RX in NC

Sometimes the damage cannot be easily seen or located. A couple of years ago a rogue squirrel decided to climb up above the rear chassis and underneath the bed of my trusty 1999 Ram and gnaw on one of the nylon fuel lines that runs from the fuel tank to the engine bay. I could smell gas when I was standing within ten feet of the truck but no liquid reached the ground underneath the truck when it was parked. Only when the truck was being driven did any liquid gas actually leak out (and it was very minimal, not anywhere close to enough to leave a trail on the pavement). Took me at least a week to figure out what was going on and find that gnawed fuel line up underneath the bed where even a good flashlight may not be able to pinpoint the damaged area. It was a bear to get to but we managed to replace the gnawed nylon fuel line with a section of rubber hose. The critter never returned to do any more damage. Maybe he breathed or ingested enough gas to kill him.

needa

Yeah this is a first for me. Everyone keeps telling me it was a most likely a squirrel, not a mouse. So I reckon it was a squirrel. We have been running through 300 pounds of shelled corn a week for at least a decade... feeding the deer and squirrels. And I proudly have the fattest squirrels around. Never once would I have thought they'd climb into the engine bay and eat the insulation and wiring. I probably missed a day or two of feeding and they got mad. Took it out on my car.

The Dorman connector at Advance was $84. The same thing at Autozone was $sixty something. RockAuto had it for $40. But RA had the American Standard for $9. Should be in on Wednesday.

needa

K. It's been a year since we had issues with this thing. But the last week has been annoying. It started with not letting me in the trunk, which happens from time to time. Then wouldn't let me lock doors with fob. I cranked it up and things went back to normal. A few days later Steering got hard when backing out of driveway. Then did a quick reboot on the interstate and a few minutes later it did a hard reboot. Note: I hit the power button on the infotainment the day before. something i never do.
Then yesterday on the way home in rush hour traffic I did my normal thing..... blink the hazards for a couple secs while I'm slamming on the brakes. computer did a quick reboot. This happened three more times on the way home. Then when I got home only the driver's side window would roll up, and it wouldn't 'auto'. This morning same thing s happening. Car runs fine.

Currently the battery is unhooked. But I have to go get some work done. Can anyone tell me how t get the infotainment to do a full boot? Meaning the progress bar on the screen and it says not to turn off vehicle. And with this added data.... of the infotainment causing the issues... can anyone give me suggestions on how to fix? I am thinking it might be silver migration either on back of speedo unit or the infotainment unit itself.

Thanks and srry to be a bother on this again.
-needa

RX in NC

Did you take any battery voltage measurements at the battery terminals with the engine off and then again with the engine running? Dying batteries cause all sorts of strange problems in these vehicles.

salimshah

Battery is a good place to start, but I am leaning towards a bad connector/wire. Something is causing loss of battery voltage to infotainment and maybe other things.

The infotainment system on reconnect to 12v can go through a update [firmware update] .. you are lucky that during the update you did not have power outage.

Salim

needa

was kind of chilly last night. 40-45 F. Battery at 12.47v. Cranked it up. 14.2v. daytime lights and infotainment all that was running. turned on heated seats. 14.16v. turned off heated seats, 14.16v. Seems like voltage should have gone up with seats. Heading to store. Will make sure seats are still working.

I remember a slight voltage drop with one of the grounds...when I made this post originally. Wasn't much. The main ground behind driver's side front suspension. Not sure if mentioned above.

Also when I cranked this morning. No higher revs (choke). 59 deg F at the moment. Heading to store. If seats do not work I will reply. If they do, I will not.

edit: seats work. Idle revved a bit this time. That was very unusual... the no revving thing at start. Maybe it did and I was too busy taking readings and thinking about what was turned on and pulling current.