2009 OEM brake controller issues...

[Mark Rinker]

My first reaction to the OEM brake controller was skepticism, followed by a pleasant suprise that the controller behaved well and worked as smoothly as my Techonsha.

This winter, with no trailer on, started seeing messages of SERVICE TRAILER BRAKE SYSTEM. At first, when I hooked on a trailer, the message would clear and things worked normally. Then after awhile, they didn't work at all.

Assuming snow or salt had made its way into the female connector, I opened things up and found clean bright contacts...put things back together, it works normally for awhile, then back to intermittant issues.

Found out that Chevrolet has located the controller unit external to the cab, back by the spare tire area...also they have abandoned the standard female plug at the fuse box for throwing my old Techonsha at the problem...thanks guys...NOT.

Hunting for a ground wire issue at the controller today. Its -7F out. Wish me luck.

[cowboywildbill]

Check your female plugs. Moisture and cold can make enough resitance inside the plug to cause problems. I have seen this on our earlier Dmaxs with aftermarket controllers showing resitance, like it has a trailer hooked up.

[Mark Rinker]

Found the additional harness added for previous owner with 5th wheel was still in place. Unhooked that 'Y' harness and returned to factory stock wiring configuration. Blew snow and ice accumulations off all brake controller (!), relay, removed and cleaned up two harness grounds.

Everything back to normal. A rear frame rail mounted brake controller? Come on, guys...:mad:

[arveetek]

Here at our RV dealership, we haven't had any issues with the GM OEM controller, but we have had a couple of problems with the Ford versions.

It seems to me that the OEM controllers are a bit sensitive to the 7-way plugs. Both Ford trucks exhibited the same symptoms: flashing codes and shutting the trailer brake function off. Inspection of the trailers being towed showed no real problems. A brake magnet was replaced on each trailer. That seemed to solve the issues with one truck, but the other continued to have problems. Each time the customer would have a problem, he would stop, pull the trailer plug out of the socket, and reinsert the plug. That seemed to cure the problem for a while.

This customer then decided to replace the factory 7-way connection with the EZ Connector. (http://www.ezconnector.com/) This is a very nice, high-quality 7-way plug that is very moisture resistant. He hasn't had any more problems since.

Casey