I'm not trying to pick a fight, I just want to know. My research tells me that DC is the "owner", if you will, of the programming of the ECM due to new emmisions laws. Cummins writes it and DC controls distribution. Dodge is the company held responsible for the ECM programming, just like anything else on the truck. This is what my research has told me and I would just like to know what the deal is.

It also looks like the Cummins software that is used for a number of busses and larger trucks will also communicate with our ECM's for turning on things such as the high idle cruise control feature. I'll be able to verify this soon....

Again, I just want to know what the answer is. If you have a contact at DC I have a list of questions begging for answers

Andy

EDIT: Now that I look at the Powerspec software I'm not so sure that it includes the common rail engines. It really doesn't say either way.

 

Sorry for getting off topic, but.... I can't get my high idle cruise control feature to work???......

 

It's a feature that needs to be enabled in the ECM. The Dodge dealer can do it for you if it's supported on the 600. I don't know if it is or not...

Andy

 

I think its safe to say that Cummins played a big role in the ECM programming. However, many Ram owners wanted Cummins to warranty their engines and Cummins did actually assist in many ways to solve problems. That is how I met Ken Scobel of Cummins. He was and still might be the liason between DC and Cummins.
So maybe Cummins wrote the software for DC or maybe Motorola helped. Irregardless, its a program now that is specific to DC not Cummins.

Also, its not that big of a concern to me who wrote what.
The point of my initial post was to give a heads up that even if you remove a box, theres still a fingerprint that can be found.

So if I told a dealer I never put a box on and they had the proof in scanning the ECM that I did, I could see that creating a hassle if warranty is needed irregardless of whether the failed component is directly related to what they found.

I'll leave it at that.

Scotty

 

I am in the heavy equipment repair business in San Diego and work very close with our local Cummins service manager and the last time I was talking to him about Cummins and Dodge he told me that Dodge had changed out the ecm design on the new trucks and only Dodge had the facilities to access the data now. I can tell you from many years of past experience with Dodge trained (diesel) mechanics this ain't a good thing!!!

 

I agree, my dealer diesel tech..... well, to say the least....... SUCKS!!

BTW, I am a Caterpillar field service tech.

 

DC did do the programming of the new ECM , which is a CM 848 , they got rid of the PCM , and the new ECM does everything including the trans , Cummins insite cannot communicate with it , which bugs me to no end , but I have been hearing when Insite 6.3 comes out we may be able to communicate with it .

 

Only PAID WARRANTY claims show up in D.C.history that can be viewd by all D.C.dealers.No customer pay or maintance.The claim has to be PAID first which can take a little bit of time or a LOT of time depending on dealers warranty clerk/submissions etc.Its NOT a instant thing.A guy a Banks said that the six gun left NO footpriint as other boxes and yes it is a little pain to remove but can and is removeable.

 

Take your VIN to the dealer. They can pull everything any dealer has done to the vehicle, or refused to do, and furthermore why or why not.....

Least ways that's how it works in the corn and bean fields around here. I bought the truck at one dealer up near Chicago. Most of the service completed in a dealer west of Indy, moved out here close to the Illinois border. Dealer here knows all about everything, warranty or otherwise....and I didn't have to say a word about any of it.

Matt

 

Well each DEALER are on differant in house computer systems and they ARE not hooked up into one another.Each is a private owned business.BUT paid warranty claims is threw a differant system and they (dealer)have to hook into that system.Some Dealers are Reynolds and Reynolds/UCS/ADP etc.But it dials into DCS which is paid warranty claims.The dealer in one part of town(if a differant owner)does NOT know what the dealer across town did to your truck.But they dial into DCS and can see paid warranty history.

 

Thanks for confirming this for me and others.

Scotty

 

what we need to find out is how much historical information the ECM stores. A fuel pressure box could be detected by simply noting what the commanded fuel pressure of the CP3 is. the 600s have a pressure box detector on them already with a MIL code -- when the difference between measured and commanded fuel pressure is over a certain delta.

It seems to me that boost would be very very difficult to detect, except perhaps by someone very passionate about finding something. When boost stays constant at 22 lbs or whatever you know that something is funny.

 

Okay, so some of this makes sense. The only time I would take my truck into a dealer is for warranty work, so that adds up.

But I have never been able to take a truck into another dealer (wherever) where the previous denial wasn't mentioned by the next dealer.

I would also say that if I were to have aftermarket goodies on the truck, and that was the reason for the denial, that all this would be documented and made available to all the dealers.

How does that work??

How about safety related issues (non-recall)? Let say my brakes are all buggered up, I claim warranty, they deny it, I decide not to have any paid work done, I leave and wreck, somebody's hurt....see where I am going? More curious now, as I worked in a documentation nightmare of an industry before.

Thanks.

Matt

 

There was another thread about the EZ that the dealer found by seeing the torn paint mark on the ECU and the clean spot on the fuse box where the EZ had been zip tied. What was that thread about? I can't remember exactly.

It would only take a couple bytes of memory to store a peak measurement from the fuel rail or MAP sensor. If those readings are beyond stock measurements, you bet their looking for evidence of a box. If you get a leaky injector or melt a piston, or some other expensive repair, they'd be looking for a way not to pay for it and rightfully so.

One thing is dealers vary, if you happen on a good one, they'll probably bend over backwards to make you happy, even if it's a little grey on the warranty coverage. If you get a bad one, or Tech's that don't understand the Cummins, you get all kinds of problems.

 

I've had one dealer blame my cruise control going out on my aftermarket fuel pump. When my dad took it into another dealer, they had the cruise fixed in 3 days, no questions asked. So I don't know about the dealer to dealer contact thing.