Yes, I know this topic is pretty well covered but I had the lights come on the other day for the first time. My wife and kids got in the car in a parking lot and she fired it up from the passenger seat. I had run back into a store to grab something. When I came out and jumped in the running car I saw the lights flashing. I shut it off and restarted it and the lights were gone. They haven't come back in a dozen or so starts. The battery is 1 1/2 years old and plenty strong.


My question is does this typically indicate something about to fail or is it not uncommon for the lights to flash for no apparent reason? I've had the truck for 2 years and almost 30k miles and this is the first time I've seen it.

 

If I understand you correctly, you're talking about the green gear indicators in the instrument cluster(binnacle?).

I want to say that's a transmission position switch issue, but I feel like that's incorrect. I've seen the same, and it went away without doing anything other than restarting. I can't remember if it happened when there was moisture involved, but that might have been the case.

 

Yes, that would be the transmission mode indicator, low range indicator and the transmission gear indicator lights. I've read they flash because of low voltage, crankshaft position switch, xyz switch, dirty connections, bad main fuse, and a few other causes. This just happened this once so I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this.

 

a bad body ground is a good possibility, a common problem with the M,S&D. you could see if its an engine ground by grounding the engine to the body with a pair of jumper cables. not always an easy fine took me a month. I assume it is only running in drive, no 1,2 or o/d.

 

When it happened it was in 3rd gear but I shut the truck off and restarted it and the lights were gone and they haven't returned. Not sure if it was just a fluke or what. I'll check out the ground strap at the back of the engine to make sure it's clean and tight. Is there a strap on the transmission also? I don't recall ever seeing one.

 

it might not hurt to put a new secondary ground on. If they were blinkling it means for some reason your tranny emc was not reading 13-vt.
The second play to look is the xyz switch but i thing people condemn them early,
hopeful it was a fluke.