ABS/Stabilitrak Problem due to Rodent Damage

BeauTie · January 17, 2022

I had (presumably) a squirrel get into my engine compartment (2016 Silverado crew cab 4x4 5.3L) and eat through a wire that messed up the ABS/Stabilitrak systems. The wire in question is one of the corner wires on an connector laying on top of the frame rail in front of the driver. I soldered the wire back together and thought I had fixed it but the ABS/Stabilitrak alarms still go off, especially when I hit any kind of bump in the road. I double-checked the repair and think it's fine and I checked over all the other wiring pretty closely and couldn't find any other damage but I can't get the alarms to stop. I finally pulled the ABS fuse to just shut it off and stop the dinging. It's been driving fine that way but I took the truck in today for the brake recall and they won't reprogram it because the ABS is kaput.

The first day this happened, I could hear some kind of light rubbing underneath the truck. I thought maybe the brakes were dragging but if I put it in neutral, it didn't slow down so I'm not sure what the rubbing kind of sound was. That noise stopped when I pulled the fuse but I think that rubbing noise was still intermittently audible when I drove the truck after repairing the broken wire.

Any ideas? Is there any kind of reset on the system that might be necessary after fixing the wire? I have a cheap Bluetooth scanner and think I reset codes that way but it didn't help. I assume there are 3 potentials: (1) I still have some wiring issue, (2) some kind of reset is necessary or (3) something got damaged when I drove it with the broken wire.

BeauTie · January 17, 2022

New info: I finally got around to starting to look at the 2000 page electrical manual and I think the broken wire I fixed is wire 1 of connector X125 which is related to oxygen sensor. This happened over a year ago so the details aren't very fresh but I had an O2 sensor code around the same time and that code cleared during this whole process. In retrospect, it looks like the broken wire is related to the O2 sensor and that I just haven't been able to find the damage in the brake system.

I tried looking under the truck in warmer weather but didn't find anything. There are tons of wires and connectors in these things so kind of feel like I'm looking for a needle in a haystack.