. .

 

[Jeepr]

Battery disconnect doesn't usually loose the radio stations though. Radio will loose the time, but not the presets... at least not on my 05 truck and 01 Jeep

 

[WMoroni]

My 07 did this a couple months back, almost exactly as you describe. Mine had a bad battery. Had enough juice to show all was well till I tried to start it then nothing, let go of the key everything showed normal again but the presets where gone and the clock was wrong. While you have the batterys disconnected have them checked.

 

[TimothyLong]

My wife's old '99 1500 had the battery go bad in it. When you turned the key on the thing acted like it was possessed! Seats clicked, radio buzzed, dashboard blinking, etc. Showed okay on the guage, but wouldn't start. Oddly enough, that happened the morning after a thunderstorm as well.

 

[HBarlow]

I posted this story recently on another thread but it is relevant to this one.



At Christmas my wife and I were at a music event in Nashville with my previous '06 Ram. When we returned to the truck after the event the remote unlocked the doors and the engine turned over but would not fire.



I sat a minute puzzled and the only thing I could think of to do was remove the battery leads and clear the computer(s).



I did that and it fired up and ran normally without another problem until I traded it for another truck months later.



There were no storms in Nashville that day. I wondered if a high powered radio frequency transmission zapped the ECM. An unexplained mystery!

 

[NLeach]

never lost the clock,no cel,just the hard start and loss of preset stations. All connections were tight and still are. 06, so batteries shouldnt be bad,or even close to bad.