2004 Dodge Ram 1500 5.7ltr.

Asked by jcz1496 Oct 24, 2020 at 04:37 AM about the 2004 Dodge RAM 1500

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Not sure if this thread is still active. But here it
goes. A couple weeks ago after dropping my
husband off at work. Every single gauge light
came on in my truck. While driving. I didn't have
any any problems and was able to get home.
Leaving the house later that day. It happened
again except this time I felt like the truck was
loosing power. I drove it immediately to the shop.
They had it a week and ended up replacing an
already new battery. I got it home and drove it for a
few days ( like maybe less then 50 miles.) it
seemed fine until I noticed the battery gauge
would peg to low after starting it. We chalked it up
to being a bad gauge. Maybe. My husband drove it
to a neighboring town. It did fine until he got
home. The dasj lights came on. He turned the
truck off and back on to reset it but it just clicked.
(the reason I replaced the battery a years ago). We
went to start it to try and drive it to the shop and it
has completely lost all of its power.
ANY IDEAS? I can't really afford another $400 fix I
don't need to have if it's not the problem.

2 Answers

90

firstly do not take it back to where you got your battery replaced. You may have needed a battery but 400 is a rip off imo. Did they check your alternator and or starter? I have seen alternators work intermittently then fail. This is an intermittent problem and they are hard to solve. So the repair shop may not be incompetent just expensive, Now that it appears to be "more broken" if you can get a code reader. (alot of parts stores have tool loaner programs if the truck wont run at all) this will give you a place to start. If you can not so the work yourself you will have to get it towed to a repair shop

Thank you for your response. Nice to this is still active. I have a reader. It's a box from Tmobile. It will give me trouble shooting codes. But the truck has 0 power. Id like to think i can change the alternator myself. Lol I've never done it before. My husband told me not to but my brother (mechanic) and my mom said I should be able to do it. It looks easy lol. The only reason they charged me so much at the shop was because they put in a new battery ($200ish) and labor from tinkering with it for a week.. They did check the alternator and starter with a volt meter I think. Not sure what it was that he hooked it up to. The mechanic at the shop and my dad think it's the starter. I don't. An alternator for my truck is pretty pricey. I can't find one for much less then $150ish. Most are around $200ish. I don't want refurbished

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