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Solar Flare? Small EMP? WTF Day Yesterday

monkeyswrench

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Take one kid to school, come home. Before I go inside, be a nice guy and scrape the ice off daughter's windows. As I walk by the POS, I see the dash and screen are powered up...key is in my pocket, I know I shut it off. Get in it, shut it down, and restart it. All presets are gone, clock and trip reset...WTF? Was cold, but only mid 30s...been colder recently. Drove the rest of the day no problem.

Now, flash forward to 5:30 last night. Wife calls, car won't start(2004 Avalanche). She tried jumping it, no dice. I get there thinking battery terminals or something. As I'm checking things, she tells me in the morning it ran "sluggish", but cleaned up and worked fine. I asked why she didn't call me, I could have looked at it in daylight...and been warmer. She had a good excuse, another teacher had a major tragedy, threw wife off pretty good.

Jumped the starter, it spins, fuses good and relay checked. No signal from pcm. Pulled codes, and has a bunch of trans codes, and a bcm code. I think it started by luck, but lost a ground. It had no check engine lights while driving in the morning, but does now, and obviously won't start. Had it towed home, get to mess with that later. No way to bring it inside, and supposed to snow Sunday. Have to fix it, she drove the Excursion this morning, so at least there was a spare.

Never had 2 cars act up on the same day. Dry conditions, nothing abnormal. EMP and solar flares are top of the list, but may also be Russian hacking, or possibly aliens. It could also be they're old cars, but not old enough to be simple!
 

BIGRED9158

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Take one kid to school, come home. Before I go inside, be a nice guy and scrape the ice off daughter's windows. As I walk by the POS, I see the dash and screen are powered up...key is in my pocket, I know I shut it off. Get in it, shut it down, and restart it. All presets are gone, clock and trip reset...WTF? Was cold, but only mid 30s...been colder recently. Drove the rest of the day no problem.

Now, flash forward to 5:30 last night. Wife calls, car won't start(2004 Avalanche). She tried jumping it, no dice. I get there thinking battery terminals or something. As I'm checking things, she tells me in the morning it ran "sluggish", but cleaned up and worked fine. I asked why she didn't call me, I could have looked at it in daylight...and been warmer. She had a good excuse, another teacher had a major tragedy, threw wife off pretty good.

Jumped the starter, it spins, fuses good and relay checked. No signal from pcm. Pulled codes, and has a bunch of trans codes, and a bcm code. I think it started by luck, but lost a ground. It had no check engine lights while driving in the morning, but does now, and obviously won't start. Had it towed home, get to mess with that later. No way to bring it inside, and supposed to snow Sunday. Have to fix it, she drove the Excursion this morning, so at least there was a spare.

Never had 2 cars act up on the same day. Dry conditions, nothing abnormal. EMP and solar flares are top of the list, but may also be Russian hacking, or possibly aliens. It could also be they're old cars, but not old enough to be simple!
Did your cars get the newest booster shot lol 😂
 

monkeyswrench

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Update on the automotive fukery that ensued...my shitbox ended up having a cracked battery terminal, it was interesting. Drove into town, and went dead, like no lights nothing. Had luckily it was unlocked, so I could climb into the rear hatch. Think about this, no key lock on some cars, and batteries in trunk. Found the break with sparks in the dark;)

Wifes was figured out the next day. Scanned and found communication codes buried in the system. A little more digging, like how the codes corresponded with each other, and the common denominator was the BCM.

The BCM is the translator. You turn the key, switch tells BCM, BCM tells the starter. Same with gauges, accessories...everything gets a message via digital network. 4 days and 200$ later, new brain came programmed to VIN. Car works, wife's happy, life's back to normal.
 

Desert Whaler

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Update on the automotive fukery that ensued...my shitbox ended up having a cracked battery terminal, it was interesting. Drove into town, and went dead, like no lights nothing. Had luckily it was unlocked, so I could climb into the rear hatch. Think about this, no key lock on some cars, and batteries in trunk. Found the break with sparks in the dark;)

Wifes was figured out the next day. Scanned and found communication codes buried in the system. A little more digging, like how the codes corresponded with each other, and the common denominator was the BCM.

The BCM is the translator. You turn the key, switch tells BCM, BCM tells the starter. Same with gauges, accessories...everything gets a message via digital network. 4 days and 200$ later, new brain came programmed to VIN. Car works, wife's happy, life's back to normal.
How many thousand dollars would that have cost an average Joe for tow/ dealer fix. etc. etc. ???
Solid save.
👌
 

monkeyswrench

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How many thousand dollars would that have cost an average Joe for tow/ dealer fix. etc. etc. ???
Solid save.
👌
I have no idea. I know it's more than I'd want to spend though🤣

That little bastard has been following me for years, throwing anvils like an ACME cartoon!
 

Crazyhippy

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And not one person asking what Cole's law is... Sigh
 

Nanu/Nanu

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You know @monkeyswrench, my truck battery on my dodge was dead on Sunday. Not super dead, dead enough to not be able to turn the engine.

No apparent reason. Typically sits for a couple weeks between drives. But i at least pull it out of the garage once a week to make room to work on things in the garage.Once i got it fired up i thought surely i left a light on... nope nothing. Im wondering if those 20 degree mornings last week had anything to do with this. Or batteries are getting old but theyre 2 years old agms so im thinking no.

Wierd for sure though.

glad you were able to get your problems fixed.
 

TrollerDave

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And not one person asking what Cole's law is... Sigh
Does it come with chicken and a biscuit?

1675772896699.jpeg
 

monkeyswrench

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@Nanu/Nanu , all pretty much back to normal here. And yes, cold beats up batteries. The first real cold snap will take out a weak one. I have a buddy that works for the town of PV, and he says they've had a run of "covid" batteries...dead at 18 months!
 
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