Terminator03
New member
Hopefully this is something that someone else has seen before and it’s an easy fix! Several days ago I was only a few miles from my house going to drop cardboard at a recycling box when out of the blue, the loud beeping started, VSC/Trac lights, and others came on. I knew this indicated a brake issue, having had a caliper seal let go from a frozen caliper years back. Stepped on the brake, and sure enough, not much stopping power. I didn’t panic though because I could see my destination just ahead, so I carefully drove it there, downshifting to slow it down, and proceeded to dump the cardboard since I didn’t want to waste the trip. Now, comes the fun part… since I only live about 2-3 miles away, and not wanting to wait an hour for AAA, I decided to carefully drive it home where I could fix it (already realized something blew at the right rear because everything was dripping with fluid). About 1/2 mile up the road, my stereo went black (aftermarket Sony CarPlay unit), and the truck started losing power big time! It slowed to a crawl, started sputtering, etc., so I pulled it safely onto the shoulder and called AAA. It would not restart, and struggled to turn over as if the battery was dead/too low on voltage while I was waiting for the tow. Once we got it to my house however, the driver started it on the flatbed, and backed it down the ramp to where I waned it, so I figured maybe the truck went into some sort of “limp mode” as a safety feature, but it clears after setting for a 1/2 hour or something. Once I was home, I pulled the rear wheel, cleaned everything up, and verified that it was a pinhole in the hardline feeding the flex hose to the caliper. Line was pretty rusty in the steel, uncoated ends, so I had to cut the line and use a socket to get the fittings out, even after soaking for several hours with PB Blaster because the fittings were beginning to round, even with a brand new flare wrench. After measuring the line, I knew if using a pre-flared line, I’d end up with either too much slack, or too short, unless I got a long one, and re-flared one end. Having recently moved, and not knowing exactly where all my brake line stuff was packed, I decided the easiest path was to just call the stealership and order a replacement. To my surprise, they could not only have it the next morning, but it was fairly affordable at $28, so I pulled the trigger. Got it installed yesterday, refilled the reservoir, but before trying to bleed, or anything, I was curious about the electrical issues, so I figured now that the leak was resolved, I’d try to at least start it, and see what warning lights were on, if radio worked, etc. Dead as a door nail! There had been enough battery power to pop the locks, but definitely not enough to start it. Checked voltage with my meter and it was only 6 volts. Having literally lent out my good charger earlier this week (and it being a 1 hour round trip away), I threw on my Battery Tender, which has a charger also, but lame 3amp. Battery appeared to be about charged later in the day, but I had to leave without having the time to fool with it. Anyone have a guess as “why” my battery died, and my stereo blacked out? I’ve never before had electrical involvement just from a hydraulic brake failure! Does the computer put the vehicle into “limp mode” with brake system failure, and if so, does that drain the battery somehow? Going to play with it more today, but figured I should reach out on here to see if anyone had gone through this scenario before, and what they had to do to resolve it!
