ABS/Brake trouble indicators sometimes blinking with an alarm chime - No codes

[MrBonez]

My 2008 Ram 1500 Laramie over the past few days started doing this with the ABS and brake system warning lights in the insturment panel and it gives a warning/alarm chime too.
The brakes themselves still work fine, indicators blinking or not but I'm also wanting to get an idea of what/where to look and fix this issue. No codes stored when it does it and it will even start and stop doing it while sitting at a light while holding the brake all the while, so I haven't been able to identify what triggers it yet.

Aside from that the pickup still runs and drives normally.... For now anyway.

Have any of you ever seen this kind of thing before?

If not I'll have to make a video so you guys can see it for yourselves.

 

[Sherman Bird]

My first inkling is that perhaps you have a problem of B+ integrity. I've fixed a few vehicles with that phantom issue with a new ignition switch. Check the specific gravity of the battery electrolyte as well. Not the capacitance, not the load limits... the specific gravity of the electrolyte. Depending on your ambient temperature, I'd be looking for 1250 to 1270 sg.

 

[MrBonez]

My first inkling is that perhaps you have a problem of B+ integrity. I've fixed a few vehicles with that phantom issue with a new ignition switch. Check the specific gravity of the battery electrolyte as well. Not the capacitance, not the load limits... the specific gravity of the electrolyte. Depending on your ambient temperature, I'd be looking for 1250 to 1270 sg.

I'll check the battery and do what's required with it.

Already have a new battery that can replace it if it's a sign the battery is about to go bad, said replacement being purchased last month for another purpose that didn't pan out in the end - And it was a deal I just coudn't pass on when I saw it so I'm set there if need be. I may just swap them anyway and see if the issue continues or goes away since the one in it now does have a bit of age on it.
The new battery is a marine deep cycle battery that's 1100 CCA I scored for around $100, so it has more than enough power to do the job it needs to.

It wasn't purchased for the pickup when bought but since I already have it and it's original intended purpose didn't work out, why not?

I'm well aware of what specific gravity is, being I used to work on battery power industrial equipment and even had some training by Exide on batteries because of what I used to do to that end.
I can even "Refurb" the old one for later use and may soon prep and stash it somewhere dry for when it might be needed again if it's going bad now. Best way to store one is dry so it won't have any issues with it's cells from just sitting, only adding electrolyte to make it work when it's taken out of storage when needed.

I also plan on looking at things like the fusebox and make sure I don't have any corrosion there affecting things too, that can cause trouble at times, esp with it being as old as it is now.
Could be as simple as a bad/corroded ground connection and I'll be checking for any of that once I have a chance to.

Clean the controller plug to the harness and use a bit of dielectric grease once done to help keep any corrosion from coming back later.

Those are things I can do now without getting really involved in it so deeply, if it's a controller going out I'll just have to replace it and be done with it, but until that's been determined/confirmed I'll avoid that fix like the plague.

 

[MrBonez]

Figured out what was going on.

It was the interface plug for my Bully Dog module coming loose from the diagnostic port, it has to plug into it to get readings on what's going on to show them to you. It had started coming out on it's own and was making things act up, I found the problem when it started letting me know it was initalizing connection but never did. I checked the plug and there it was, almost ready to fall out.

The issue since I fixed that problem has not occured again since, so that had to be it.