Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) ECM Troubleshooting

[MORED]

What are the basic steps to troubleshooting an ECM? Is there some sort of walk thru out there that I haven't seen yet?

 

[ToolManTimTaylor]

As in troubleshooting the VP issue you had?

 

[JFaughn]

Its been a few yrs , so if there is something new , not sure .
I used to do a lot of this , but the hard part is finding the info , the min. would be whats called a pin out chart , this shows all the pins at computer connections and what there values should be , volts , resistance ect.
Then for regular use , whats called a break out box , this connects to the truck & computer at same time & give a box with contacts to put multi meter to , while eng. off , eng. on .
The only source I ever saw for the info came with the break out box .
The hard way would be to have factory manual for the yr mdl in ? and make a list of what each device [sensor / actuators ] should have .
Remember, just because the values may be off , it could be the wiring , connections or device .
This is needed if you are going to replace a computer , because if a connection to the old one killed it , it will kill the new one .
I did not catch any other post , you should give the hole story to get complete answers .
PARTS SWAPPING IS THE LAZY OR IGNORANT ATTEMPT TO FIX SOMETHING
Unless you have too much money and just helping to keep the economy going but thats wasteful .

 

[MORED]

ToolMan... Yes I'm still trying to get answers to solve the issuse with my dead truck. The shop I have it in wants to swap an ECM to see if mine is bad. They are telling me that my VP is fine, or 97% sure anyway. I just figured that there has to be a way to test the ECM, other than putting a new one on.



John... My secondary post, probably more informative about my problem than the first, is in the 911 section titled "ECM instead of VP Problems???? I'm hurtin here " Thanks for your advice. Is that a common test that a shop would use, or would it be hard to find someone that has the know how?

 

[ToolManTimTaylor]

\

PARTS SWAPPING IS THE LAZY OR IGNORANT ATTEMPT TO FIX SOMETHING

.

Not so. With "Solid state" electronics like engine control modules, powertrain control modules, and any "Brain" for that matter it is far better to swap a KNOWN good WORKING unit of the same part into a vehicle to diagnose an otherwise missed component.



Breakout boxes are becoming less and less available in this module world. Without a NEW box (That can do todays ecms, and the new higher bitrate proccessors) even there is no way that you can account for each silicon chip (AND it's little bianary sending innards) , electron path stands on the wafer board, capacitor, resistor, potensiometers, blah blah that are inside the ecm case nestled neatly on the side of the cummins block are working at their peak performance.



I had one when I was working at Ford, and the EEc IV test proceedure was a looooooong one with the test box. You would break the car owners bank on diag as there was never a flat rate category for it.



He has access to another ECM. Swap the ecm. IT HAS to be the same year, trans kind, and STD or H. O.

 

[JFaughn]

My main point is that if you need to put in a new part to test , do not not kill the new part with out making sure what killed the old part is fixed , or you may kill the new part , with the cost of some computers up wards of $2-3 grand , worst case , even $300-600 it too much to bet with , then imagine your self in both positions , costumer & shop owner , WHO'S GOING TO COVER THE BET ?
The main purpose of a breakout box is to do this check , back probing the harness connection is a way to do with out , but then it becomes easy to damage a connection , especially with out probes made for this .
As for finding shops that can do it , it become two fold , the specs hard hard to find , and the shops are unwilling , as tool man suggests .
I end up on a 1st name basis with some of the tech lines , because I was catching so many mistakes in the system , Motor manuals , the rebuilders of computers - they tell me that the vast majority of computers sent in are ok .
The proof of what I'm saying is in what everyone is always talking about when it comes to getting quality & guaranteed work done .
At one time [ 80s-90s ] some shops that tried to do this the best way [ some shops out in Calf , when I was out there ] and shop rates were about $65-75 , would have what looked like a clean room at one end , the shop rate was double for diagnostics , after the the problem [ and the cause ] was determend , the truck/car would go back to the other end for parts R&R , then back to confirm , all was well .
But now the bean counters figured out that if they let half assed trained mechanics just swap parts till the problem went away , that they made more money by selling extra parts & labor .

 

[MORED]

Well guys sounds like I'm going to have to find out the specs of the truck that were used. I'm assuming that they had one that matched up, but I'm not for sure.



I figured that year, trans and HO were very important. I was reassured that they were important, but not as much as I might think. I'm starting to wonder what the shop used for a test ECM.