ABS Light

[James Morse]

Yeah they were out of it. Got CRC MAF cleaner. Is that really about the same, or, should I take that back and wait until they have the right stuff?

Couldn't find silicone grease. How about spraying those outer shields with silicone spray? There was all kinds of gasket sealers but I didn't see the silicone grease. I'll look it up online. Duh.

More info on ABS light. It seems like when I turn the engine on, and I don't know yet if this is "always" but what I'm seeing is ABS light doesn't come on. Tapping the brake doesn't make it come on (or off, if it's on). But if it's on, and I turn the truck off then restart it, it's off. Comes on when I'm driving, whether using the brakes or not. ALSO, I noticed that sometimes the "Check gage" and "Parking brake" lights will flash momentarily, and it *seems* like this happens when I hit a bump. That infers to me that perhaps those lights, and maybe the ABS light (although when that comes on, it stays on), might be caused by a loose connector to the dash. If those other two lights are on the same harness connector, that would really infer that to me. Or it could be two different things or three different things. Those other two lights aren't telling the truth, parking brake is off, and gages look ok. True that it runs very cold, and that's almost for sure a thermostat issue that is cheap and I'm going to fix that, but the gages are ok when "check gage" flashes - they're right in the middle, or "1/2", and it doesn't stay on (nor does the Park brake light), they just flash and go off, not necessarily at the same time... I think. I don't know if that tells you anything. I'm just being real aware of what's happening with the lights and trying to see if there is any pattern to it.

I haven't checked the connector on top of the differential yet, I'll get out my old NAPA creeper and try to do that tomorrow. Thanks for the help.

 

[James Morse]

After all this, finally got some brake fluid, level was marginal, topped it off, and looks like, based on a few miles driving and start/stop engine, that it was the fluid level, which had been mentioned early on by ericbphoto. I should have chased that first, duh. It would make sense that the system would give preference to the brakes working at all, and that the Brakes idiot light would start flashing intermittently if the fluid level were low. Don't know if those things would cause Check Gage light to come on, but I suppose it could, telling me, hey, check stuff. Anyway, if that's all it was, that's an easy fix, as long as it's not losing fluid somewhere, but I'd be able to tell that pretty quick by just looking at the level or if I saw drips on the driveway. I'm not getting any xmas lights at all now, knock on wood.