Has anyone successfully been able to troubleshoot a 2005 OEM Brake Controller? I am now up in Maine with my RV and F250 and limped into the campground with an intermittent brake controller... Leaving to go back to MD on Monday morning. I can find out visual wire cuts or breaks and when parked of course I cannot MAKE this thing fail....and also can nor run fast enough, long enough to mimic the truck go over 5-7 MPH to activate the controller.

Had checked wiring from fusebox to 7-way and from RV 7-way to wheels without finding a PHYSICAL problem. So, I need to know if there is a way to make the truck thing it is running fast enough to make the controller active so I can check voltages at various places along its run.

PLEASE, someone have some way to figure this out....I just do not want to jack up the rear wheels and stick it in drive!

 

I dont' know how to answer the question you DID ask, so I'll answer a different one.

Most likely problem is at the 7-way connection. Have you cleaned both sides of that out thoroughly?

 

My 7 way is NOT mounted down by the 2" hitch.... Way back when I first got the truck, I removed it from that location and mounted it inside the bed, which is covered when not towing. Now you know that, no, I did NOT open it but now that you mentioned it, I will open it and inspect it for corrosion & other potential problems tomorrow. Thanks for the reminder. BUT, I do not think there is a problem there......

 

I think wire breaks are unlikely in this situation and also would suspect a connection issue of one kind or another.

When you say intermittent, your brakes engage and disengage quickly or what happens exactly? Do you have manual control?

I don't know of a way to trick the speed sensor.

Steve

 

What happens is Steve, is the controller shows a fault - (CHECK TRAILER), and turns on a red screen) and the bonger sounds. It may stay on for a short or long time (less than a minute or longer than 2) then return to NORMAL. When the fault is showing, NO RV brakes with the pedal nor the manual control. This continued on and off for about 2 hours before I pulled into the campground. Time between faults varied between a minute or 2 or up to 30!

Today I am going to open up both the RV and trucks connectors to take a look see. I do have an analog volt/ammeter with me. I found out wiggling wires would not turn on the fault.

OH...I have not yet looked under the dash......

 

Man, that sure sounds like a connection issue. The problem is going to be replicating it. I doubt very much it is a component issue. Just for the heck of it, try attaching a temporary ground between truck and trailer if you can't find the problem before you have to hit the road. As we keep saying 90% of the time its the ground.

Steve

 

Broken wire at the trailer axle/wheel due to debris?

 

I think Bud said he looked for a broken wire. Guess it could be a partial break, which would be harder to spot.

Steve

 

The only places I could NOT see was inside the axle and brake drum area and where wire bundle goes into the frame wells... they are covered with the bottom korplas or what ever it is called.

This AM I pulled the controller from the dash and opened it.... nothing obvious on the circuit board - reinstalled. Opened up the trucks 7-way, clean as a whistle in there.

Now I can only hope that whatever was intermittent I disturbed it enough to get me home. I still may lift the rear wheels - I do have two big bottle hyd. jacks I can use to hold it up and start the truck to see what happens. Put wife in there to hit the brakes for testing while I wiggle stuff ... haven't talked myself into that yet.

 

I know it is never a good idea to try to fix something without knowing what the problem is, but I would still throw a temporary trailer to truck ground on it and see if it improves anything.

Steve

 

I will do that tomorrow..... maybe get it READY to go on so I could do it on the road if what I have already disturbed does not work. I do not leave here until early Monday AM.

 

i never did do the double grounding, but because I lost heat in the RV last night (in the 30s overnight) I decided to leave for home - or someplace further south and warmer this morning.... got out about 11AM and the brakes were like original today !!! Don't ask me what I did to fix them, I don't know and I hate fixing things this way..... there is always the doubt that it'll happen AGAIN! I HATE intermittent repairs !!!!

 

Magnet(s) going bad? My P-2 would do similar types of intermittent indications (either indicating a short or overload) and magnet replacement(s) was the cure. Happened on multiple trailers and it was always at least one magnet.

One time the trailer brakes needed adjustment, but seeing as it was just serviced and the repair was covered by warrantee, the shop did not volunteer how they corrected it. But in that case the brakes were 100% gone and there was no intermittent about it.

 

I DID notice that the RV brakes were catching MUCH better than they originally did!! I had to turn down the Controller from all the way ( 10 ) down to 8 and they still may have to be turned down a little more. DAMN, what DID I do??? I could make a few bucks from early 2005-2007 Ford brake controller users !!! Naw, I'd give the info away if I knew! If I HAD to guess, I'd say it was the re-seating of the electrical plugs on the back of the controller????

 

More often it is the simplest think that is the problem rather than the thing we fear the most.

Steve