Need assistance.. Electrical issues 2007 Volvo VNL

Definitely worth a shot but half of the chassis I hooked up to were jb hunt and I'm the guy who looks for fresh inspection stickers..... New... Old... Crap... Pristine.... All were having issues until today....

That will be the first thing I try from now on though.... Kind of angry I didn't think about it before...

 

Many good posts from losts of people here. Two things were not clear to me from them however. I may have missed them as I did the fact you already installed a new pigtail.
LED light draw very little voltage compared to conventional bulbs ( as mentioned ).
Point 1: You could have a poor connection or wire in the system ( as mentioned ). The circuit could be good enough to light LED trailer and testers that plug in the cord but still not able to to light conventional trailer brake lights. This could also be intermittent. Those are the most fun!
Point 2: There is reason for testing at the pigtail plug on the back of the tractor. This is to be done when you are connected to a trailer with no brake lights and the service brakes applied. I would use you old cord instead of taking your new one apart. The circuit is under load at that time. If you have no power to that terminal on the pigtail plug you know the fault is forward. Turn one a turn signal in order to test your test light.
Most of those things to test have been covered. If your truck has a turn signal switch with a harness of large wires coming from it I would be checking the switch next ( after other things mentioned ). If it is wired through a module I am probably not of much help there.

 

Why the turn signal switch? And do you literally mean the arm I push up and down to turn on the signal or is there a "switch" installed somewhere near that which controls the mechanism.

 

The plug on the back of the tractor maybe? You replace the cord from there to inside the cab. What about the double male receptacle itself? Could have a broken prong. Wiggle them. Loose? Unplug both sides, using a small wire, insert into the pigtail red wire hole plug it in, do the same for other side. Jumping the whole receptacle.

 

Replaced the recepticle when I swapped the cord.... And now I keep and extra one with me somewhere in this truck?

Fixed 2 new random air leaks..
Went to the rail yard again today...

Hooked up to probably 10 chassis... A few of the worst ones I could fine..

The all worked fine..

1.) So either my gremlins are hiding because I'm not getting paid...

2.) there is a faulty wire somewhere and I need to hit the bumps the right way to make it cause an issue...

3.) all of the stuff I have replaced so far fixed the issue? I still have one of the brake sensors throwing a code but I had 2 before? Maybe the one that isn't throwing the code was the issue?

4.) They were somehow all just bad chassis (which I've been told by the shop here... And a chassis mechanic at the rail yard)..

5.) I've lost my grip on reality and the holes in the matrix are beginning to show..?


Bought the 7 pin tester.... Checked before during and after my trip to the rail... Green lights all the way....

Going to try a run tomorrow and see how it goes....

 

Probably just a coincidence and got a few bad chassis’s. Try pushing in the abs sensors on front brakes. Easy thing to do with the hood open. One may have backed out. For some reason dry vans trailer light problems are usually caused by wires/connections on the right rear lights. Chassis’s may have similar wiring and problems. Considering how often the Buck gets passed on Chassis’s, the chances may be increased. The question might be, what causes the Chassis lights to fail? Might be something to expect and watch out for.

 

So it's funny you mentioned the ABS sensors on the front brakes.. I put a picture in this thread earlier of the error codes I'm getting off my Eld and it says it's the brake sensors inside the firewall.. so I replaced them.. if you Google the error code off the dashboard it says something about the front wheel and the tone rings.. I need the shop to actually hook up the computer and do an actual reading.. but as soon as my guy was going to do it today he got a road call and had to hop in the tow truck.. but do you think the ABS sensors can screw with brake lights?

As for the reason the lights on the chassis fail... they've probably been broken for a long time.. drivers do not do pre-trip on their chassis when they find problems on the road they don't report them Etc.. today when I was at the rail yard again checking random ones I saw a driver leave with one that had four lights missing.. saw another one park one and it had functional brake lights so I checked it for myself.. no zip ties naturally but three of the four pins were unlocked..

This is not a direct knock towards anyone on here and I appreciate everyone trying to offer me assistance but overall in my experience of almost 10 years as a truck driver truck drivers are some of the laziest and dumbest people on the planet.. how hard is it to walk to the back of a trailer to see if you have lights even installed? How hard is it to push the pin locks in? How hard is it to pull forward at the fuel Island after you get fuel so someone else can use the pump? I'm sure there are professional drivers out there but I do not encounter them very often and I would guess they are probably less than 10% of the entire Workforce..

 

Sensor not related to brake lights.

 

So just possibly the error codes? Cool... Thanks

I have a dream that one day my truck will show no errors in the dash.... The next day it will naturally fall apart like the blues mobile....

 

It could be two things, one is ground(s) to the LCM or the LCM itself.

Start with the LCM, they are cheap