GinDistiller

Just finished 'refreshing' the brakes; new front pads and rotors, new master cylinder, and am in the process of flushing the fluid.

All went smooth until partway through the flushing procedure yesterday, the battery voltage dropped too low and it self-aborted. I had a charger hooked up, but it had tripped without me noticing and wasn't actually on when I started the flush, it was above 12v but dropped down when it kicked on the SBC for the first caliper purge. The car was on the rack for a few days, not sure if anything was left on, but it's nice and charged back up now.

So, I was able to complete the flush this morning, minus one error when doing pressure tests indicating there is still air, so I'm going to flush again. I'm assuming the new master cylinder and/or the interrupted flush yesterday left more air than normal, that's not a big deal.

The problem now is that my odometer is showing ------- and when I access the SBC module it tells me that it can't communicate with the Instrument Cluster. All other lights, warnings etc on the cluster light up, and I'm able to start the car. I tried to access the IC directly but it also told me it couldn't communicate. The error occurs when it goes to shut off the warning buzzer, and I realized I didn't hear it on first access but I had previously. I'm guessing that the interrupted test when the voltage dropped yesterday 'kept' it off, but since I can't access the IC, how do I get it back to normal? Are there any backdoor tricks w/ STAR in this scenario? Should I do a battery unhook to reset things? Is it possible something was damaged?

I did have the lower dash cover off to replace the master cylinder, but I'm positive everything was plugged back in, and I figure if something was left loose the cluster wouldn't be working at all. I did also have the SBC unit unplugged while doing the brakes so that I didn't have to have STAR hooked up the whole time, but when I started the first flush yesterday all seemed to be working normal (including IC buzzer turnoff).

Does it change the coding when it turns the buzzer off? I wonder if I need to find out where that is in Developer mode, I've only done o2 sensor and timezone coding before so I haven't spent a lot of time in that realm... Any insight appreciated!

SICAMG

Did you try disconnecting the battery for the hell of it.
Also I never had great luck bleeding with Star as it always was chasing air in the system for whatever reason. So now I use a common pressure bleeder and it works great. Got that idea from Shardul on this forum.

GinDistiller

That was next on my list, however I managed to fix it! At least the IC issue. I read on another thread that one of the OBD pins just communicates with that and to check for loose contact. I decided to drop the under-dash cover again just to double check all connectors were plugged back in, and disconnected the OBD port and plugged into it from above, a much tighter feeling connection to the multiplexer. Fired it up, was able to connect to the IC module, and it immediately told me that the buzzer was coded off and if I'd like to do a cluster reset. Yes! All is back to normal.

So it was either a poor connection at whatever pin, or just coincidence of leaving the car off for a longer time.

I still can't make it all the way through the pressure tests in STAR even after a second bleed, and I think this happened to me a few years ago too. I haven't had time to put the wheels back on but I will tomorrow and go for a drive, they feel fine when starting the car on the lift, so we'll see! I find it hard to believe there is still air after 5 liters of bleeding fluid and everything coming out of the calipers looked clean and new... I've been using my pressure bleeder as instructed in STAR, but can I just unplug the SBC unit and bleed them like old-school brakes? I may grab another liter of fluid and do that tomorrow just to be sure.

SICAMG

Yes. You are running into the same issue as I did. After almost gallon of fluid LOL I just did a regular pressure bleed and have done this way a few times over the years no issue.

GinDistiller

Yep, that did the trick! Feels so much better now, unsure how much was/is the new master cylinder or doing both methods of flushing, I'm just stoked about the pedal feel now which is something I'd never thought I would say about the SBC system haha.

SICAMG

GREAT TO HEAR !!!