Replace a Faulty Brake Controller

Old brake controller — eight years old, lagging behind your foot, finicky on hills. New one — eighty-nine bucks. One hour. Here's how.

Controller swap. Buy a matching unit — most popular is the Tekonsha Prodigy P3 or P2. Hardwired or plug-in depending on your truck. Mine's plug-in. Modern trucks have a factory harness behind the dash.

Step one — disconnect the negative battery terminal. Safety. Step two — unscrew the old controller from its mounting bracket. Unplug the harness. Done.

Step three — plug the new controller into the same harness. Mount in the bracket. Reconnect battery.

Step four — power on the controller. Most have an auto-calibration mode now. Follow the on-screen prompts. Set gain to default. Drive empty parking lot. Calibrate per Tuesday's video.

If your truck doesn't have a factory harness — eighty bucks for the adapter harness, another half hour of wiring. Either way — done in two hours, eighty-nine to a hundred-fifty in parts.