New mustang, have a few issues...traction control, airbag light..etc

matholland618

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I picked up a used 2012 mustang gt that has a few issues.

When I first bought it, I had about 6 lights on the dash. The wrench, both traction control lights, tpms, and airbag light. I also think there was a abs light, as well as check engine light.

I got the car at a good price. The check engine light was the CAT protection as it no longer had cats, and also had headers. I drove the car 4.5 hours home and hooked it up to the ford IDS clone, and flashed the ECM with the latest and ICM with it's latest. I cleared the codes, and the car could not talk to the Restraint Control Module. I checked fuse 31 I believe it was and it was good, I pulled the center console, and verified there was power coming in at the plug. I pulled the plugs and visually inspected them and plugged them back in. I tried to flash the module and it could not communicate, so I THINK that the module is bad. Thoughts?

I also read the stock tune with HP tuners and turned off the cat protection, speed limiter, and I think I had disabled the ABS light but I don't remember. I had tried disabling traction control thinking it would get rid of the light but it didn't so I had turned it back on. I checked the wheel speed sensor outputs on the IDS and they seem to be working. I can clear the codes and the lights for the traction control go off. I can turn the key on and cycle traction control/advanced traction control, but the moment I start it, they come back on. I'm not sure what other troubleshooting to do here for the traction control lights. I need to confirm whether or not I turned off an ABS light, and if I did, is it possible that module is bad? Doesn't it and the traction control on these cars use the same module?

The tpms stuff I have 2 sensors bad, so that is no biggie.

Radio also says something about 911 disabled see dealer when you start the car and the radio turns on...anyone know how to disable that crap?
 
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Sky Render

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Hm, was this car in a flood? Did you check the wires in and around the junction box behind the passenger kick panel?
 

07gts197

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Another thing to consider is whether it was in an accident and half ass repaired.


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ddd4114

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Another thing to consider is whether it was in an accident and half ass repaired.
That's what I'm wondering too. When I had my airbags deploy, my stability control and traction control lights remained on until I had the RCM reset. I never tried scanning the RCM, so I'm not sure if it would be "locked out". Per the wiring diagrams, the RCM communicates with the ABS module via a dedicated CAN line, so I wonder if that's related to the ABS message you're seeing.

If the car has long tubes or no cats, you will definitely get codes until the secondary oxygen sensors are disabled in the tune. After that, you shouldn't have to disable anything else. When you say you disabled "cat protection", is that what you meant? I'm not very familiar with what all of the terms in HP Tuners, but "cat protection" could be enrichment control based on predicted cat temperatures, and I wouldn't turn that off unless you're checking lambda as you move through the map.
 

LikeabossTM

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This may be helpful - when I built my frankenmustang, (combined a 2014 wreck and a 2011 vandalized) I used all of the 2014 electronics. The rcm was crash locked and it was either buy a new one or pay an auto-module hacker to hack-reset it to pre-crash parameters. If I remember correctly, there was no official method to reset it using something like ids or the like. I paid the dude to hack it.
 

matholland618

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That's what I'm wondering too. When I had my airbags deploy, my stability control and traction control lights remained on until I had the RCM reset. I never tried scanning the RCM, so I'm not sure if it would be "locked out". Per the wiring diagrams, the RCM communicates with the ABS module via a dedicated CAN line, so I wonder if that's related to the ABS message you're seeing.

If the car has long tubes or no cats, you will definitely get codes until the secondary oxygen sensors are disabled in the tune. After that, you shouldn't have to disable anything else. When you say you disabled "cat protection", is that what you meant? I'm not very familiar with what all of the terms in HP Tuners, but "cat protection" could be enrichment control based on predicted cat temperatures, and I wouldn't turn that off unless you're checking lambda as you move through the map.

Thanks for the replies guys.

My thought is this right here is what is causing my issues. IDS cannot communicate with it if I try to reflash it, and the code it throws is lost communication with it. I didn't realize that this could cause the traction control issue.

I can tell that something small has been hit in the front as the temp sensor got knocked off, and there is a crack on the bumper. I don't think it was a hard enough hit to deploy the airbag, but I have no way of knowing really. The car does not look like it has been repainted. Has a clean carfax, I know that means nothing, but yeah.

I think that I am going to start off by getting another RCM and see if it will flash and see which lights go away and I will report back with my findings. My hope is that the module is just bad, but who knows. I have checked the plugs around the fuse box and everything looks good there.

& Yes, the CAT protection disabled the check engine light for me with HP tuners. Now I just have to get around to making a tune for it after I get all of the kinks worked out of it.
 
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matholland618

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It's failing the network test....From what I've read, it should still pass the network test with ford IDS if it just needed to be reset for a crash. I found one for 35 bucks shipped on ebay that I bought, but I haven't heard from the seller. So if that one doesn't go through I found another for 75. It looks like all there is to clearing one is desolding the eeprom and hooking it up to a read/writer and writing to it...I've thought about buying one of these in the past because one could do gauge cluster milage fixes and what not as well as many other things like this....but idk that I can deal with the little bitty chips lol
 

matholland618

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So just an update guys.

Today I pulled my Smart Junction Box out because of a keyfob issue that I have been having. Doing some reading and I had found that in the 05-09 mustangs apparently there was an antenna wire that was plugged in. I pulled mine out to see and no there was not. I had checked the plugs before on this and they were all locked in. I thought, well I will try to pull it apart and see if there is an internal antenna in there. I didn't have any luck pulling it apart so I decided to throw it back in there and fire up the ford IDS and try reflashing it. I didn't expect this to fix my issue with the keyfobs, but hey you never know.

My version of ford IDS was locking up when I went to program it. It told me to turn the key on and after I hit the tick, then it would show a blank screen like it was not doing anything. I waited a bit and tried it again, the same thing. I decided to go ahead and clear the codes out, and I will be damned, once I did, literally, all of my lights went off with the exception of the TPMS light. The sensor is now working for the airbag as it will kick the bag off when my dog sits in the passenger seat.

That module got shipped today, so I guess I don't need that module after all. Oh well, I gave 36 shipped for it. Should be able to turn around and resell it and make money off of it.

I guess if I have this issue again, I know where to look. On the flip side of this, I might end up getting a replacement anyway to see if that fixes my keyfob reception issue. There doesn't seem to be much info of this kind of stuff out on the net lol.
 

matholland618

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So it's been a little while, but after some issues with ordering from a seller and getting sent the wrong part, I went through the return process and kept an eye out for another good deal on a junction box. I used forscan to delete out the tpms. I managed to get a junction box for 60 bucks and got it installed today, programmed it up, cleared my codes, and everything is gone. I do still have an issue with the keyfob though. Does anyone have any ideas with the keyfob?
 

matholland618

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I had sort of gave up on this, but here I am again...

Once I replaced the SJB, it stayed off for 2 or 3 weeks, then all of the issues came back. I used HP tuners to disable traction control because we had a snow come, and traction control is still working, but it has a light on the dash. Once I disabled traction control and flashed it with HP tuners, then my ABS light has started blinking. I'm completely mind f*cked over all of this...I've went through wiring looking for breaks, looked at the connectors going to the SJB...I'm at a complete loss.
 

Juice

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Have you checked battery voltage? Both off and running. It should not be outside of 11.8-14.6v.
Then I would clear all codes with Forscan and see what codes come back.
Yes, all the modules work together. There is no traction control module. The logic is in the pcm and it uses ABS input for traction control. I also remeber seeing a calibration proceedure for the "yaw" sensor. Initialize IVDS I think its called.
And you can try the PCM reset learned parms.
 

Jgt58

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Air in the line for the clutch/braking system and air in the and module will cause all kinds of havoc.

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