New kink in modern pickups..

[Crosley.In.AZ]

Here is a new kink in the modern vehicles.. and why I grow more PO'd with them

2007 Dodge 2500HD truck , diesel , crew cab .... a fellow at work owns

On a road trip back from Calliefornia with 26 foot enclosed trailer in tow.  The trailer wires  short out, trailer brakes stop operating.

The fellow checks the wires, fixes the problem. NO brakes on trailer.

He checks fuses in fuse box locations , all fuse good.  NO trailer brakes.

He drives back to Phoenix carefully with trailer in tow.

A call to a mechanic friend at a Mopar dealer up the road from the shop... "OH, I need to come down there with the scanner.  You flipped the internal switch in the " ?? something ?? module" .  The truck owner asks " the what?"?

Scanner applied to the truck... the internal "switch inside the module  box" is flipped over = no trailer brakes.

So now if your trailer shorts out something, you need a dealer scanner to reset some G-D module , not replace a fuse.

:?  :?

[Rrumbler]

Kind'a smacks of "planned obsolescence"; things designed to wear out and break so you must buy a new one to get it fixed.  They've got it fixed so you're dependent on the dealer or an authorized, licensed shop to perform any maintenance on the new vehicles, unless you want to spend a bunch on the scanners and computer interfaces, and learn to do it yourself, and in some places that may be illegal, too.

[enjenjo]

I had a similar problem on my brother's 97 Dodge pickup. The tail lights shorted out on the trailer. But after the short was fixed, I could not find a blown fuse, and had no power to the tail lights. I called him, and since this truck was not factory equiped with a tow package, there was an added fuse box. It did not take standard fuses, I had to hunt for a couple hours on a sunday to find someone who had one that fit.

[Rrumbler]

I had an '89 Chevy Dually that had a brake light switch failure (switch literally broke in two pieces) that messed with all sorts of stuff that was connected through the ECM; anti-lock brakes, cruise control, A/C-heater, radio, auto-multi-speed wipers, and fuel injection.  It probably would have shown to have messed up the trailer brakes too, if I had hooked the trailer up while it was giving me trouble.  It finally died right in the dealers driveway, and after they fixed it (replaced the brake light switch), no more "spooks".  I'm sure they reset the ECM.

[BFS57]

Hello;
This reminds me of what happened to a guy here at work. He recently purchased a BMW car, really nice, his brother in law works for the dealer, eh got a great deal! Well, comes time to change the oil, the light comes on to tell you that the oil needs changed. He calls around and finds out that it costs $80.00 to change the oil, but thats not where it stops! It costs an additional $150.00 to have the dealer turn the light off!!!!
Guess what, He trades off the car for a Dodge Truck!!!

Bruce

[wayne petty]

i know its too late...

but on imported car oil changes...     the oil change tech is supposed to reset the oil change light with his oil change light plug in tool even if the oil change light is NOT on..  this is why the oil change service costs 80 bucks..

here is the cheepest BMW light reset tool i have ever seen

http://www.autoditto.com/bmw-service-oil-inspection-light-reset-tool-1987-2001.html

takes an extra 2 minutes to reset the light with a oil change light reset tool...    80 to 300 bucks.. for the tool...


i have been looking at scan tools...  

the HF98614 does a decent job...

http://www.harborfreight.com/can-obd-ii-code-reader-eobd-scanner-98614.html

but i am really looking at a autoxray techscan 7000

http://www.autoxray.com/product_detail.php?pid=136

yes.. not cheep...  

and one needs this to do ABS brakes with it...

http://www.autoxray.com/product_detail.php?pid=140

one can find good deals on an even more advanced scan tool

the OTC gensys... these are referbished units..  you save a few bucks..

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=otc+genisys&um=1&resnum=3&ie=UTF-8&cid=3614108270715032841&ei=p0tgTL-PEIXksQPk-9ypCw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CD8Q8wIwBA#ps-sellers


being able to fix it your self .. without taking it to a dealer..  priceless..


and.. no i am not made out of money...  i don't even like spending other peoples money...   but if you did not know that these products existed so you don't have to take your car or truck to the dealership or buying some cheep scan tool that does not do the job..

the reason i am looking at the AX7000....   it does OBD1 systems also displays live data streams.. where some of the other obd1 and 2 scan tools only display codes for the obd1...  worthless if you plan on fixing anything..