My friend just got a 1997 Dakota V8 (5.2?) and now it has an engine light, and sometimes cruise and ABS lights as well (mainly after 4x4 is engaged?). Apparently the upper intake was replaced not too terribly long before she bought it. Currently it runs great even with the lights on. 4X4, cruise, all works fine. I used this procedure to pull the codes. The only code displayed was "12" in the odometer screen. Any idea on what to look for here? I am thinking that it may be a vacume leak in one of the lines. I am going to try and get a hold of an OBD2 scanner in the mean time, but any help would be appreciated.

 

Code 12 means that at one point or another you lost battery power. That code shouldn't bring on the check engine light. Does the cruise work when the CRUISE light is on?

 

Yup, everything works. I am working on getting a code scanner in the next few days so I can see what the PCM says. I heard someone say recently the some of the 4x4 Dakotas had some sort of vacume lines related with engaging 4x4? Sound right? Unfortuently I don't have the truck in front of me, but hopefully I should have it for a day or two in the next week or so.

 

Hmm...there are vaccum lines associated with the 4wd but nothing that would cause a check engine light. If anything, your 4wd would not operate. Best to get ahold of that scanner and see what DTC's are stored in the PCM. Remember, check engine lights come on when a problem exists that will affect emissions. As for the ABS/CRUISE lights, not sure. If the cruise didn't work while the light was on, I would suspect a faulty clockspring. Since it is working, it sounds like maybe an instrument cluster problem (possibility). The ABS may have the BATTERY DISCONNECTED code stored. Get that scanner, it could be a lot of things.