C1241 Code

***Update: TL;DR version…I’m getting the code referenced in the title. I do not know if the coffee spill mentioned below is related to it or just coincidental.

Thanksgiving Day I spilled an entire cup of coffee while driving my 2010. My seatbelt latch got soaked. I don't think any other electrical components did, but I am not sure what other sensors there are in or under the seat. I have manual seats. While driving on the highway about ten minutes after the spill, a bunch of lights came on on the dash, including:

• traction control
• stability control
• BRAKE
• SRS
• Auto LSD (I think, perhaps not this one)
• Battery (perhaps not this one either, if it happens again I will pay more attention)

Additionally, the orange backlight of the dash display, including the odometer, began faintly flickering, and the speedometer would repeatedly dramatically drop to zero and then shoot back up to the proper speed. Then all the indicator lights would go off and the speedometer would behave normally. This happened a few times on my drive down the highway, then stopped happening when I slowed down to about 10mph to turn off the road, and for the rest of my drive the truck behaved normally. Through all this, the engine ran fine, it didn't lurch or cut out or anything. The dash just went crazy. After this, the truck sat idle all day, about 8 hours. At the end of the day, I started it back up and drove it home and none of these symptoms repeated.

The truck has behaved normally since that day, until yesterday, when all the snow hit KC. The same dash lights have come on a couple times and the speedo jumped around. Also, today, I turned off traction control and stability control, but when my rear tires started spinning, these nannies turned themselves back on, then the truck was almost completely unresponsive to the gas pedal, and it died on the road two separate times. Once, it behaved like it was completely dead. No door ajar dinging, the remote buttons would not work, the power locks button would not work, it was totally lifeless for about five minutes. I was about to disconnect the battery but then it came back to life before I did that. It started right up and I drove it home with no further issues after that, but I fear this problem needs to be addressed, I just don't know where to start looking.

Has anyone else ever had this happen? Surely I am not the only one to spill a beverage while driving...

I will note, my 4HI and 4LO lights do not turn on, and 4WD works like it is supposed to. And I have no CEL either.

 

Would an OBD2 scanner be able to tell me anything about what’s going on with my truck?

 

/\/\ id definitely get a scanner on it, C and U codes don't usually throw a check engine but will be stored as a fault.

 

Ok this is the scan tool I have, is it decent?

$90 BlueDriver Bluetooth Pro OBDII Scan Tool for iPhone & Android - No Subscription Fee - OBD2 Car Scanner and Code Reader - Diagnose Check Engine, ABS, SRS, Airbag & 7000+ Issues on Vehicles 1996+

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00652G4TS

I ran a comprehensive scan on it and it returned one code…C1241. Snapshots of the report are below. My battery is from Costco and is at most a year old. I guess I need to have it tested though. Could it be responsible for all the wacky troubles I’ve been having?

 

Well I cleaned my positive terminal, again, and better this time. I used a chainsaw file on the inner face of the connector because my wire brush wasn’t getting it very well. Hooked it back up and the truck was immediately fine. I took it out for some errands, turning it off and on several times, and it behaved normally the whole time I was out.

I guess it’s possible all this was caused by a dirty terminal? I’m going to feel really silly and really relieved if it was.