In the last couple of weeks my 02 7.3 PSD Excursion with 54,000 miles has begun to make me nervous with an intermittant electrical problem. I have read many of the posts regarding gauges that have stopped working and can only describe my experience as similar but different. Two weeks ago on a 100 mile trip to the north of Boise the gauges (all of them) the AC blower and radio stopped working about 60 miles into the trip. This situation lasted less than a minute and everything returned to normal. I continued on with the trip and returned to Boise with no further incidents.
One week later I made the same trip with no re-occurence of the problem. Made the same trip again today and the Ex started to behave badly again. Just prior to the 60 mile mark the ABS light came on for a couple of minutes and went back out again. Within a mile of the same 60 mile point as two weeks prior the gauges, radio and AC blower all quit, this lasted for a couple of minutes and then every thing returned to normal. Later in the day on a steep and rough dirt road the alternator light would flicker momentarily as we went across the wash board sections. Once we got out of the back country I put another 200 miles on the truck on the way back home with no further incident.
I have read a lot of posts about folks that have lost gauges and or blown fuses but none seem to refer to the intermittent problem that I seem to be having. Any help or insight woul be greatly appreciated.

 

I had a 2001 Dodge Ram that did that, but it was the altenator that slowly went bad.

 

Check your charging system and battery status. A failing charging system with intermittent output voltages can play havok with electrical systems. If both are in good repair, sounds like a GEM going out. Check for a leak from the windshield. If you can borrow a scanner, try pulling codes when acting up to see what you get.

 

OK call me a dummy but what is a GEM?

 

GEM/CTM = generic electronic module/central timer module

Integrated with the fuse box under the dash

 

My service writer showed me how to fix this. Just turn on the headlights and everything comes back on. I had to turn mine to the automatic setting but it works every time so far. She said hers does the same thing.