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EVERYONE: Be careful of junkyard BCM's and PCM's.

Hello everyone,

I feel I should post this message for everyone out there. When working on any Chrysler vehicle 1996 and newer; be very careful of trying junkyard or computers from another vehicle. Many people make this mistake, and it can be extremely costly. A good rule to go by is: If you vehicle does not have a factory theft system in it, do not take the chance of plugging a used powertrain control module or body control module into your car. What will happen is, the computer will transmit a set of codes to the other computer, and contaminate the other one. It confuses the other computer, and your car wont start. The codes will be burned in to the microprocessor of the computer. Unfortunately, the only way to correct this situation once it happens is to replace the PCM and BCM together as a fresh pair, either remanufactured or new from MOPAR. I know this to be a fact, because I talk to people every day that make this mistake. People, please be aware, and save yourself some headaches and a LOT of money! The junkyard is very tempting, but be very careful. Any questions on this, e-mail me at:

snipped-for-privacy@netzero.net

Bill

Reply to
Bill
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And let me chime in here - people, the problem you are having is MOST LIKELY NOT THE COMPUTER!!

Auto computers are pretty tough little critters. They have to survive high vibration and garbage power. Unfortunately since (it appears) few techs seems to understand them, they regard them as 'black boxes' and if there's a problem the tech cannot figure out, their immediate impulse is to assume "I don't understand it so it must be bad"

One of the fundamentals is Garbage In, Garbage Out. Bad sensor inputs are going to make a car computer behave screwy, and that's a fact. There's lots of people on EBay who are trying to sell extra car computers they bought, assuming the computer in their car is bad, then they swap it and the problem doesen't go away. Don't be one of them.

And in a reliability contest between electronics and mechanicals, electronics are going to win most of the time. Your electrical connections in the vehicle are mechanical connections, not electronic. Vibration shakes them apart.

You should always look at the computer as the LAST thing to test.

Ted

Reply to
Ted Mittelstaedt

Thanks for the advice. What sensors would cause my door locks to unlock and lock randomly whether its running or not or moving or not. The baby got locked in the car the other day and just before the cops got there the locks unlocked by themselves. We always use the key fob to unlock the doors and use either the driver's door switch or the fob to lock them so I don't think the disarm switches attached to the door cylinder locks are the problem but I could be wrong.

Reply to
davets

Reply to
tim bur

I don't know on a Chrysler - but the range control switch on the trans on my brother's Taurus went bad, and made the radio misbehave, the wipers to misbehave, and several other seamingly totally unrelated items. New switch - no more "gremlins"

Reply to
nospam.clare.nce

"Soccer Dad" posted today with the same problem, was told to have disarm switches checked, same as you were told by "danmnickname"

Once you have the dealer fix it, tell us what the problem was.

Ted

Reply to
Ted Mittelstaedt

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