Hello,
Today I made the 400 mile journey to visit my sister in Orlando Fl. On the way down, just north of Bonifay I saw the "POWER STEERING" message, but my steering seemed normal, I'm thinking uh - oh. Then my security light started flashing, and the Tach, Speed, and Fuel gauges all go to zero. Then the ABS message/light flashed, and the Brake light flashed a few times, and the RPM would go to 1000 and back to zero while the spedometer would jump to 20mph then back to zero. The who time the DIC is saying FUEL LOW POWER STEERING. The engine ran normally. My interceptor gauges reported my speed and RPM seemed to be normal, even my fuel level was fine. Well I waited until I got to down, and pulled into the parking lot of an Advanced Auto Parts store, and as soon as I parked, before I turned off the car, everything started working. WOW. . I Think part of it might have been some glitch in my old key, so I got the spare key that I had made new (Braught both with me) I let the car keep going and never had an issue the rest of the trip. Swaped keys out at fuel stop so that I would be useing the newer one. I Just thought it was an odd occurance. I think Ive heard of other people having something similar happen to them before. I checked for codes and no codes were set.
Glad I was able to use my interceptors as a backup for my primary instruments when they failed.

I wonder what happened though....

 

Sounds like bcm failure.

 

I was thinking communication failure between the dashboard and the car but ya possible. If it fails on my way back can I just keep driving home, using my interceptors for speed/RPM/Fuel?

 

The ecm sends the info to the bcm and from thee to the cluster. So if its a ecm issue no. if its a bcm its possible.

 

Well the engine kept running and sending data to the Interceptors. But if the BCM fails I dont know if I'll be able to do a restart after stopping for gas.

What's all involved with a BCM replacement?

 

Well first you need to make sure the bcm is bad. It can be a freyed wire. Diagnose.

 

Of course: Im going worse case scienero though. Frayed Wire is easy to repair. Several Freyed ones, pain in the ass.

Stupid Question Time:
WHERE is the BCM? I think it's under the fuses but I'm not sure how to get that positive termnal post to come off. Ive tried to unscrew it by attempting to rotated it counterclockwise, but it didn't want to move and I didn't want to break it.

 

Bcm is in side the car. Right by right leg on drivers and.passenger leg left.

 

oh ok thanks, Ill check the wires for damage when I get a chance. Maybe one of the plugs came loose on my PCM to BCM since that was the last thing I was mucking with on my car. Mail Order Canned Tune from ZZP, yes yes I know, it needs to be dialed in, but there is no HP Tuners nearby

 

I travel to Alabama sometimes if I'm ever close i can look at it. Gasden is where I go

 

Thanks for the offer, I'm currently running a ZZP Canned tune. Seems to be doing well as far as LTFTs go. I'm in the +6 to +10 area. Don't hardly ever get any KR, though sometimes "false knock" ie: From shifting, ect. I remember once I had KR issues, and it ended up being my spark plugs gap had opened from 0.040 to 0.042. I got new ones and gapped them to 0.035. THey may have opened since but whatever.

Anyhows, I'm WAY down by Dothan/Enterprise. Gadsden is stay the night trip if I were to go. The only part of my ZZP Canned tune that I'm unsure about is the WOT Fueling. The lowest Ive ever seen it go was 12.2, but that was less then 5 seconds of WOT. After the holidays, I plan on putting it on a dyno and seeing what the WOT fueling is.

 

If this were to become a recurring concern, I would recommend a diagnosis from one of our dealerships. Let me know if this is a course of action you decide to take as I would like to be sure to be involved with you and your dealership to make sure things go smoothly.

Regards,
Sarah
GM Customer Service