2021 RAM 1500 Complaints

I was driving down the road at 55 when the truck had a throttle error would not respond and shut down. I started it back up same errors would not go over 30 mph almost causing an accident causing someone to hit me from behind.

While driving my truck at approximately 70MPH on the highway, the truck shut down. I was able to pull off the side of the road and dashboard showed the message of Electronic Throttle Control and the engine light turned on. This is the third report I have filed regarding this truck shutting down while driving and the 7th time this truck has randomly shut down on me since purchasing in July 2021. This has been on the dealership 2 separate times and is going in tomorrow for a third time for this issue, I no longer feel safe driving this truck and feel this incident should be address as soon as possible,

As I’m preparing to turn on the road the vehicle turns off and leaves me stranded in the middle of the roadway. The parking brake comes on and messages appear on the dash. This has happened multiple times with and without passengers in the vehicle. I’ve reported it to Lithia Ram Jeep in Calallen and was brushed off. I’ve taken pictures of the dash on a few occasions when it occurred. I am the first owner and it happened with less than 3-5 k miles.

I purchased the new vehicle in May 2021. As a single individual, normally I am alone in the vehicle. While on a trip to Florida my niece was sitting in the rear-passenger seat with the window partially open and sustained a very slight cut on her forearm from the window. After inspection, there is a visible deformation of the glass. Back in Chicago I waiting until my first oil change was due and reported the glass defect to the dealer service department. The service manager decided that the glass was not defective but possibly damaged by transport from the factory. They refused to address the issue. I contacted Ram customer service and was told to keep visiting other dealers until I find one willing to address the issue. Auto door window glass is Tempered and if damaged during transport, would have shattered. Also as evident in the attached photos, there is no damage to the outside of the glass where transport damage would have occurred, plus the area where the defect is visible would have been enclosed within the door frame during transport. My concern is the possibility of another individual cutting themselves on the deformed glass. I am even more concerned that the structural integrity of the glass might be compromised by the defect and the glass shattering in a passenger's face without warning.

Power steering intermittently fails. Loss of power steering while driving and service power steering warning message and beeps turn on during failure then shuts off when power steering restored. Loss of power steering nearly caused an accident. Symptoms started two weeks ago and increasing in frequency and severity. I am bringing truck back to dealer for investigation.

Truck showed "Service Electronic Throttle"... Truck has 13,000 miles on it. Along with the service code, rear view camera doesn't work, backup sensors don't work, and remote start will not operate. No apparent throttle issues, but concerned for safety with rear view camera and backup sensors not operating. It would be nice to have the remote start as its winter, but only an inconvenience for that matter.

Vehicle has shut off on me a total of 7 time on me while driving since I purchased on Jan 2 2021. The first time this happened was about 2 weeks after I bought the truck. Each time has been about the same conditions. While driving at low speeds “around 5 mph” my truck automatically shut itself off. At this point it automatically engages the emergency brake. I then have to put shifter back in park, put my foot back on the brake to restart my truck then turn off the emergency brake. At this point I am able to shift back to drive and go. Two of the times this happened I was in a high traffic area where I almost got rear-ended. My vehicle does not throw out any codes and the dealership has not been able to duplicate. First time I took it to the dealer they had it for about 2 or 3 days. The second time they had it for 3 1/2 weeks. The 3rd time I took it in to a different dealer and they said they came across a bulletin somewhere that said the needed to change out the MGU, which they replaced yesterday. Hopefully this fixes the issue. A vehicle shutting down randomly is very dangerous. I have been reading a lot of forums and this seems to be a common problem that needs to get fixed or recalled somehow. The date and mileage on the next section are from the last time this happened. But like I said earlier this has been happening since early January 2021.

I bought a new truck from a dealership with an open recall on it. I didn’t think anything of it, since they assured me they would fix it once they could. About a month after I purchased it, the dealer called me and told me they were not legally supposed to sell me the truck in the first place and that I had to bring my truck back to their lot indefinitely and leave it their until they could fix the recall, that currently has no remedy to it. I told them I was uncomfortable with this, and I didn’t think it seemed right. They told me they would call me back the next day, but it had now been a week later, and I have not heard anything from them since then. I’m not sure if this is the appropriate way to handle this, but I have been unable to get anymore information from the dealership, and the whole ordeal seemed very odd to say the least.

I was driving on the highway when all of sudden my truck shut down, I coasted to the emergency lane and was unable to restart my truck, I waiting about 10 minutes, restarted my truck and had to keep pumping the throttle to keep it running to get to my destination. I was able to have an OBD reader connected to my truck at a dealership and there were 3 codes stored all relating to fuel. This happened to me in twice in November of 2021 and again twice on January 7th of this year. I also received another code at the dealership on January 8th regarding another recall. These combined total of 4 shut downs have put me and my family in extreme danger, this brand new truck is unreliable and we are hesitant to drive it.

When starting to accelerate after turning at low speed, my 2021 RAM 1500 with the E-Torque engine will shut-off and the emergency brake will engage. A message will appear that says “Park brake engaged, press brake and push to release.” Truck has 5150 miles on it. This has occurred two different times while entering highway traffic. Very alarming as I’m sure you can imagine. The first time it happened I was on a lightly traveled road and was alone. Then today (1/9/22), It happened again, but this time on a much busier highway and my family was with me and we were almost rear ended. Not a fun experience and potentially deadly. After researching online, particularly on RAM owner’s website and forums I have found this to be a common complaint among RAM owners. They take vehicle to dealers and the dealers can’t replicate the incident and so they tell customers they can’t help them if it doesn’t happen when technicians drive the truck, yet they send customers away with a potentially deadly vehicle. I am getting an appointment with local dealer tomorrow but I expect the same answer. I sincerely urge the NHTSA to address this dangerous situation with Chrysler-RAM before serious injury or death occurs in these vehicles. Hopefully NHTSA can get RAM to acknowledge this situation and get something done before injuries or deaths occur. Maybe they will address this with a federal agency. They certainly haven’t with their customers. Thank you for your advocacy for the safety of the American people.