Intermittent Dash power?

[DFrank]

At first I thought it was just the radio, but now it seems like all the power goes out to the entire dash board for a half second or so at a time. Sometimes every 20 to 30 seconds, sometimes not for a few minutes. One time all the lights on the panel lit up, like they do when you first start the truck. Did that 4 or 5 times and then stopped. This morning it did that once, then left the lamp out light on for most of the morning. All lamps appeared to be lit.



Lamp out light is gone, but still losing power to the radio and dash in quick little burtsts. the truck still runs fine other than that.



Any ideas?



Thanks, Dave

 

[rbattelle]

Sounds to me like a faulty ground somewhere. Could also be a front control module problem. Hard to diagnose without a good multimeter and wiring diagram.

Ryan

 

[DFrank]

The good news is, it has not gotten any worse. I haven't seen any weird lights come on the dash, except the one time. I noticed it only once or twice today.

Ryan, What is the front control module? Might it be cheap enough that I should try replacing it? Is it a "user serviceable" part?

I do have a multi meter. What might I test? Since it only goes out for a split second at a time, it seems like it might be impossible to find.

Thanks, Dave

 

[DFrank]

I stuck this up in 911 now but figured I'd add it here in case anyone was paying attention.



Today it stalled and NOTHING works.



The only sign of power is the little security light over on the bottom right, just left of the temp gauge. interestingly enough I have never noticed this light before.



I am on the original batteries, but have never seen any signs of them fading.



After it stalled, it went up on the flat bed. As the tow guy was putting it back in park and setting the brake, I noticed the dome light come on. I then started it and had him unload it. It restarted several times, with no signs of shorting out. I drove it 100 yards before it stalled and went back up on the flat bed off to the dealer.



I figured they would not have been able to do anything with it while it was actually working.



I hate taking it there, but it has a few miles left on the extended warrantee, so maybe it will be covered.



They are running electrical diagnostics, for $100. Anything I should be leery about if they start suggesting random parts to replace?



I use this truck for work every day, and really need it back on the road ASAP.



Thanks, Dave

 

[rbattelle]

So what happened?

Ryan

 

[DFrank]

They said it was a loose connection under the fuse box. They said it looked like a home wiring project gone bad. The couple of things that I've wired were no where near there, so I wasn't sure what it might have really been. The service writer didn't really know and the mechanic had gone when I picked it up. Got a u-joint replaced under warrantee while I was in there.