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Popular truck forums are filled with complaints about the Uconnect systems in the 2017 Ram 1500. There are multiple complaints with the Navigation systems malfunctioning and the radios getting poor reception. The complaint I saw today is an odd one. TS writes about his radio freezing up. “Odd issue with the 8.4 Nav radio on my new 2017 Ram - buttons stopped working! Basically the only way I could change the radio station was with the rotary knob - the steering wheel buttons, touch buttons, everything else wouldn't work. I power cycled the truck a couple times – didn’t do anything. Finally at home I had the truck shutdown for about an hour, and then everything was fine. Has anyone run into this?”
Several owners suggested that TS at least start keeping notes about the problem. Others suggested he try asking the dealer. Hunter, from New Jersey, says “I would start a paper trail in case you have an issue when the warranty is up.”
Possibly tied to Uconnect updates?
Yankee suggested that the locking or freezing up could be tied to service that Uconnect is currently conducting. “I wonder if had anything to do with the satellite download update that FCA is doing this month. It didn't affect my radio, as far as i can tell.
It does mention that you could lose your presets. The download took between 10 - 15 minutes. Then it rebooted & updated the system which took another 3 - 5 minutes.”
TS called two dealers but they were unable to help him over the phone.
Tricks to reboot the Uconnect system on the 2017 Ram 1500
Jockey points out that all computers need a little help sometimes. “It is a computer so a re-boot sometimes works. If anyone can explain why you have to do that I'd be ever so grateful.”
Great idea but how do you reboot the system? TS asked the service representative on the phone and the answer was surprisingly low-tech. “The guy says "Well, you could unplug the battery when you get home" lol Thanks for the re-set tip!”
Disconnecting the battery may be low-tech but it works. I learned that the hard way when the MyFord Touch system went haywire on a Ford Fusion, we had rented. It isn’t pretty but it works in a pinch.
AJ has the best advice about how to handle rebooting the system. He learned it from a service tech after his radio locked up in his 2016 Ram 1500. “A similar thing happened to me a year ago with a new 2016 LongHorn as I left the dealership with it. I didn't notice it for a few miles because I was concentrating on navigating the interstate system in OKC, but when I went to change the station or work with the nav system, it was frozen. I called the dealership and they put me through to service. The best he could offer was "it must be downloading an update" and then said to shut the vehicle off and see if it was frozen when I restarted. It worked fine when I restarted the vehicle and never gave me another problem. You can manually reboot the nav system by pushing in on the center of the volume and tuner knobs at the same time and holding them down for a few seconds. You should see the system power down and then boot back up. Hopefully yours will be a very limited experience as well. My other units have all performed with no issues at all. Best of luck with it.”
Now that is great advice to know! I wonder if that same rebooting helps at all with the Navigation system that has given people fits. At least if your radio freezes up, this is an approach to try.
Mary Conway covered the Detroit Three for more than twenty years for the ABC affiliate, in Detroit. Her affection for the Motor City comes naturally. Her father ran a gas station while Mary was growing up, in Wisconsin. Follow Mary on Twitter at @maryconwaymedia.
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2018 RAM 1500 Laramie. I have
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2018 RAM 1500 Laramie. I have had quite a few annoying issues with this truck. A bad clock spring which the dealer fixed after the 3rd visit. My Sirius XM radio presets reset periodically on their own, as do the FM stations. The Homelink garage door opener also resets itself after working for a week or so. On the upside, I am now an expert at programming it as I have done it about 7 times in 3 months.
I am going to try going back to the dealer to see what they can do. I'm guessing it's not much
I have had 7 radios and my
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I have had 7 radios and my 8th one is messed up. The Navigation works when it wants to along with the Satellite Radio. The front door speakers are real muffled sounding, have replaced Satellite antenna, Amp and 7 radios. I have a 2017 1500 Laramie,this has been going on since May 2018. Dealership is doing everything possible to make it right, Uconnect is the problem... they don't know how to fix it.
Where do I start, I have a
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Where do I start, I have a 2017 1500 Laramie Crew Cab love the truck get 22-24mpg the radio/gps is worthless have had seven radios and counting the satellite radio works when it wants to along with the gps, We have made 2 trips from Louisiana to Colorado and one to Pennsylvania and have had to use my 10 year old Garmin Nuvi because you guessed the gps would not work took it to the dealer(not where I bought the truck wouldn't let them touch a go cart) but to the best CDJR in the country in my opinion at least 14 times and the engineers a Ram can't figure it out UConnect is corrupted my door speakers are muffled to the point of not hearing them, so far the have changed 7 radios, 1 amp, 2 satellite antennas 1 body control module and it still isn't fixed. Have got nothing but lip service from a case manager from UConnect and even less than that from The Ram case manager. I am very disgusted $55,000 truck that doesn't work and what will go wrong next. There is more detail but there isn't enough room to write it all. I have bought 4 trucks and a Charger over the last 20 years from CDJR. Don't like to use FCA because they are more the problem than anything else. Again, my current dealer is the best and their hands arew tied because the have to do what Ram recommends!!!
Radio number 9, I am on radio
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In reply to Where do I start, I have a by Richard Ray (not verified)
Radio number 9, I am on radio number nine, the other two did the same thing just quit working, I have lost most of my confidence in Ram, the backup camera went out for the fourth time, as long as the crap out before 2 years they have to replace them, hell, I can hardly make 6 months let alone 2 years, UConnect and Ram Care need to get their shit together!!!
If you're still having
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In reply to Radio number 9, I am on radio by Richard Ray (not verified)
If you're still having trouble...I also have a 2017 RAM 1500 Laramie Crew Cab. The XM portion of my 8.4 UConnect just stopped working back in November and since then it would work for about 15 minutes each day then quit until the next day. I tried hundreds of resets and even replaced the sharkfin antenna. Nothing helped. Then I called Infotainment and, at first, I was going to buy a replacement radio from them for about $1300 but then the guy said I could also send them my radio and they could repair it for a lot less. So, I sent it to them, they replaced the motherboard in the radio with a new one and now it works fine. The worst part was a hole in my dash for less than 2 weeks but it was $1000 cheaper to have it repaired. They were easy and nice to deal with.
It is the uconnect system not
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In reply to Radio number 9, I am on radio by Richard Ray (not verified)
It is the uconnect system not the Ram truck. Uconnect refuses to admit fault and will offer nothing to fix the issue. Everything on my ram has been great except the damn radio. Nav, xm, cameras, are all ran off the uconnect system. Hopefully Ram realizes the mistake in going with them and find a better alternative to install in future models.
2016 Ram Sport. Kept having
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2016 Ram Sport. Kept having starting problems. Dead battery after two hours of sitting. Finally brought it to dealer..they diagnosed a bad radio. Had a parasitic draw. Was causing the computer to do all kinds of strange things. Would not accept fuel, engine light on..waiting for a new radio.
Same issue, it is killing my
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In reply to 2016 Ram Sport. Kept having by Maureen (not verified)
Same issue, it is killing my battery.
2013 RAM Big Horn bought new,
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2013 RAM Big Horn bought new, August 2013. Uconnect 5.0 almost immediately starting locking up on the last Sirius/XM channel I was listing to before stopping the engine. Screen would be totally grey with the same 5 numbers every time this happened. Also sometime a black screen with nothing on it. Sometimes it'd clear soon, sometimes not until the next day. After a year of complaining they finally replaced it. The 2nd one started the same crap within a few thousand miles. Now, with 158,000 miles on the truck, at Christmas 2018, the radio locked up, grey screen with RAM logo showing, no sound, no functions, even the USB ports aren't working!!!!!!!! UCONNECT SUUUUUUUXXXXXX!!!!!!!!!. Can't get ANY help from Chrysler. This problem is absolutely widespread in EVER Fiat/Chrysler product these infotainment centers go in!!
The radio in my 2014 Ram 1500
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The radio in my 2014 Ram 1500 started switching 1 FM frequency channel up or down (to static) and then switching back to my station. When I had my iPhone connected and listening to Spotify, it would sit there and cycle through songs jumping back and forth between songs at random points in the song.
Holding down the volume and tuner buttons on the knobs and rebooting the system while the truck is running seems to have corrected this very odd behavior for now. IDK maybe there is something that remains persistent in between the truck power cycles but gets rebooted doing the 2 button hold down, no idea. For now my sanity is restored :)
Thank you for the low tech tip!
My navigation doesn't work
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My navigation doesn't work properly. I have been traveling the same route for 21 years getting home. I have started using the navigation just for information about interstate problems ahead so I can detour. My system started telling me to get off interstate 50 miles before my normal exit (no problem on Interstate) and when I did get off at my exit it told me to go right when I live to the left. When I got on 2 lane roads it kept telling me to turn rather than go directly home. Ram should act responsibility and have a recall on navigation and radio problems.
2017 ram 1500 fuel
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2017 ram 1500 fuel information screen is missing from the display. all other stuff is there as I scroll threw. Is this something I can do myself or does this have to go back to Chrysler for repair?
i have 2019 ram rebal my
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i have 2019 ram rebal my radio just started to blast turned it all the way down and then tried turning it up it went to one and it was blasting again i did a soft reboot then tried it did not help went back hour later everything was ok
My 2016 1500 with 15k miles
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My 2016 1500 with 15k miles just went to the shop. Yep, you guessed it. They are ordering a new radio. Radio locked up with msg that an update was needed to be scheduled. After 4 days radio still unusable. Called Uconnect, they walked me through a reboot then said if it doesn't work, will have to take it to dealer. Now new radio on order.
2019 Dodge 1500 bighorn.
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2019 Dodge 1500 bighorn. Radio went from volume 2 to full blast I thought the speakers were going to blow came back 10 hrs later working
Made a appointment with dodge dealerships to check out. They don’t know
2017 Ram Sport. AM & FM
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2017 Ram Sport. AM & FM frozen but Sirius still works. Going to try this reboot and see what happens.
Got out of my truck to get
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Got out of my truck to get gas and when I got back in, my radio wasn’t working. The screen wouldn’t even come on. Tried a manual reset, but still nothing.
2018 ecodiesel laramie. I am
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2018 ecodiesel laramie. I am having issues with my vents not changing to face vents. It stays on defrost. It will switch to the floor and defrost only. Blend door works. Replaced the Heater/AC module. Still not working. If I unplug the module it will however switch on its own. Could this be the radio head unit causing this. How do I check it. I just do not think its sending the message when I push that button on the screen.
I own a 2018 Ram. The radio
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I own a 2018 Ram. The radio has crystalized and basically melted from the inside. Started with just visual issue where you could see the liquid melted in the screen, now radio/navigation does not work. I have found several people with the same issue. If the vehicle is still under warranty the dealers are replacing them. Unfortunately even though my vehicle is only 2 years old, I am out of warranty due to mileage. The navigation/display system seem to be defaulted but Dodge has not recalled. I am looking for others with the same issue to join a class action suit I am putting together. Seems to be more of a problem in the south especially Texas and Florida. If you have the same issue email me at [email protected]
Have a 2018 RAM 2500 6.7
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Have a 2018 RAM 2500 6.7 diesel. Radio got hot and plastic is delaminating and does not work.. Other associated electrical problems. Vehicle sits dead in the driveway. Refurbished unit ordered by the dealer two weeks ago. They advise it may take weeks to get another radio and they have 12 radios on order total and can not give a definite repair date. I'm in a rental vehicle and this ordeal appears it will cost me thousands of dollars.
I have a 2018 Ram Laramie. My
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I have a 2018 Ram Laramie. My radio channel hops. Goes from one to another and back again, sometimes so frequently that I cannot keep up with the channel it is on. Sometimes it randomly switches from satellite to AM or FM. It does the random channel changes there to. Then the Navigation map pops on and off or the Change Clock warning pops on. Any suggestions?
I have the same exact issue
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In reply to I have a 2018 Ram Laramie. My by Ron Dinges (not verified)
I have the same exact issue on my 2018 Ram 2500 Laramie..
Having issue with navigation
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Having issue with navigation saying I'm in Texas. But I'm actually in Pennsylvania. It doesn't move either. Also the XM radio just say acquiring signal. That's it. Some pls help just spent $100 for dealer to update thinking it would work when it did nothing at all
Hi I had this happen in my
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In reply to Having issue with navigation by Jacob kline (not verified)
Hi I had this happen in my 2022 ram 2500 navigation radio . I could not click my presets to change the station. I followed the reboot here where you hold the power button in a few seconds until powers off. Power back on and all is good. I thought I'd share what I did and say thanks. I know computers like a reboot sometimes.
Have a 2014 Dodge Ram1500
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Have a 2014 Dodge Ram1500 Limited. Well my radio doesn’t display artist an song being played. On the screen it shows station an emergency never. What’s up with that?