Re: Need some quick Ram help

From: andy levy (andy-dml@levyclan.us)
Date: Wed May 11 2005 - 06:49:28 EDT


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On 5/10/2005 21:31, jon@dakota-truck.net wrote:
| andy levy <andy-dml@levyclan.us> wrote:
| : Current thinking is that the brake switch attached to the pedal burned
| : out somehow. Dealer #2 said "bring the truck AND trailer in first thing
| : tomorrow and we'll check it all out." Any ideas on what else he could
| : look at tonight? He definitely will not be attempting to bring it home
| : until this is fixed, as he's done the "tow with a bad brake controller"
| : deal before w/ the Durango and it fried his front brakes.
|
|
| Sorry to hear about that - sounds frustrating. I'm probably not going
| to be of much help, but one thing that comes to mind is to check the
| fuses again. *Something* is causing the brake lights not to work. Does
| he have a multimeter he can test with? Is there anything else on the
| brake fuse circuit which he can check to see if its working or not? (Dome
| light, turn signals, etc.) Might be worthwhile to pull the brake lenses
| and just verify that the bulbs are not burnt out and check to see if the
| socket is getting +12v when the lights are on. Check both inside the cab
| and under the hood (PDC) for fuses. See if there are any relays in the
| PDC which relate to the braking system and swap them for a similar relay
| from a sysstem you know is working. If you pull the relay, (and have a
| multimeter) you can also check the relay socket to see if power is
| getting to it, and that the sockets for the relay coil are getting
| voltage when they are supposed to. You can also check the trailer
| connector to see if the brake pin is getting voltage when you hit
| the pedal. The switch for the brake pedal is a good thought, if its
| easily accessible you might want to try jumpering it to see if the
| lights come on, and you can also test at that point to see if one of
| the leads to it has voltage on it.

Wow. That's a lotta stuff. As far as I know he doesn't have any decent
electrical tools with him. He did check things over w/ someone else in
the campground as well, as a second pair of eyes.

| Could be one or more of the above, or something completely different;
| hard to say obviously without actually being there and running some
| tests; maybe that will give them some ideas though. Is there another
| dealer, maybe in the next town or something which will look at it
| without the diagnostic fee? Is the truck still under warranty? If
| so perhaps their fee will be covered unless they try to claim whatever
| the required repair might be is not applicable.

Yep, truck's still under warranty (3/36 I think, and he probably bought
the big extended warranty as well). He already has an appointment with
another dealer that said nothing about the diagnostic fee, and actually
asked him to bring the trailer in so they could diagnose the whole system.

The warranty thing really got me. If it's the aftermarket thing, I
would expect a charge, after diagnosis. For the first dealer to not
even say "well, if it turns out it is warranty, we'll refund the $80" is
just out there. Almost as if they'd made up their mind. As if they
expected a 3/4 ton HD truck to *not* be set up to tow or something.

Anyway, everything I have is 2nd-hand info passed to me from my brother,
I haven't talked to my parents yet.
- --
- -andy

http://home.rochester.rr.com/alevy/dakota - andy-dml@levyclan.us
- --------------------------------------------
"Whatever Adam does, do the opposite and you'll be fine"
        -Bob Tom
- --------------------------------------------
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