Hey guys,
Well, its that time of year again... pulling the cars out of storage, and also time of the year for damaged PCM's and other oddities as a result of doing so. Hopefully, this post will save some of you a headache, or at least get you sorted out faster if you do have problems.
The number one cause of PCM damage is Jump Starting, Jump Boxes, and old school Battery Chargers. As the electronics age, they become increasingly sensitive to voltage surges and possible reverse polarity situations.
-NEVER use a transformer/rectifier based battery Charger, especially those with a "jump start" feature! They leak AC Ripple like it was in their design specifications.
-AVOID Jump Starting whenever possible unless its an emergency. And for the love of god, if you do, MAKE SURE THE CABLES ARE THE CORRECT POLARITY.
-Whenever possible, charge the battery with the KEY OFF, and remove the charger before attempting to crank and fire.
-DO use a microprocessor controlled "float charger" to keep your batteries charged. Once a battery goes dead ONE SINGLE TIME, it will never be the same and will degrade quickly.
If you suspect you have a PCM issue:
Turn key on.
If you have:
-No Fuel Pump Prime or constant fuel pump prime.
-No Check Engine Light Self-Test
-No Comms with a scan tool
And you *do* have power and ground at PCM connectors for both Constant 12V and Run/Start 12V...
...Your PCM is damaged.
In the case of Gen-1 cars, *ALWAYS* unplug suspected defective PCM's, as they can be a fire hazard even with the key out and power off.
Please contact us for assistance if you suspect you have PCM issues. We are the primary retail/wholesale PCM supplier and remanufacturer for the Viper [All] and Ram SRT-10 markets, and have been slowly heading into other portions of the market as well, with Gen-3/4/5 BCM remanufacturing, and hopefully soon Ram SRT-10 TIPM's.
And I cannot stress this enough: please consider the source for your parts, especially PCM's. While I plainly admit we are not the cheapest option, we are the best. Period. Full stop. The sheer number of butchered PCM's that come through my hands is staggering. The guy that claims to fix PCM's for 250 bucks on Ebay? Yeah, after he gets done destroying it and collecting his bogus Diag fee, I am the one who has to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again. The quality is work is absolutely atrocious, as you would expect. The larger problem however, is the dwindling number of available cores. Ever time these guys destroy a PCM, that is one less in circulation, and things are already relatively tight.
Secondly, please understand... virtually none of these guys have the first clue what they are doing, fixing, or selling you. There are literally 15 different versions of Viper PCM hardware, and I know every single version of them. Those guys selling controllers for the wrong year because they happen to look the same? I am sure the various sensors and actuators that changed nearly every model year would appreciate, you know, BEING PLUGGED INTO THE PROPER HARDWARE DESIGNED TO RUN THEM. When we supply controllers, you get the CORRECT VERSION. Hard to believe that its even a "thing", but it is. It drives me insane, and I see it every day.
Please, think of the Vipers.
Well, its that time of year again... pulling the cars out of storage, and also time of the year for damaged PCM's and other oddities as a result of doing so. Hopefully, this post will save some of you a headache, or at least get you sorted out faster if you do have problems.
The number one cause of PCM damage is Jump Starting, Jump Boxes, and old school Battery Chargers. As the electronics age, they become increasingly sensitive to voltage surges and possible reverse polarity situations.
-NEVER use a transformer/rectifier based battery Charger, especially those with a "jump start" feature! They leak AC Ripple like it was in their design specifications.
-AVOID Jump Starting whenever possible unless its an emergency. And for the love of god, if you do, MAKE SURE THE CABLES ARE THE CORRECT POLARITY.
-Whenever possible, charge the battery with the KEY OFF, and remove the charger before attempting to crank and fire.
-DO use a microprocessor controlled "float charger" to keep your batteries charged. Once a battery goes dead ONE SINGLE TIME, it will never be the same and will degrade quickly.
If you suspect you have a PCM issue:
Turn key on.
If you have:
-No Fuel Pump Prime or constant fuel pump prime.
-No Check Engine Light Self-Test
-No Comms with a scan tool
And you *do* have power and ground at PCM connectors for both Constant 12V and Run/Start 12V...
...Your PCM is damaged.
In the case of Gen-1 cars, *ALWAYS* unplug suspected defective PCM's, as they can be a fire hazard even with the key out and power off.
Please contact us for assistance if you suspect you have PCM issues. We are the primary retail/wholesale PCM supplier and remanufacturer for the Viper [All] and Ram SRT-10 markets, and have been slowly heading into other portions of the market as well, with Gen-3/4/5 BCM remanufacturing, and hopefully soon Ram SRT-10 TIPM's.
And I cannot stress this enough: please consider the source for your parts, especially PCM's. While I plainly admit we are not the cheapest option, we are the best. Period. Full stop. The sheer number of butchered PCM's that come through my hands is staggering. The guy that claims to fix PCM's for 250 bucks on Ebay? Yeah, after he gets done destroying it and collecting his bogus Diag fee, I am the one who has to put Humpty-Dumpty back together again. The quality is work is absolutely atrocious, as you would expect. The larger problem however, is the dwindling number of available cores. Ever time these guys destroy a PCM, that is one less in circulation, and things are already relatively tight.
Secondly, please understand... virtually none of these guys have the first clue what they are doing, fixing, or selling you. There are literally 15 different versions of Viper PCM hardware, and I know every single version of them. Those guys selling controllers for the wrong year because they happen to look the same? I am sure the various sensors and actuators that changed nearly every model year would appreciate, you know, BEING PLUGGED INTO THE PROPER HARDWARE DESIGNED TO RUN THEM. When we supply controllers, you get the CORRECT VERSION. Hard to believe that its even a "thing", but it is. It drives me insane, and I see it every day.
Please, think of the Vipers.
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