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Old 08-06-2011, 07:46 AM   #1
patbarton
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Broke my truck!

I did not find a "gear head" buddy as Stiles suggested, quickly enough. I had an afternoon of fun & frolic with some girlfriends planned and replaced a bad taillight bulb. Feeling good about myself I hit the road, and all hell broke loose two miles from the house.

Engine noise changed, cruise control kicked off.

Looked up & saw the "check engine," ABS, and brake warning lights all lit. The status indicator flashed "brakes need service" (where the digital odometer is), and the indicator lights that tell me what gear I'm in all were out.

Very little engine power. NO acceleration hardly. No matter, the speedometer had stopped working, too!

Transmission temp gauge was inop, as were all the indicators in my Edge system display (except for EGT). Then the glow plug indicator came on.

I broke all this crap by changing a light bulb???

All it says in my owners manual about all these events happening at the same time is, "Buy a Dodge." Only kidding, it didn't say squat...
 
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Old 08-06-2011, 08:22 AM   #2
Bruce.B
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by patbarton

...
I broke all this crap by changing a light bulb???

All it says in my owners manual about all these events happening at the same time is, "Buy a Dodge." Only kidding, it didn't say squat...
It wasn't the light bulb, it was the blond hair. Happens to me all the time!

Don't panic till a diesel mechanic (who can read out the fault codes) has a look at it. If it didn't make any ugly noise when all this happened, it may well be an electrical fault. Without the right test equipment there's no way to know what you're dealing with.

And if Dodge had an optional Allison transmission I might be in line at the Dodge store right behind you!
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Old 08-06-2011, 08:45 AM   #3
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Hi Pat, sorry to hear about your troubles. Just wanted to tell about an experience we had in 2004 with my F-250. We were on our way to Maine and about an hour into the trip with our camper in tow, we lost the cruise control. Ok., I still have the accelerator. Ten minutes later., lost the AC, Ok, open windows (VERY HOT). Then a short time later, lost the speedometer.., Then the ABS light came on. We went on like this till we got to Maine, and then just before we pulled into the campground, I lost the directionals. Fortunately we had friends traveling with and behind us in a car. After setting up camp. we took the truck to a local Ford dealer. He was busy and could not get to looking at our truck for four days!. However, when they did, they found corrosion in the fuse box under the dash. They changed the fuse box and that cured all the problems. They were so busy they told me the repair was done but they did not have time to see where the water was coming from. At least it was working again. Now, where was the water coming from? After returning home from Maine, I took the truck over to Safelite Glass to see if there might be a leak in the windshield. (Oh yeah. We had the windshield changed by them 6 months earlier). They found that the windshield was improperly installed and leaking water. They replaced the windshield and reimbursed me for the $450 repair bill from Ford in Maine!
We have used Safelite on several occasions and will in the future if the need arises. At least they owned up to a mistake and made good on my end.
Good luck with your repair.
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Old 08-06-2011, 09:01 AM   #4
stiles watson
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Sorry to hear of the truck's ills. Hoping it is less serious than you fear.
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Old 08-06-2011, 09:07 AM   #5
patbarton
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... and I'm gettin' the sniffles, too...

But there's a bright side here, y'all. If this had happened 40 miles or so sooner, I'd have been in Chattanooga rush hour traffic, pulling the trailer! Nowhere near as bad as Atlanta rush hour traffic, but I'd have been really upset!
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Old 08-06-2011, 10:05 AM   #6
dpilot
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Pat, go back and.check your light assembly, if the wire got pinched the smart chicom computer will be that.confused...!!!
After, disconnect your batteries, wait a min or so... then put them back and see what happens... also be.sure.you used the.correct bulb ...
Good luck and let us know the results of the "the light saga.. "

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Old 08-06-2011, 10:23 AM   #7
Ozz
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Good luck Pat, that is just no good.
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Old 08-06-2011, 10:38 AM   #8
Delaine and Lindy
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This may or may not help. Try disconnecting the ground cable from the Battery and wait a few minutes and reconnect. However it sounds as though the computer sent it to Limp mode for some reason. Good Luck.. Happy Trails...
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Old 08-06-2011, 02:53 PM   #9
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Hmmm, sounds like a voltage issue. You ok with basic DC circuit 101? Put a volt meter on the battery and if truck will start voltage should go to 13.5 - 14 volts DC.
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Old 08-07-2011, 04:41 AM   #10
mazboy
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happens to me all the time....
change a light bulb and the muffler falls off.
life is interesting.
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Old 08-07-2011, 05:38 AM   #11
Waynem
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Try calling a mechanic that has the knowledge to fix it. (Just kidding - well maybe not.)

I can imagine what was going through your mind when all those bells and whistles were going off. You can still be proud of the light bulb change, and your story of what it caused can be used around the "campfar" again, and again, and again, and even probably embellish on it a little.

I recently had my SOB in a "factory" service center. They brought it out to the parking lot after "fixing" it, but told me they would have to check in the morning as to why the tachometer, fuel gauge, and voltage gauge were not working. Okay! I go in it started it up and everything was working. the next morning they took it back in and the technician told me he reached up under the dash and pushed on the connector for the LBCU (Light Bar Control Unit) and heard it snap in place.

Things have a tendency to loosen up after our many miles on the highway. Who knows what causes them. You may want to sneak a hand up under the dash and just gently squeeze all the connectors together.

If this works, just pay me 0.10 cents.

No more blonde moments please.
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Old 08-07-2011, 06:32 AM   #12
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I had a similar failure a couple times. It was due to a flaky connection in the main engine harness that occurred when Banks put my exhaust brake module in. On mine issue, disconnecting the battery didn't help. I had to wait about an hour then my truck would start again and everything worked again. They told me it takes about 45 minutes to an hour for the ECM to reset itself.
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Old 08-07-2011, 12:40 PM   #13
patbarton
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Wayne,

Did I mention the left front wheel came loose, too?

Where's that campfar????

Trying the disconnect-the-battery thing first. So far everything under the hood looks secure. No water in the fusebox... It ought to be a good time to stick my hands up under the dash with the battery disconnected, too. Will let you know.

>>>

All the connections I could find were tight. It took a couple of tries to start the engine. Still sounds puny. The only "improvement" I saw was the gear indicator lights; everything else is still messed up.

Off to the shop we go tomorrow.
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Old 08-08-2011, 02:27 AM   #14
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Good luck with it, let us know what happened, hope it is a minor glitch.
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Old 08-10-2011, 05:16 PM   #15
patbarton
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The shop actually found a couple of loose connectors that I didn't find, cleaned the contacts and reassembled. Truck works fine now!

Even though they looked for more than half a day, they only charged me for one hour of labor. YAY!

I'll make sure they show me the culprit connectors before I leave the shop in the morning!
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Old 08-11-2011, 04:20 AM   #16
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That's good news! Glad that's all it was.
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Old 08-11-2011, 07:35 AM   #17
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patbarton...Okay, I give up, where is Rising Fawn, GA?
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Old 08-11-2011, 09:28 AM   #18
SlickWillie
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Glad that's all it was. There were some wiring issues early on with the Duramax trucks. Hopefully they were resolved before 06 model year. One was on the injector harness, and the other was where the wire loom went over the alternator bracket. My 04 had the later wiring issue, which I corrected by slitting a piece of hose and cushioning the wires.
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Old 08-11-2011, 10:37 AM   #19
HamRad
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Pat,
Thanks for sharing and glad it was a relatively simple fix. Happy travels, Dennis.
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Old 08-14-2011, 11:08 AM   #20
sreigle
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Good to hear it's fixed. Long gone are the days I could sit on the fender with my legs inside the engine compartment and do some real troubleshooting. Now I wouldn't know how to find half the parts hanging on today's engines. Or even be able to see them.
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