Lit up like a christmas tree

[beta]

Hey guys, been a long time since I've posted here. I've missed reading through the posts, but with my work schedule the last few years I haven't been able to spend as much time on here as I used to.

I'm posting because my car seems to be possessed by demons. Here's the detailed timeline:

- One morning try to start the car and it almost starts then dies. Try again and it starts up easily, but now my dashboard is lit up. The warning lights were: dsc, brake, abs, tire pressure. I also notice speedometer and odometer aren't working. Note that the day before everything was perfect when I parked it.

So I look it up and it seems like it all points to a simple solution: broken wheel speed sensor. On my car (2006) I don't have TPS, so it uses the wheel speed differences to calculate when the tires are low. So all the lights could be caused by a wheel speed sensor being out.

- A few days after that when I go to take the car to the shop, the battery is completely dead. This battery was replaced a little over a year and a half ago so this was odd. I bought a new battery and replaced it.

- Went to take the car to the shop today, won't crank... So I jump the car and it starts up. Once there they tell me they don't think it's a wheel speed sensor, mainly because they can't connect to the DSC module to diagnose it or run its self tests. All of which might explain why the battery was getting drained maybe the dsc computer is restarting in a loop or something weird.

Of course there's only like 3 dsc modules in the whole US, so I have to get one shipped from NJ and it's around $1200.

They also saw some faults about the starter not being able to authorize correctly, so they left the possibility open that something else is wrong.

I did have them check to make sure that the cables weren't being chewed up by rodents or anything like that, it's not common where I live, but I'm close enough to the mountains to consider it a possibility. They checked and didn't see anything that would indicate this was the case.

Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts or ideas please share. What I thought was a simple repair is turning very expensive.

[elerner61]

My thoughts are voltage regulator or entire alternator or battery. Possibly a steering angle sensor, but that's less likely to cause a dead battery I think.

This post should move to the General section. Will see more daylight there.

[acvr4]

Originally Posted by beta

Hey guys, been a long time since I've posted here. I've missed reading through the posts, but with my work schedule the last few years I haven't been able to spend as much time on here as I used to.

I'm posting because my car seems to be possessed by demons. Here's the detailed timeline:

- One morning try to start the car and it almost starts then dies. Try again and it starts up easily, but now my dashboard is lit up. The warning lights were: dsc, brake, abs, tire pressure. I also notice speedometer and odometer aren't working. Note that the day before everything was perfect when I parked it.

So I look it up and it seems like it all points to a simple solution: broken wheel speed sensor. On my car (2006) I don't have TPS, so it uses the wheel speed differences to calculate when the tires are low. So all the lights could be caused by a wheel speed sensor being out.

- A few days after that when I go to take the car to the shop, the battery is completely dead. This battery was replaced a little over a year and a half ago so this was odd. I bought a new battery and replaced it.

- Went to take the car to the shop today, won't crank... So I jump the car and it starts up. Once there they tell me they don't think it's a wheel speed sensor, mainly because they can't connect to the DSC module to diagnose it or run its self tests. All of which might explain why the battery was getting drained maybe the dsc computer is restarting in a loop or something weird.

Of course there's only like 3 dsc modules in the whole US, so I have to get one shipped from NJ and it's around $1200.

They also saw some faults about the starter not being able to authorize correctly, so they left the possibility open that something else is wrong.

I did have them check to make sure that the cables weren't being chewed up by rodents or anything like that, it's not common where I live, but I'm close enough to the mountains to consider it a possibility. They checked and didn't see anything that would indicate this was the case.

Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts or ideas please share. What I thought was a simple repair is turning very expensive.

Hey Beta,
Mine had a similar problem last spring.
I went to start it - first time and the battery was dead . Mine's a 03 so it did it's job.
I installed a new battery and everything was good for a few days then out of the blue same dash lights came on. I did replace the wheel speed sensor since it coded that problem.
No change also noted problems communicating with the DSC module.
Well I did not replace it and drove the car all last year.
I would like to fix it this year and heard that you can also purchase the electrical module side of the DSC unit. Not sure if it's true or I might be in the same boat as you and need to spend $1200 ( which is cheaper than what I priced last year)

[Clearancediver]

Did either of you check to see if your alternator voltage regulator was putting out the correct voltage?