Resetting Dash Warnings After Battery Drain

[Ceri]

TLDR: I drained my battery. Lots of dash warnings/codes. Recharged battery. Is there some way to clear these codes/dash warnings that I'm not familiar with?

Hey all. I was messing around with my truck's audio system for several hours and ran the battery down to where I was unable to start the engine. I got the truck stuck pinched up under a cabinet to where I couldn't pop the hood to recharge the battery. In my attempts to push the truck out from under the cabinet, I was trying to use enough juice to set the transmission to neutral, and when attempting to go over to run or start with the push button ignition I heard some troubling electrical pops from inside the truck. The screen was cycling on/off as it was trying to power on with extremely low voltage from the battery and things were all behaving bad.

I ended up calling a tow truck to slide me out, and I recharged the battery. I was able to start the truck and take it for a ride, but I had a bazillion warnings coming up in the dash notifications ranging from "service 4wd", "service air suspension", "service automatic dimming headlights", "lane assist not functional", etc. etc. I hoped these would all go away on their own after unhooking the battery for an hour, but I tried that, as well as leaving it unhooked for about 6 hours, and all of these warnings came back. I'm able to drive my truck around okay, but every time I start it, I get all of these same warnings, including an overall check engine light, and all of the fancy stuff is deactivated.

I took my truck over to Autozone and used their code reader on it. It came up with P0562: System Voltage Low, P1DB1: Transmission Control Module System Voltage Excessively Low, and U1267: No Valid Data from ESM on CAN. All of these seem to stem from the battery being drained. I tried resetting the codes with the Autozone scanner tool, but it made no difference, and I could continue to read the codes with the tool. I miss my old programmer for my last truck, which I stupidly left in the glove box for a future owner. Even if I couldn't tune this truck with it, at least it had a good DTC code reader/cleaner.

I scheduled an appointment with a dealership for Wednesday morning, but they're going to look at my audio system and probably give me some guff since this problem is electrical related, and I've got a big honking power wire connected to the battery. I'll probably pick up an AGM deep cycle battery in the near future so I don't do this to myself again, and maybe some sort of performance programmer/chip that will let me get into the system to solve my own codes in the future.

It's possible that some damage was done to some module somewhere, but I've taken a cursory glance at both the inside and outside fuse boxes and didn't see anything obviously popped. I pulled a few that had words related to one of the systems giving me warnings. I suspect that if it were a fuse or relay, it would be one of them that feeds a lot of the same systems, likely something to do with the CANBUS network, but doesn't affect the mechanical functioning of the truck (much) since I can still drive it around.

Side note: The eTorque system isn't doing it's thing in this limp mode, and I sure do prefer the predictable response from the engine and transmission when I'm in limp mode. The shifts come when I expect them and I'm not constantly doing burn outs when the pedal decides to respond.

 

[dts828]

Possible they are "permanent code" that won't allow scan tool to clear after 1-2 drive cycles have been completed. They would also clear on their own after a 3-4 drive cycles have been completed and the issue has been resolved. It's sound like issue with electronic shift module since it's not communicating and would explain other codes as well.

Sent from my SM-S918U1 using Tapatalk

 

[HSKR R/T]

TLDR: I drained my battery. Lots of dash warnings/codes. Recharged battery. Is there some way to clear these codes/dash warnings that I'm not familiar with?

Hey all. I was messing around with my truck's audio system for several hours and ran the battery down to where I was unable to start the engine. I got the truck stuck pinched up under a cabinet to where I couldn't pop the hood to recharge the battery. In my attempts to push the truck out from under the cabinet, I was trying to use enough juice to set the transmission to neutral, and when attempting to go over to run or start with the push button ignition I heard some troubling electrical pops from inside the truck. The screen was cycling on/off as it was trying to power on with extremely low voltage from the battery and things were all behaving bad.

I ended up calling a tow truck to slide me out, and I recharged the battery. I was able to start the truck and take it for a ride, but I had a bazillion warnings coming up in the dash notifications ranging from "service 4wd", "service air suspension", "service automatic dimming headlights", "lane assist not functional", etc. etc. I hoped these would all go away on their own after unhooking the battery for an hour, but I tried that, as well as leaving it unhooked for about 6 hours, and all of these warnings came back. I'm able to drive my truck around okay, but every time I start it, I get all of these same warnings, including an overall check engine light, and all of the fancy stuff is deactivated.

I took my truck over to Autozone and used their code reader on it. It came up with P0562: System Voltage Low, P1DB1: Transmission Control Module System Voltage Excessively Low, and U1267: No Valid Data from ESM on CAN. All of these seem to stem from the battery being drained. I tried resetting the codes with the Autozone scanner tool, but it made no difference, and I could continue to read the codes with the tool. I miss my old programmer for my last truck, which I stupidly left in the glove box for a future owner. Even if I couldn't tune this truck with it, at least it had a good DTC code reader/cleaner.

I scheduled an appointment with a dealership for Wednesday morning, but they're going to look at my audio system and probably give me some guff since this problem is electrical related, and I've got a big honking power wire connected to the battery. I'll probably pick up an AGM deep cycle battery in the near future so I don't do this to myself again, and maybe some sort of performance programmer/chip that will let me get into the system to solve my own codes in the future.

It's possible that some damage was done to some module somewhere, but I've taken a cursory glance at both the inside and outside fuse boxes and didn't see anything obviously popped. I pulled a few that had words related to one of the systems giving me warnings. I suspect that if it were a fuse or relay, it would be one of them that feeds a lot of the same systems, likely something to do with the CANBUS network, but doesn't affect the mechanical functioning of the truck (much) since I can still drive it around.

Side note: The eTorque system isn't doing it's thing in this limp mode, and I sure do prefer the predictable response from the engine and transmission when I'm in limp mode. The shifts come when I expect them and I'm not constantly doing burn outs when the pedal decides to respond.

Did you fully charged the battery, or just junp start the truck? Did you have the battery tested while you were at the parts store? it's possible the battery is still bad and has a low voltage keeping the errors from clearing. Also, some cheaper scan tools can't clear certain codes.

Also, check your owners manual. There is a manual release in dash below the headlight switch to put it in neutral if battery is dead. Would have saved you a tow bill and a lot of time.

 

[Ceri]

Did you fully charged the battery, or just junp start the truck? Did you have the battery tested while you were at the parts store? it's possible the battery is still bad and has a low voltage keeping the errors from clearing. Also, some cheaper scan tools can't clear certain codes.

Also, check your owners manual. There is a manual release in dash below the headlight switch to put it in neutral if battery is dead. Would have saved you a tow bill and a lot of time.

I'm not certain if it was "full full" charged, but after an initial jump to get it rolling, I hooked my battery charger up to it for about 4 hours, and then got in it to run errands for about an hour. I've driven it for about a week since then without any electrical issues, other than these warning codes.

The tow truck guy ran a battery test and said it was bad, but in my experience, there's a lot of false "bad" readings from crappy battery testers when the battery's in a low charge state (as it was just after the recovery). Maybe it is bad, but the truck reads 12.2-12.5V on ACC and around 13.4-13.6V on engine/alternator. Those seem like reasonable levels, and I've probably started it 20+ times in the past week without issue.

Agreed on the cheaper scan tools. Autozone's code reader wouldn't even output the codes to me. It just said "see cashier" to get a read out. I haven't had to use one from a parts store in many years, having had my programmer for the last few trucks. Not sure when they went to this "idiot proof" method where someone behind a counter has to read codes for me. I tried to clear the trouble codes, but it had no affect on the truck, so maybe it didn't do it.

I used the manual release, but it turns out that's only for the transmission. Because my truck has all these fancy settings, the parking brake electronically sets itself every time I put it in Park. Since the battery was so dead, I wasn't able to shift the transmission with the knob, thereby it wasn't able to release the e-parking brake to disengage the rear axle. From my reading, the only work around is to partially dismantle the rear calipers to disconnect the gear that the parking brake operates. Pretty dumb, but then again, I'm the one that put myself in the situation to begin with. If the battery wasn't dead dead from my own stupidity, it could have had enough juice to turn the electronic parking brake off.

 

[theblet]

I’ve had false “good” readings on bad batteries too.

 

[Ceri]

I went by an Advanced Auto just now and had them run a battery tester. It came back good, but one surprising thing was that for a 730 CCA rated battery it was coming in around 940 CCA on his reader. 12.67V.

I also snapped some pics of all the warnings on startup:

1. Service Antilock Brake System
2. Service Electronica Stability Control
3. Service Steering Directed Headlights
4. Service Trailer Brake System
5. Service Air Suspension System
6. 4WD System Temporarily Unavailable

It definitely seems like a common module is the culprit. Would this be BCM related? Is there one (or a couple of) fuses that runs the BCM that I could check?

 

[kapinallinen2]

I went by an Advanced Auto just now and had them run a battery tester. It came back good, but one surprising thing was that for a 730 CCA rated battery it was coming in around 940 CCA on his reader. 12.67V.

I also snapped some pics of all the warnings on startup:

1. Service Antilock Brake System
2. Service Electronica Stability Control
3. Service Steering Directed Headlights
4. Service Trailer Brake System
5. Service Air Suspension System
6. 4WD System Temporarily Unavailable

It definitely seems like a common module is the culprit. Would this be BCM related? Is there one (or a couple of) fuses that runs the BCM that I could check?

Don`t waste your time checking fuses, just have a known good, fully charged battery in it and the codes should clear by them self's.

 

[Ceri]

Don`t waste your time checking fuses, just have a known good, fully charged battery in it and the codes should clear by them self's.

Well drat. They aren't going away on their own. I haven't messed with any of it in a week, and have driven it ~20 times, ~50 miles.

 

[kapinallinen2]

Well drat. They aren't going away on their own. I haven't messed with any of it in a week, and have driven it ~20 times, ~50 miles.

OK then, time for ALFAOBD and see what is going on. If you see a bunch of low voltage faults in the modules, check the battery ground connection at the fender, next to the drivers side hood hinge.

 

[theblet]

You really need to read any codes the truck has. Also make sure whoever tests your battery doesn’t use one of those cheap digital testers.

 

[Ceri]

You really need to read any codes the truck has. Also make sure whoever tests your battery doesn’t use one of those cheap digital testers.

It came up with P0562: System Voltage Low, P1DB1: Transmission Control Module System Voltage Excessively Low, and U1267: No Valid Data from ESM on CAN.

 

[theblet]

It came up with P0562: System Voltage Low, P1DB1: Transmission Control Module System Voltage Excessively Low, and U1267: No Valid Data from ESM on CAN.

Makes sense. Once you have a good battery installed, clear all the codes and see how it works.

 

[50Front]

After my battery died, i replaced it but was still having issues that centered around the ABS module. I had to bring it to the dealer to get the ABS reset.

 

[Ceri]

After my battery died, i replaced it but was still having issues that centered around the ABS module. I had to bring it to the dealer to get the ABS reset.

This ended up being the same case for me. I dropped it at the dealer for about a week, and they removed more than 90 warnings in the computer related to low voltage conditions. The autozone code reader wasn't able to clear them. The dealer flash took care of all of them and I'm back to normal. The tech notes mentioned clearing the ABS module. Apparently it took him less than 15 minutes according to the warranty invoice. Sounds like a pretty common issue he'd dealt with.