Does anyone know of any dealers in central PA, especially York, that know how to do the cold weather idle and 3 cyl reflash? Every time I call a dealer it is the first time the service manager has ever heard of this. I don't want mine to be the one they experiment on.

If so, how much did it cost you? If bombed, did your gagues or mods raise any eyebrows at the dealership? (I'll just wait 10k more miles until warranty is over if gagues will be a problem.)

 

It'd be much quicker, much cheaper, and much less painfull to find a local member who has a Smarty have them let you borrow it.
All it will take is loading any Smarty program, starting the truck, then unloading the Smarty program, I.E. going back to stock.

The "stock" program in the Smarty has the Cold Weather Idle program already activated.


phox

 

Yes, I have used my Smarty to flash everyone I know with a 24V. I think I have done 5 so far. Three of the guys took a test run with the Smarty software and loved it...they will buy a Smarty too.

Any dealer should be able to flash your ECM. The way I understand it the cold weather stuff is part of the newest flash they have. I don't know how much they would charge to do it...I'm sure it will be be more than it's worth. Takes me about five-six minutes to do with a Smarty.

On a side note about the Smarty. I took my truck to get the State Inspection done today, so I removed the Smarty software and went back to stock in case they test drove the truck. WOW what a dog it is without the Smarty, don't know how I drove the truck without it. Going out in the cold right now to put it back on #9.

 

2001 has the program in the software (mine did). You only need to go into the ecm with the drb and "enable" the function.

 

Forrer Dodge in Duncannon, ask for Matt.

Doug

 

From my experience not all dealrs know about it. The dealer I normally would go to said its for 2005 or 2006 truck only, so I printed out the TSB, showed them and they still didn't know anything about it. The other dealer close to me said they would have to check my truck for codes first then flash it but it will cost me $95.00. I've been told some dealers will do it for less or for free. I'm gonna keep shopping around.

 

I don't know any DTRers in my area, so I'll give Matt in Duncannon a call. Thanks.

 

I tested a Smarty last June at Claremont.
I tried the fast idle/3 cyl idle this morning (temps in the teens).
Parking brake on, Didn't touch the brake or Accelerator pedal, Wait To Start light cyled, fired up, ran for about 15 minutes, still at 800 RPM.

 

The high idle is very finicky about when it kicks on. Even with the temps in the 20's here it's only kicked on twice in the 6 times I've cranked the truck up. I think allowing the grid heaters to fully cycle warms the air up to much and doesn't meet the temperature requirements for the IAT and high idle.

 

You didn't do anything with your ECM when you replaced the VP44 did you?

If you had it plugged in you've killed one of the parameters that must be met for high idle to happen:

Intake temp below 15F,
Coolant temp below 140F,
transmission in park or N,
brake pedal not pressed,
throttle at 0% and vehicle speed 0%.

I'd hazard a guess that if your IAT sensor is gunked, that might screw it up, or if your APPS isn't set quite at 0%, this will also mess it up.

Or, maybe the Smarty's stock 99 program doesn't have it enabled?


phox

 

Clean your IAT, its the sensor behind the map sensor and is a PITA to get to but when you pull it out and see how dirty it is and black, you will know why the range of it is shortened. there was a write up on the dodge ram tech page about it. either clean it with brake cleaner, or buy a new one and put it in.

mine came out and was black and covered with oil and debris (oiled filter or soot blow by) so i washed it with water and it was still black and looked clean...until i hit with brakleen and found out that the part is actually white plastic with a blue sensor inside.

my high idle works now when its down around 25* (grid heaters warm the air up so it needs to be colder than 32* for it to work)

 

I agree with Jetpilot, call up to Duncannon, their diesel man is good...

 

mine never has worked since it was enabled a couple of years ago.wondering if parking brake has to be on?

 

yes it has to be set
you cant touch the throttle or the brake pedal either or it will go back to normal idle.

 

you want to drive to Delaware, I'll put it in for you (smarty).