(Preface: I know next to NOTHING about repairing vehicles. While I can drive you around town and change wiper fluid, power steering fluid, and maybe add oil, and I can wash it to make it look perty, you don't want me under the hood or underneath the vehicle for any length of time. People would pay me NOT to do those things if they knew just how little I know. What can I say... I was a musician and computer nerd first. I am a shadyrepairman's dream, because of this. )

Okay, so here's the deal. My 2001 Durango finally had to go... it owed me nothing - left every bit of itself out on the trails. Rusted out, became mildly unsafe. She had a dignified sale to someone that knows cars, and I proceeded to hunt for a newer one.

Found a 2004 Durango at a dealership in PA. Clearly a Florida vehicle, which carfax confirmed. Many miles, but beautiful on the outside and the inside, and the test drive went well.

The vehicle's prior owner apparently did some pretty heavy towing... both pulling the vehicle behind something, as well as using the vehicle to pull something. It was equipped with something (?) to, if I recall the description correctly, "keep the transmission cool" when being towed. I could be way off on this. All i know is, there's this unusual hose underneath the driver's seat.

It also, I think, was equipped with something to handle electric brakes on a trailer. There was a small box under the dash, and there's a weird additional wire/light thing about the size of a keyfob poking up through the top driver's side of the dash.

There's some hitch looking things on the front.

I could upload pics if this would help, but i bet the experienced among you pretty much know what's up with all these extras.

Anyway, we drove from PA back to NY without incident. Smooth ride, quiet powerful v8 engine, etc.

But over time driving around, I noticed the brakes just didn't feel right. And then, the first time I had to stop quick, I knew something was up, because I (the aforementioned computer geek weighing in at around 250) had to practically stand up on the brake pedal to get this thing to stop.

My first thought was, well, since there was clearly some towing going on, i imagine the brake pads are screwed up. And I figured there'd have to be SOME money put in to this car, since we got a low price on it, etc.

Had it in the shop and they said yes, the brakes needed some work, and they did so. But still, this vehicle, when i tested them with a hard stop, didn't feel at all right. Much longer, much more uncomfortable stopping distance.

Then it dawned on me... for as hard as I was braking, the ABS simply was not kicking in, and nothing was grabbing at all.

I took it back to the shop, and after some additional poking around, the tech said that it looked as if the computer had been adjusted/reprogrammed to bypass the ABS, most likely due to the towing this thing must have been doing in its past life.

He didn't want to touch it from there, saying he just didn't have the knowledge to fix this apparent issue. Pointed me to a dealer, but I already know I'm gonna get hit HARD if I get a dealership under the hood playing with the brains.

So... have any of you heard of this type of thing? And is there any way to get it back to factory configuration (i wont be doing any heavy towing, just a tiny trailer maybe a couple times a year) without having to take out a second mortgage or something? Overall, after having it since august of 2016, it's been running great otherwise. It's when I want it to stop that beads of sweat roll down by backside.

Right now, if I'm reading this right, the Brake, ABS, and one other light are on, and the engine light is on and i'm 99% sure it's related to the ABS situation as well. I have a tiny leak in the power steering line somewhere (hence my knowledge of where the fluid goes when I need to add more - when she starts whining like a banshee), but other than these things, this is most definitely a good replacement for my old 2001. I just need to be able to stop better, before someone gets hurt.

Any advice is welcome, but be kind, because I'm the definition of ignorance right now when it comes to vehicle repairs. =)

 

FOLLOW-UP: I guess I should mention too that, oddly to me, under no circumstances can i get these brakes to lock up - no skidding at all. On prior vehicles i've owned, of course you can hear the ABS pumping the system when you try to lock up the wheels but this vehicle doesn't do that, it just "mushes" to a stop after a longer distance than it should.

 

You can reprogram the ECM back to factory setting I believe but that might not fix your issue if something else was rerouted or if something was fried in order to bypass the ABS system. Here in California you'd be looking at $120 to get the vehicle inspected and find out what the problem is and what the correct fix would be.

 

what kind of issues does resetting the ECM back to factory potentially cause, and is this something an "end user" like myself can learn to do? I assume there is equipment involved?