Ram News: 1 Million Ram Trucks Being Recalled For Software Issue

[William Maley]

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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced today that it would be recalling a million Ram Trucks for a computer glitch that could prevent the airbags and seat-belt tensioners from engaging in the event of a crash.

The issue comes from the software used in a module that controls the deployment of restraint systems in rollover situations. Underbody impacts could cause the module to think a sensor has failed and will disable the side airbags and seat-belt tensioners for that ignition cycle. This means in the event of a rollover, the key safety systems will not go into action. The good news is that if you turn the truck off and then on, the system should revert back to normal. You can tell this if the airbag warning light goes off when you restart the truck.

FCA says it is aware of a fatality, two injuries, and two accidents possibly related to this problem.

The models involved in this recall include,

• 2013-2016 Ram 1500
• 2013-2016 Ram 2500
• 2014-2016 Ram 3500

FCA says they will begin notifying owners about this issue next month along with they schedule to bring their truck to get repaired. Dealers will reprogram the occupant restraint control modules used throughout the truck.

Source: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
Press Release is on Page 2

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Statement: Software update

May 12, 2017 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - FCA US LLC is voluntarily recalling an estimated 1 million trucks in the U.S. to reprogram computer modules that help control restraint-system deployment in rollover situations.

An FCA US investigation identified a population of vehicles equipped with modules featuring certain types of sensors. If such a vehicle were subjected to a significant underbody impact, its module may erroneously conclude the sensor has failed and then activate an instrument-cluster warning light.

The error code associated with the warning may temporarily disable side air bag and seat belt pretensioner** deployment for that ignition cycle, which would then be unavailable in the event of a vehicle rollover. (Deployment suppression is a feature of restraint systems. It serves as a potential safeguard against inadvertent system activation, should a sensor failure actually occur.)

If the warning light is illuminated, normal restraint-system function may be restored by turning the vehicle’s ignition to “off,” and then to “on/run.” Function restoration may be verified by the absence of a warning light.

However, FCA US urges affected customers to follow the instructions on their recall notices. The Company is aware of one fatality, two injuries and two accidents that may be related.

Affected vehicles are certain 2013-16 Ram 1500 and 2500 pickups, and 2014-2016 Ram 3500 pickups. Their occupant restraint control modules will be reprogramed with software that affords more robust sensor performance.

The recall also affects an estimated 216,007 vehicles in Canada; 21,668 in Mexico; and 21,530 outside the NAFTA region.

Affected customers will be advised when they may schedule service. As always, the Company urges all customers to use seat belts when operating or riding in any motor vehicle.

Customers with questions may call the FCA US Customer Care Center at (800) 853-1403.

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[riviera74]

Wow. I wonder how long the reprogram will take to get done so that no one misses their truck for too long.

[G. David Felt]

This should take just minutes, hell FCA could just release it on their web site and allow people to flash their own trucks. 

I bet this is a stop by, wait and we flash it and you go on your way deal. Sad that they messed something so simple and out there for so long up like this.

[daves87rs]

Lots of free oil changes I guess....

[Scout]

19 hours ago, dfelt said:

Sad that they messed something so simple and out there for so long up like this.

I'm more surprised this kind of stuff doesn't happen more often. With vehicles becoming rolling computers and billions of lines of code to make them do what they do. I could see connected cars and trucks just download patches for things like this in the future. This plays right into the cars being totaled thread. They are cramming so much crap into new vehicles that minor accidents cause major and expensive repairs. 

[Drew Dowdell]

I want to say another manufacturer got hit with something similar about a year ago... airbags that didn't go off in certain situations and it was programming related.

I know from researching the GM ignition switch recall that the NHTSA already knows there is a certain percentage of crashes where the airbags do not deploy... and even in the GM scandal, the percent of crashes where the airbags didn't deploy due to switch failure was well below the national average.  It makes it really hard to detect a defect in coding or the series-of-unfortunate-events-on-an-ignition-switch that ends up causing a fatality.   You're talking a sample size of a percent of a percent of crashes at best, and then you only start to see the defect when large numbers of vehicles are cranked out.