OEM electronic brake controller

[fritzcartage]

Hello all,
Was wondering if anyone has had similar problems with their factory brake controller.
Our 2014 Cab & Chassis 4500 is having problems sensing the trailer is connected to the truck.
We have been through the trailer wiring 3 times now, and I can assure that there are no problems with it.
We thought there may be issues with the pigtail connections at the plug on the rear of the truck, but have resolved any issues there.
Sent the truck to the dealer for their opinion on it.
Repair order states - "check trailer brakes, inoperable, found loss of communication with trailer brake module,
codes in multiple modules, has power and ground at ITBM, needs ITBM, ordered part"
They have installed the new ITBM, which I assume is integrated brake module.
We still have the same problem with the truck.
The vehicle pulls a 26,000# GVW trailer, that weighs 6000# and has 15000# on it.
As you can see driving this rig without trailer brakes is very treacherous.
I am at my wits end with this.
Hoping anyone has some advice on what I should try next.
Thanks in advance

 

[MichaelOverfield]

Fritz,
I can't speak of the Dodge integrated brake controller, as my 2009 did not have that option, but I can tell you if it did, I would have NOT wanted it based upon experience with the 2007 GMC that did have it (the "lemon", but for other reasons).

On that truck I had a failed module, which seems to be maybe part of your problem. I was in Spokane, WA, a not too small town, but he GM dealer did not have the part. I had to drive hours to Dave Smith in Kellogg, ID to get it fixed, without trailer brakes... now my situation is far from yours in that respect, even then the truck was heavier than my RV which is about 5500 loaded, so not quite as spooky to go without brakes, but I did take it slow in any case.

I learned from this that the advantages of integrated are destroyed in such situations as yours, and my prior issue. Due to having gone through 3 diesels, first was the best, but a reckless driver totaled it while I was at a near stop.. so onward I had to go.. but I have now 2 Prodigy brake controllers, so I have a spare.. if one fails I swap out and move on smartly, can't do this with the integrated units, and I did find out GM had more issues on this brake controller than just mine, I suspect Dodge will have similar pains (quite likely the same supplier for all brands).. Fords were the first to go this route.. I bet they also once had similar issues too, if not continuing.

With all that said, I would do some serious checking on the trailer end of your business.. I had a short on wired INSIDE my axle tubes, which were also full of water.. so the brakes were intermittently working, and periodically showing short, then overload... VERY DIFFICULT to diagnose, and to be honest I only found it because I decided to re-wire the too small OEM wire and found it.. I though I had bad magnets that were intermittent. I'm not sure how you factory controller would handle issues on the trailer side.. Also, check EACH brake electo-magnet by itself with a OHM meter, it only takes one to get goofy and you'll have issues.. assuming you have that kind of electric brakes. To facilitate this in the future, I used water tight quick connects on each drum brake when I re-wired so I could isolate in future if needed and not have replace everything!

I ended up re-wiring the entire trailer and replacing all brakes and rotors (it was not much more than just the magnets by themselves for my trailer, but yours is much heavier, and no doubt more expensive.

 

[Tuesdak]

Have you gone back to the dealer a second time to repair further issues?

As above intermittent shorts in trailer wiring is just standard issue trailer. So are internally corroded wires or broken wires. Complete trailer re-wireing and replacement of all the magnets aka shotgun approach sometimes is what it takes. No, don't just rewire the brake wires - re-wire EVERYTHING on the trailer plug and toss the old plug itself and wires from the plug! Sometimes it's a simple one ground to be bad or a dead trailer brake battery to mess things up. The bad ground can be on the truck side.

Yes, the replace with standard brake controller is a solution.

We had luck with a 2008 Duramax going at least a trouble free 115K on the integrated brake controller with bad trailer wiring including one mis-wired trailer that burned the trailer ground wire clean off the truck harness. We had to send the trailer back to the factory and replace the truck's 5th wheel trailer plug and replace the ground wire.

 

[MichaelOverfield]

One other Troubleshooting option came to mind.. find a known good trailer that someone else is using with no current issues.. hook it up, take it for a test drive... if you still have problems.. then you know it is the truck.. if not.. trailer.. now having said that.. it is entirely possible it is still both, that is where troubleshooting gets real interesting!

 

[p-Bar]

This is a good read even if you think you know it all. Do like the idea of an extra controller I may a used one for this purpose.

http://www.rvdoctor.com/2002/02/electric-trailer-brake-maintenance.html