2001 Bravada Service AWD won't come on
 

So I searched but came up with nothing...I have a 2001 Bravada that I got from my father in law. He said the Service AWD Light was on some time ago, and after a few months when he put a new battery in it, it stopped coming on. Now we have it and last winter it was clear the AWD was not working despite the lack of the light. As we are coming into the winter, I thought I'd try to diagnose the problem. I assumed the bulb had blown, but when I pulled the instrument cluster out, there was no visable bulb for the AWD Light. I could find the mounts for the turn signals, high beam indicators, and lights for the gauges, not nothing for the AWD light. Now I imagine its under the circuit board, but wanted to confirm that....

I know there is a problem with the bulb because when you first turn the key on, you get no light for the AWD.

Finally...will the code readers at Advance Auto Parts pull AWD codes?

Thanks for looking!

Does the bulb light up when you put the key into the on position/bulb check

Nope...no thing at all...which was what led me to think the bulb may be out...however again when I took the cluster out there was not bulb that I would find for it without taking the actual circuit board off

Auto parts stores scan tools will not access AWD. Needs to be a high end scan tool that can access the BCM, (Body Control Module). Sometimes you can find decent used ones on Ebay for around $2K. The AWD indicator in the cluster is an LED, no bulb. Most of the high end scan tools can access the BCM and perform functional tests for the cluster to determine if the BCM can in fact turn the LED on.

2k??? as in 2 grand? holy crap

Yup, $2000 for a used one. Depending on what you want to do, or the data streams you want to access, you can easily spend upwards of $10K for a new one. Yearly updates usually run $1K, and don't forget the annual training to stay current on learning how to use it, and new technology. All of a sudden the $90 diagnostic fee at a shop doesn't sound so bad ;)

When a Chevy dealership in Idaho closed they sold off a bunch of their stuff. I had the opportunity to buy a Tech 1 for about $500 and I passed up on it. Sometimes I wonder if it might not have been a good idea to buy it.

Hmm...sounds like something greater than if the LED for the AWD indicated is out...I know those rarely go out however I could be wrong. Have you ever seen the LED go out?

I was afraid of this....the dealership will run the codes for $99 to check it out and apply that to any work they do, however I generally do work myself on this stuff.

Yes it is possible for the leds to stop working, and yes it rarely happens. The dealer can do a light check of the instrument panel to verify if it is working.

In your first post, you mentioned that the LED does not come on during the bulb check. The BCM is what controls the LED, if it can't activate it during the bulb check, that means either the LED is bad, there's a problem in the cluster circuit board, logic module, or a problem in the BCM. A BCM functional test would at least narrow the search.