Hi:

I'm a newbie here, but need your help.I have a 1999 Dodge Ram 3500 2WD SLT Pickup that we use to pull a 10K travel trailer with. Mileage is around 87K and I have the Automatic Transmission. Twice now within the last three years, I've had to have the servos replaced in the transmission, because the truck got to where it would not shift from 1st to 2nd without jockeying the accelerator pedal. Last time it went to the transmission shop in September of last year, they sent it out saying there were some problems with the ECM. When I got the truck back, the shift was fine and they told me that the service shop had found some broken wires. I assumed ebverything was fine and towed my trailer on a 600 mile roundtrip in late October. Near the end of the trip we noticed that when accelerating from a dead stop with the trailer, that there was a rattle from the engine compartment. It has not rattled since then, but we also have not towed anything more than 3K lbs. I also noticed that I didn't have the acceleration that I had before the tranny shop repaired the tranny. They mentioned that the ECM was programmed to factory specs.

We're getting ready for a family vacation in late July, and I bought a Hypertech Programmer III to boost my performance. When I went to reprogram the computer, I got 3 DTC's -- 0234, 0236 & P1693. I did not have any check engine light on. I contacted my son who works at a local auto parts house and he called his buddy at the local Dodge Dealer Service Dept. They said that if the check engine light wasn't on and the codes were one-time, to clear the codes and not worry about it -- so, that is what I did. I reprogrammed to the Stage III, but the check engine light came on and stayed on. I then programmed back the factory settings and got a DTC 0238 and check engine light was still on. I've been through this twice now and talked with Hypertech. They say that since the check engine light stays on with factory programming, I need to resolve that first. I have therefore reprogrammed back to factory. The check engine light went off when I started the engine, but came on after about a minute and has stayed on. The DTC code reads 0238 and 1693.

Is it possible that it is just a bad MAP sensor, or do you think it is a turboboost problem? Any ideas or estimates of repair costs? My son is bringing home a new MAP sensor. Thought we'd try replcing that before biting the bullet and going to the dealer. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Turned out to be a bad MAP Sensor.