Carmine
Old Man with a Hat
Have a friend in the PHX who I've been trying to help walk-through an electrical issue with his Dodge Ram 3500. He had simultaneous and intermittent "shutoff" of an aftermarket pryometer exhaust gas guage, an airbags fault, and A/C clutch disengagement. I believe we traced this back to an older, aftermarket remote starter that was probably putting out a bad message to the CAN BUS (stray voltage or ground). A shop who took a stab at this prior to my involvement replaced the TPMS (massive underhood fuse box) and both diesel batteries. There seemed to be little diagnosis, just parts swaps. The problem remained until I had him remove the remote starter's power source at the battery. But that's not the current problem...
No pun intended.
Basically the same day we figured this out, a problem I believe unrelated, arose. His in-dash voltmeter went to discharge and the truck overcharged the (new) passenger side Optima battery to the point it was bulging. I advised him to swap back in one of his old batteries, thinking perhaps one of the new Optima batteries was a shorted dud. So he did as I said, swapping back in one of the old Optima batteries. Within a few miles, the passenger side battery was again overcharged and hot.
I'm no diesel charging system expert, and I have no wiring diagrams in front of me at the moment. However, I can't offhand think of a reason that only one battery would be overcharged... well, I could, but he says all 4 battery connections are clean.
Anyone have an idea before he heads to a dealer to be traumatized on a level second only to a middle-eastern prison?
No pun intended.
Basically the same day we figured this out, a problem I believe unrelated, arose. His in-dash voltmeter went to discharge and the truck overcharged the (new) passenger side Optima battery to the point it was bulging. I advised him to swap back in one of his old batteries, thinking perhaps one of the new Optima batteries was a shorted dud. So he did as I said, swapping back in one of the old Optima batteries. Within a few miles, the passenger side battery was again overcharged and hot.
I'm no diesel charging system expert, and I have no wiring diagrams in front of me at the moment. However, I can't offhand think of a reason that only one battery would be overcharged... well, I could, but he says all 4 battery connections are clean.
Anyone have an idea before he heads to a dealer to be traumatized on a level second only to a middle-eastern prison?
