6.7L Cummins Forum

I have a dead battery and when I hook up a battery charger my battery chargers light is not coming on indicating it is charging the battery. History: I returned north and was worried about the temp and my washer fluid. The truck was in the barn and I did not think I needed to start it to run some -20 washer fluid thru it. I turned key, ran washer, added -20, ran washer some more and the got called away!!! forgot key in ON position!!! Now the battries are dead. I got the manual and read about jumping it but really just want to attach my charger so I don't have to drag it out of the barn. It's 35 degrees right now. I attached my 12v charger set on 10amp, put the cable clips on the respective posts on the drivers side battery, checked charger setting again and plugged it in. No light comes on the charger, usually a light indicating charging or done comes on. It humms a little so I know it has power. Suggestions? anything special for 2 battery setup? Suggestions?
thanks
P.S. I just went out and tested the 2amp trickle charge option: no light, no charge not even the under the hood light came on the truck. Then I tried the "start" option on the charger, got in and turned the key, nothing, no lights no buzzers no start or click of any kind. What's next? I can call a dealer tomorrow but what will they say? bring it in?? they are 75 miles away. I do have Good Sam's road side assistance so they will be called tomorrow if I have to but I want to know if they will be able to do something.

I had something very similar happen to me. My 2009 sat for 2 weeks and when I tried to start it, I had nothing. I hooked up the charger and plugged it in and the needle pegged the amp gauge. After a few seconds, the needle came to rest at 7 or 8 amps. I let it charge for a few hours and came back to start it and just got a click when turning to key to start. I removed the batteries and took them to an Interstate battery store and had them tested. I had a bad cell in one battery and the other had extremely low voltage. I decided to purchase 2-850cca Interstate megatron batteries and everything has been good since. The local dealership offered to send a rollback to pick up my truck but this was on a Saturday and I needed my truck that evening. It seems that the original batteries don't like to sit for very long and decline in a short period of time. The battery guy said that some factory batteries are junk and battery failure in new vehicles is somewhat common. Although I could have opted to have the dealer replace the bad battery with a new one, I wanted something better than the factory offered and went with Interstate. Just a side note, I dont think all factory batteries are junk because I have a 2003 Tahoe with just 29,000 miles that does its share of sitting and the ACDelco battery just went bad last week . Good luck

Okay, I gave up on the charger, had my wife pull me and the Dodge out of the barn real slow. I pulled around the old Tundra and hooked up the cables just like the Dodge manual told me to. Ran the Tundra at about 2000 rpm for a few then gave it a try. The key turned, dash lights, (it's a warm on today almost 40 degrees), warming coil indicator comes on, Tundra sounds like it notices, a few seconds, coil light off, turn key... click... click... wait some more, check connections I already cleaned w/ wd40 and a rag, wait some more, try again... click... click. Not looking good for this idea, then I remember I have a engine block heater and I go get an extension cord and plug that sucker in. I let ten minutes go by, it's mid-afternoon and almost 40! I jump in, turn key, coil light finishes, turn to start... varoom buh buh buh buh! I get out and disconnect cables and let it go for a few, then fearing exhaust/catalytic build up I get it up to 1800 rpm for a couple, then let it idle so more. After a half hour of this I shut it off, remove key then retry... IT Starts! ya-friggin-hoo! Now I need to know if the engine icon thing on the dash will go away. It was still on. Tomorrow I will plug in the engine block heater, and start it up again, if that works I will call the dealer and ask about the engine light if it is still on. Do any of you know how to shut it off? The Oil change message is three pumps of the fuel pedal when key is on but engine not running. "Perform maintenance" message (got because of a recall) on the console above is some other pedal combo. I hope this does it, I do worry about stock batteries in a 2007.5 w/ 75,000 miles on it.

May be a low voltage code that has to be cleared with a scanner (dealer or programmer with code reader option). Also, I just installed an aftermarket electric cord to the factory installed block heater and the tag on the cord states to unplug and wait one minute before starting engine dont know if that goes for 2007.5 trucks but I believe I read somewhere that block heaters may throw a code. Also, check the voltage at one of the batteries with the engine running, should be 14+ volts, that will let you know if the trucks charging system is ok, you may just have a couple of weak batteries.

my 07 6.7 still has this mysterious electric pulsating,and no fast idle, it just turned 36000 miles yesterday, Im going to the dealer again tomorrow.Last week they had it and I watched them plug in under the steering column and do some stuff with a small computer and told me to let them know if anything changed, nothing has. At night with the headlights on you can see the lights pulse and by turning fan on high,brights,ac,dome lights,wipers, it causes the pulsing to draw more.I dont understand, now Im thinking it could be possible fuel delivery, but it doesnt show up on tach or volt gauge. Like i said before the starter was changed and 2 new 850 batteries installed.I used to love my truck and need it for work but I cant believe the 5 star Dodge dealer cant get to the bottom of this problem.

batteries are new and dealer checked them and their good

Your engine light is on because of the low voltage caused by the dead batteries. The light may disappear in 5 or 6 start cycles, if not disconnect the battery for 2+ minutes.
If the battery voltage is off very much (low) from 12 volts the engine will have difficulty starting. Add to that the fact that at 40 the grid heater wants to come on and you are in trouble. I've found that the best way to charge a set of dual batteries (trailer or truck) is to disconnect them and charge them one at a time. Of course, if you're boosting, you have to have them connected.
I don't drive my truck in the winter but do fire it up 2 or 3 times on warmer days (-10C) through the cold months. For part of the time it sits outside, if I need the garage space. It always fires right up. These batteries are as good as any conventional batteries that I've owned and better than some. When it comes time for a replacement, I'll put in a pair of Optima gel cells. I've found that the deep discharge blue tops work well in our electric winch equipped Jeeps.

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2007 Ram 2500 QC 4x4 SLT TRX4-Offroad 6.7L Automatic. '08 Jeep WK 3.0L diesel-wife's DD.
1998 Jeep ZJ 4.0L Automatic Selectrac-project for our son. '98 Jeep XJ-my wife's former DD.
1965 Dodge Polara 880 Convertible 383 Automatic.

Just had to change my batteries on my 07 with 93,000 miles. Check engine light and "lighting bolt" light came on. Check codes and it was a low voltage warning yet engine had been starting fine. Check voltage in each bat and showed 12.2x volts. Ran test on batterys and tester said both were bad. Replaced batteries, erased codes and all has been fine now. Seems like the electronics now days are much more sensitive to a low voltage compared to older vehicles.

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If you bad mouth farmers just make sure your mouth is empty
07.5 2500 quad, sb, auto,4x4, Big Horn. wheel to wheel nerf bars, amp bumper step
08 Jazz 36' 5er, 12,000lbs
28' PJ gooseneck,22,400 gvw

I agree that the electronics are very sensative. I never got a code when my battery went bad. However, when I first started the truck with the new batteries installed, the truck make a clicking noise and the lights flickered for a minute or so while the volt meter fluctuated and then everything went back to normal. I believe Squid had some info about the voltage adjustments made by the trucks computer in an previous thread which I was not aware of and was very informative as is all the info these guys post for us newbies. Hope they find your trouble but if not, try another dealer.

For me it was simple. The engine icon stayed on after the jump start and a day of driving so I put the truck away. Made an appointment at the dealer. That appointment was in a week. When I started it up a week later everything was all better. No icon, started fine and runs good as ever. I cancelled the dealer visit and took it out for a 2 hour ride. I try to do that at least once or twice a month in the winter. Plugging it in for an hour makes a huge difference.
Thanks to all for the info.