PCM fried @14,000 miles???

[DBradham]

2008 3500 4X4 turbo diesel megacab, rhino liner, are top, light force offroad lights

Brand new to this but here goes... Up here in Alaska its been -30 below for a couple of weeks. I keep the truck plugged in as soon as I turn it off and has been starting with no problems. It went down to -45 below the other night and the next morning it started no problem... went inside to let it warm up and when I came back out the truck was not running. Gelled fuel? Put a new fuel filter on (no gell in filter and no apparent plugging) brought the batteries in to warm them up and top off the charge. Next morning installed the batteries, cycled the lift pump a few times to prime the filter and it cranked right up... ran really rough for about a minute and then cleaned up. At this point I noticed it had set a code and the throttle "lighting bolt" was flashing (locked the throttle out) Had it towed to the dealership and they are saying it looks like the PCM is bad. How can you go from a truck with no problems that will pull a house to a fried computer? Could something have happened when I hooked the batteries back up? Spiked a circut board or something?

 

[HBarlow]

Possibly. I've never heard of a PCM failure like that.

 

[Coalsmoke]

Welcome to the forum

I had the lightning bolt once, I shut the truck off, started it back up and it was fine and no more lightning bolt.

You said the throttle was unresponsive? I believe that there is something in place that will prevent the rpm from going past 1000 or 1200RPM (if I remember correctly) when the engine is really cold, maybe this could have been a part of what you were experiencing?? As for the batteries, I doubt it was anything to do with you hooking them back up. Whatever it is, I hope you get it figured out ok without cost to you.

 

[DBradham]

Dealership called today and verified that it was the ECM that smoked and not the PCM. They are picking up the tab which is good..... new ECM is over 1500 dollars. They also gave me a ride to scoot around in at no cost while they fix the truck. I bought some battery blankets from genos that should be here before I get the truck back... I will have to disconnect the batteries to install them... got me a little paranoid... dont want any arcs' and sparks' across the "mother board"! is there a procedure for removing and installing batteries?

 

[Drdorian]

I have heard of that before... . but it is rare. More than likely there was a internal malfunction with the ECM which caused failure. Please ask the dealership what codes you have, there is a P0606 code which usually means an internal hardware problem w/ the ECM - this will light the check engine light and flash the ETC (lightning bolt) light. Don't think you could have caused this by hooking up the batteries