RobG

GF was driving the truck around today, came home... went to come get me from work and tried to start the truck. It'd fire after prolonged cranking, and immediately die. It now says No Bus in the mileage area on the dash.

I checked all the fuses under the hood and they appear to be good. With the key on and the dash lights all lit up, I hear something clicking under the hood, but can't pinpoint where.

It's been cold here lately, but not as cold as it has been. Today's temps were in the upper teens, and the truck is still plenty warm from being driven earlier. I've been keeping it plugged in whenever ngihttime temps dip into the single digits, which wasn't the case last night (low was 11).

I tried draining the fuel filter... got fuel out of it, so it's not a water issue that I can tell. Could a clogged fuel filter be the cause? I'd rather not change it if I don't have to... was changed not all that long ago.

I'm posting this here because I need to have it towed to the dealer (I still have warranty) if I can't get it started, and try to get a ride to work for my gf. Fortunately I work a mile from the house and can walk if needed.

Thanks!

Rob

dieselrob

I had a code for no bus on mine when i had some major tranny probs. It has to do with the computers communicating with each other, basicaly electrical prob somewhere. I had all kinds of little electric probs wit the tranny fried due to water in it, but i never asked the mech what he did to fix that stuff. So all i can say is it was a computer prob in my 99.

DIESELRYAN3500

Right Beside Each Battery Is A Black 12ga. Wire With A Gray Clip. Make Sure You Are Getting A Good Connection Or But Connect Them Togethere. I Have Many People Who Changed Out Batteries Hit The Wire, Causing It To Pull Apart Some, Causing The No Bus On The Dash

RobG

Had the truck towed to the dealer. They're telling me the instrument cluster is bad... intermittently. All of the various control modules have been unable to connect to it, which is why it hasn't been starting.

They insist it's the cluster, though I told them about the wiring harness being the problem (that I read about here).

Downside is the cluster installed is at least $1200, as my "basic" warranty expired less than 5000 miles ago. I'm hesitant at best to have this done knowing this might not be the problem. Besides, I shouldn't have to spend that kind of money on this freakin' POS anyway. It looks like the truck is going back to the bank. No, I'm not kidding.

This has been by far the most problematic vehicle I've ever owned. My last two Dodges were virtually trouble free. This will likely be the last Dodge I ever own.

*sigh*

Rob

J BODY

"NO BUS" can be a major pita. Generally I'll do a module scan and see if ANY of the modules are able to communicate. From there you generally unhook one at a time until you get communication. It can even be a sensor shorted on a certain system. It's possible that they did this test and found that by unplugging the cluster that it eliminated the prob. Deal is that it's often more complex than any tech deals with on a regular basis. It's probably a three to four times a year deal for me.....and changes from year to year, model to model. Really forces you to think things through which equates to time which in turn is your money. Not to stray to far off track, but I had a 98 truck "no bus" last week. In my eyes the 98 model year was the biggest electrical klusterphu.... ever made. In this case all gauges were dead, abs light on, air bag light on. Truck ran fine. ECM, PCM, ACM, BCM would communicate. ABS, cluster wouldn't........ended up being when the abs module was unhooked all returned to normal. Hooked up the abs and everything remained normal. Turned it back to the customer with the "good luck" explanation (basically if it re-occurs showed him how to unplug the abs module to see if it corrects the prob....been a week and all is well...whew!). So...in a nutshell, you are pretty much at the mercy of who is working on your truck, but if it makes you feel any better I have installed clusters to fix no starts on a couple 03's.

RobG

The dealer called today and said they can push it through some other warranty with a $100 deductable so I said go for it. I should have it back tomorrow or Friday. That's good news, since I was serious about giving it back to the bank.

J-Body, thanks for the tips... glad to hear that the cluster might have been the problem. Makes me feel a bit better about them working on it.

Rob

RobG

Update... got the truck back yesterday with a new guage cluster installed. Now today, it won't start again, same NO BUS error as before. Had it towed back to the dealer again. Farg. Guess I was right... it's not the cluster.

Rob