I had a very weird thing happen to me tonight right as I was about to exit the highway, I don't remember if I had applied the brakes yet, but I do think I had just let off the gas and started slowing down with the EB when all of a sudden all the lights on the instrument cluster came on as if I had just started the truck, EB turned off, and I got a check engine light, but no messages appeared on the EVIC, thankfully the engine didn't shut down...I don't think I want to know what would have happened if it did.

When I got to my destination, I first checked to make sure everything was still kosher under the hood. I shut her down and pulled the codes with the Black Maxx.

Can anyone provide any insight about the following codes and what may have caused it to do what it did? Both lost communication.

U0121 - Lost Communication With Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS) Control Module
U0141 - Lost Communication With Body Control Module A

I cleared the codes before restarting the truck and everything seemed fine on the way home. Should I be worried about anything and take it in or just consider it a fluke if it doesn't happen again?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Josh

 

Honestly. Radio interference.

The WIN (wireless ignition nodule, I think thats right) can be subject to interference. My CB in my truck, if it pushes enough wattage (I have it juiced up a bit ) it will do exactly what you described. It will even cause the windshield wipers to cycle. Scared the Holy Bejeezus outta me the first time it happened.

Was there any big trucks or radio towers or anything like that in the area that may have zapped you with a huge signal. May be what happened?!?!?!

 

REALLY!!! WOW good info.

 

Oh great, like those 1st gen guys needed any more reason to hate our 4th gen trucks

"Only cockroaches and 1st gen CTD's will survive the nuclear holocaust"

 

No worries. I can fight em from behind enemy lines....

 

WOW! Radio Interference! Why in the world would they would they make a vehicles control system wireless? That is just plain ridiculous. I know all about of what you speak of. It wasn't much but I ran a 100 watt in my Jeep. I guess when I am having a bad day I'll go buy a new setup and park right off the highway.

There were some big trucks around...radio towers...probably, everything is disguised like a palm tree out here.

Thanks for letting me know that. I guess our trucks will need tinfoil wrapped around them as well

 

Well to be honest, it just just affects the bus system, but has never shut the truck down. Just cycles some of the instrument lights and the wipers and such. Kinda like they anticipated interference and only gave permissions to the WIN to control some systems.

Stupid in my book. What the heck ever happen to a plain ole key?????

 

Well that makes since, at least they were smart enough to limit access.

As far as the key, that's what I'm talking about. If it hasn't happened yet, someone will devise a way to bypass the FOBIK and use a carved piece of wood to start it...

 

Actually, you can stick your finger in there and turn it to run, just says invalid key...

Guess I dont have the right finger...

 

Just stuck my partially chopped off left thumb in that there ignition with the key in hand and started her right up

 

Thread creep, but for a while my '93 CTD's headlights would suddenly fail. On the curvy mountain forest roads I travel the first time it happened it was a check my underwear moment.

I turned out to be a weak headlight switch.

 

Yeah...I wish everything was just wired directly together. There really isn't a good reason to use anything wireless on new vehicles. At least if it was all wired, it would be a tad bit easier to troubleshoot and it would keep stuff like what happened to me from happening.

I'm sure the engineers had good intentions, but since it was created by man, it will be defeated by man. I think as these "high tech" components are used more widely, it will be just a matter of time before someone cracks the code and uses it for all the wrong reasons.

 

huh, the other day i put my high beams on and they flashed 3 times then shut off while driving 50 on curvy back roads. startling but whatever. i tried them a few more times and they were dead. the next night i tried them out and they flashed 3 times but stayed on. later that night and ever since they work fine. is this the kind of stuff we will have to expect with all of this great technology? i did look under hood and saw no blown fuses or anything out of place.

 

It was quite a while ago, but does anybody remember when anti-lock brakes were first federally mandated for heavy trucks? They went away for a few years, and when they came back they were required on all vehicles. The story I heard at the time was that the original version (really crude by today's standards, so it wasn't foolproof like the modern systrems) would pick up stray radio signals that it interpreted as indicating brake lock-up. Its response was to release the brakes as long as the signal was present. Result: a truck with no brakes. The feds supposedly backed off on the requirement (the only time in history?) and didn't bring it back until the system had been perfected. Does anybody remember more details, or was the story just a myth?