For everyone having hard starting, rough idle and white smoke on cold start up issues, I thought I would share a little info. My 4.5 started doing this when the weather turned cool. I tried changing fuel filter first and cleaning the air filter with no help. Since I don't work my truck very hard, thought I might have dirty injectors. Tried Sea Foam in the fuel filter housing and tank, still no help. Finally, disconnected my Quad box and start up improved but not entirely fixed. At this point, I was thinking maybe I had hurt my injectors. I removed my box and took it to the dealer to let them troubleshoot it.

Larry Hillis Dodge in Poplar Bluff has a very knowlegdeable young tech named Mike who hooked it up to the scan tool and said I needed to have my computer reflashed. He said there was a TSB out which fixed the white smoke as well as overhead mileage accuracy. (I know what your all thinking, this is old news, but bear with me.) I asked him what it was and he said that it was TSB 18-037-004. I explained to him that I had already had that done. Mike was kind enough to inform me that the flash file for that TSB has recently been updated to version AI (I had AH) and this would fix my problem. He went on to explain that the computers in our trucks are adaptive and can "learn" over time and may periodically need to be reflashed to correct problems they pick up. So, just because you've had TSB 18-037-004 done once, doesn't mean you won't need to have it done again at some point down the road if your truck picks up some bad driving habits. Interesting stuff and I hope it helps all those with this hard starting/rough idle problem. I know of several trucks in the small town where I live have suffered from this problem and this is the fix for it. The reflash completely cured my hard start problem and the truck is running better than ever. As for the mileage accuracy, I got 27.8 on the way home from the dealer. Oh how I wish that was true......

 

Very intersting...now we just need someone else to see if the dealer will re-flash for them as well. That may be the tough part!

 

I had the reflash done last year about this time and it is going back in on thursday. I am not sure if the reflash is going to solve the problem this time as now it not only smokes like crazy but it idles verry rough. After about a min at 1000 rpm it smooooths right out. I will let yall know what the dealer says thursday night.

John

 

I am looking at getting mine reflashed but still am trying to straighten back up after the packing I took from the DEATH FLASH for my 5.9l Gasser. My truck was wothless after that as they retarded the timing to get rid of the pinging that was caused from a bad plenum gasket. When the plenum gasket finally goes and you don't know it because of the flash. Your truck will blow out all of its oil until you start melting paint off your oil filter. Hopefully you are lucky like me and have an oil gauge and when coming to a stop you notice it drop to 0. Sorry about the gasser info but now you know why I am hesitant to have Dodge do this as the last time they were covering up a recall issue. We had 3 360 gassers and all the plenum gaskets went out between 60 and 70 thousand miles. So is Dodge covering up something here are is it truly a fix?

 

I'm curious as to who's going to pay for the reflashes when the warranties are up and are truck computers need to be reflashed because are computers are "learning" bad habits. Hopefully, I won't need another, but then I didn't think I would have needed it after the last one either.

 

I had the truck at the dealer today for the reflash. I left my truck at 7:45 and they started it around 12 and agreed that I had a problem. According to them it was a reflash issue so they did the reflash and figured that all would be good. I picked it up at 6 and started it. Though the rough idle was better it was still an issue and the clouds of white smoke were just as bad as when I dropped it off. So i turned the truck off and went right back inside and asked what was going on. I was told to give it a week and see if there was an improvement as some times these things take time.

Does this sound right?? I figured that it should take effect as soon as it was done. Oh well I will keep you all posted.

John

 

Mine was fixed immediately after the reflash. I suspect you've got another problem such as a bad injector. Dealer is full of you know what saying a reflash may take a while.

 

I totally agree with the 5.9 gas comparison. I had a '99 gasser, and there was no way I wanted them to touch the ecm. Too many horror stories of lost power. Luckily the Plenum Gasket issue had been discovered and posted, and I solved the problem. I also have concerns of this being a possible coverup.

 

The gas flash was NOT to cover up any intake leaks.Most were PINGING badly brand new! Took forever for that flash to come out.More of a FUEL quality issue then anything.Lots of NEW G.M.s in the same era had spark knock and VERY long crank times due to same issue also.They finally got a pcm update also.

 

I beg to differ about the cover up as my truck would always ping with bad fuel or pulling a trainler with less tha 89octane. Once I had the flash the ping went away. A truck that we did not have flashed (my Brother-In-Laws) on a trip to Florida his ping got worse and he had a lack of power. He pulled over to check everything out and found out he had lost 2 quarts of oil. When he took it to the garage they told him that he had a bad Plenum gasket and it would be $400.00 to fix it. The trucks would ping alot worse when the plenum gasket would start to fail as it leaned out the mixture. By retarding the timing they were able to get rid of the pinging for all applications and then would get to do engine replacements as a bonus!!!

 

Actually the PING TSB stated to CHECK and REPAIR FIRST the intake gasket,plug wire routing and a few other things BEFORE doing the flash.The Flash was the LAST thing on the list.

 

Unfortunately if you take your vehicle in for a different problem and they flash it you do not even know it until you look at the ECM for a sticker and a date. The problem with mine is they flashed it during a troubleshooting episode for a different probelm at 30,000miles. So when the gasket went out at 70,000 there was no warning just no oil pressure and melted paint smell from my fram oil filter. Maybe it was not a cover up but it affected me. Hey the good thing is I was worried that I damaged the engine so I sold it to CarMax (did not feel right to sell it outright) and bought my CTD!!

 

As posted above had the TSB done to solve my rough idle and smoke issue at start-up and that the dealer told me that I need to give it a chance to work as it did not take affect immediately. Well I had last week off from work for the holiday and got the chance to drive the truck a bit. I put on about 600 miles all unloaded and it seems that my issue has gone away. Now I do not know which cleared up my problem the TSB or running the truck at full operating temp and running WOT on some nice hills (it has been about 2 months since I have gone on this trip). The Rocktekk sensor was added a month ago and it was supposed to help keep injectors clean. So for others having this same problem I would recommend advancing the timing, getting the TSB and then drive it like you stole it for about 150 miles. Just my $.02.

John

 

Thye takes TIME to work is bunk.Takes as much time as it takes to start the truck.Just like any new software program

 

today i had the tsb flash at 60k miles on the 04 and had to pay $100 for it they told me that after 3 year or 35k miles you pay