Dash warning lights

[GHedrick]

My brake light and my abs light randomly come on every time I drive the truck. Might be 2 miles might be 25 miles but every trip it comes on. I replaced the sensors on the front wheels but that didn’t help. As a side note the cruise control surges now and then, also a random thing.
Searched around can’t find anything other than the sensors.

2005 dodge 2500 ram almost 300,000 miles

 

[Yo Hoot]

Possibly bad clockspring in the steering wheel.

 

[GHedrick]

Possibly bad clockspring in the steering wheel.

I just went back thru all of the post and found one about the clock spring, I missed it the first time so I will look into that, thanks for the info.

 

[GHedrick]

Well it took the YouTube guy 16 minutes to change his. Took me an hour longer but it’s done and so far no lights coming on driving around. Never heard of a clock spring or owned a vehicle long enough to wear one of those out so this was a first for me. Thanks for the info Yo Hoot

Next have to read the engine forum saw a post once over there that said what needed to be done at 300,000 miles. Never thought I would get there but I’m less than 4000 miles away.

 

[Ozymandias]

There is nothing that needs to be done at any milage of our engines aside from regular LOF.

 

[Yo Hoot]

I have a video on YouTube too.

 

[GHedrick]

Well took a longer drive today and unfortunately the lights came back on so I guess the clock wasn’t the problem.

 

[Ozymandias]

Pretty easy to diagnose if you hook it up to a DRB III or wiTech.
So a trip to a dealer it is - costs less then the parts cannon.

I have an idea what it could be - but that would be also an educated guess only.
Had this problem years ago and gave me some headaches.

I'll tell once I hear what diagnostic codes you have.
And yes there are safed codes to read, just needs the proper equipment to do so.

 

[Randomrunner12]

have your batteries tested. Ozy helped me with this issue when I had a 4th gen and we traced everything possible before replacing parts. On a whim we decided I go have my batteries tested and turned out by passenger side had dead cells in it. Replaced both batteries and problem never came back. Had same issue on this truck about 2 months after I bought it and same thing. dead cells in passenger battery.

Its also free to do and easy to have done to eliminate a possible problem.

 

[K7NUT]

I think you may have fixed your issue by now, but I thought I would throw my '96 12V w/rear drum brakes into this.
I kept getting my BRAKE lite ABS lite coming on under certain braking, took alot of trial & error to see exactly what the the braking issue was to cause the lites to come on, BTW, when they both come on like mine did, that means I popped the STOP LAMP fuse...everytime!
I tried sucking out the brake reservoir, cleaning it and breeding the brakes, that helped, but did not completely solve the issue. I then tried replacing the ABS sensor on the rear diff, but it would still pop the fuse. At that point, I ended up tearing into the drum brakes, because it did seem to come from the starboard rear wheel and that's when I found it!
Somehow, the front rubber cover for the rod(caliper), got wedged under the rod, so it did not have the travel it needed and I guess it could not return the shoe. I did a complete shoe replacement in the rear and also replaced the calipers, I had done the brakes all around(have to check my log book)with new rotors/drums, so they were fine. Every since I replaced that caliper. I no longer get the BRAKE/ABS lites and popped fuse. That was a drag, because when that happened, I had no brake lights.

 

[Yo Hoot]

I think you may have fixed your issue by now, but I thought I would throw my '96 12V w/rear drum brakes into this.
I kept getting my BRAKE lite ABS lite coming on under certain braking, took alot of trial & error to see exactly what the the braking issue was to cause the lites to come on, BTW, when they both come on like mine did, that means I popped the STOP LAMP fuse...everytime!
I tried sucking out the brake reservoir, cleaning it and breeding the brakes, that helped, but did not completely solve the issue. I then tried replacing the ABS sensor on the rear diff, but it would still pop the fuse. At that point, I ended up tearing into the drum brakes, because it did seem to come from the starboard rear wheel and that's when I found it!
Somehow, the front rubber cover for the rod(caliper), got wedged under the rod, so it did not have the travel it needed and I guess it could not return the shoe. I did a complete shoe replacement in the rear and also replaced the calipers, I had done the brakes all around(have to check my log book)with new rotors/drums, so they were fine. Every since I replaced that caliper. I no longer get the BRAKE/ABS lites and popped fuse. That was a drag, because when that happened, I had no brake lights.

Drum brakes don't have calipers. They have wheel cylinders. I don't understand how an issue with a wheel cylinder effects the ABS light and blows a fuse. Maybe someone here knows a bit more.

 

[K7NUT]

Sorry, wheel cylinders, not calipers.
If you do figure out if the wheel cylinders do or don’t affect the ABS system, my ‘96 would like to hear about it…because it’s fixed, been fixed…that’s why I threw this on here, it was weird to me too, but I’m just glad it’s fixed.