Switch panel delayed function

[grabinov]

Hey guys on my 2014 2500 Laramie CTD:

The "lower switch panel" in the dash center stack - which on my truck holds the Tow/Haul button, Exhaust Brake button, Heated Seats and Steering Wheel buttons, etc. - seems (recently) to take as long as 5 minutes after starting the truck to become active. Until that point, it is totally dead, no lights (even if the truck / dash lights are on), no function, no nothing. It's as though it suddenly takes much longer to initialize than the rest of the dash.

Problem is, with a big trailer for example, unless you want to drive away without Tow/Haul and without the Exhaust Brake, you have to sit and wait for it to become "live".

Anyone have experience with this issue? TSB maybe? Re-Flash?

Thanks

 

[Ram4Sam]

Hey guys on my 2014 2500 Laramie CTD:

The "lower switch panel" in the dash center stack - which on my truck holds the Tow/Haul button, Exhaust Brake button, Heated Seats and Steering Wheel buttons, etc. - seems (recently) to take as long as 5 minutes after starting the truck to become active. Until that point, it is totally dead, no lights (even if the truck / dash lights are on), no function, no nothing. It's as though it suddenly takes much longer to initialize than the rest of the dash.

Problem is, with a big trailer for example, unless you want to drive away without Tow/Haul and without the Exhaust Brake, you have to sit and wait for it to become "live".

Anyone have experience with this issue? TSB maybe? Re-Flash?

Thanks

Oh boy......I went through this on my 2014, there is good news and bad news........assuming your issue is the same as mine, the good news is if you cycle the door locks on/off with the driver door switch, the panel should start working again. The bad news is Ram could never fix this problem on my 2014 truck, even after numerous repair attempts and throwing a whole lot of parts at it. They gave up, which is why they now own it.

Sam

 

[DonFitzwater]

My cruise control and blower fan respond almost exactly like your switches are behaving. This has to be a computer boot up time problem.

 

[grabinov]

They gave up, which is why they now own it. Sam

Sam did you actually go through the FCA Buyback program that has been discussed here on the Board? Is it like the Lemon Law - seven visits for the same problem, failure to correct, etc.? I like my truck a lot. It's not "that bad", but it DOES have some digital gremlins that haven't been corrected by computer updates...

 

[Ram4Sam]

Sam did you actually go through the FCA Buyback program that has been discussed here on the Board? Is it like the Lemon Law - seven visits for the same problem, failure to correct, etc.? I like my truck a lot. It's not "that bad", but it DOES have some digital gremlins that haven't been corrected by computer updates...

The FCA buyback program was for the 2012 and down trucks with the bad tie rods. I went through "arbitration" which uses your states lemon law rules, as far as repair attempts, days out of service, etc. but with no lawyers. www.ncdsusa.org does the arbitrations with FCA. It's not that complicated and way quicker than the lemon law process with a lawyer.

Sam