Shmokes24v

Wow way to thread jack over a seat belt light lol. Found the draw was from me putting the key on power wire to my external voltage regulator was on the wrong fuse after i put the fuse block back in.

Well batteries werent completely dead but they didnt have enough juice to turn the truck over fast enough to fire. Going to check for draw tonight. Not sure if the draw is related to the ecm turning off though.

Ill have to bring the test light home tomorrow and check for draw again. Did this a while back and found a large draw from the shorted out seat belt in the drivers seat. However this truck is like the base model, no power windows, no power locks, no power seats(seat belt has power), ive pulled the dome light, both door sensors, and the glove box light. Will check in the morning to see if batterys are dead or not.

Nope. Problem hasnt gotten worse or better.

Pins inside the under dash fuse box.

So here we are a year later. Tracked down a loose terminal in the under dash fuse block on fuse 9 which i was able to kill the engine from wiggling it. Pulled it out swapped pins out and now it has a tight connection. Thought i had found the problem so i hopped in and tried to take it to work this morning for a test ride and i didnt make it but maybe 5 miles and sure enough died on me and ecm turned off. I previously tracked down a popped capacitor on the PCM board and had it replaced by a friend who does that for a living and that changed nothing, cant for the life of me figure this out and cant get any hard evidence that its the ECM. I opened the case on the ECM and found nothing out of the ordinary. Been through the harness shaking and wiggling and nothing. However these last couple days something has been completely draining my batteries and noticed the grid heater codes again so i wonder is it possible the grid heater relays are shorting out causing transfer of positive voltage to the engine block grounds which in turn freak the ECM out and cause it to turn off? Ive just removed the wires off the battery and shall see if the batteries still drain. Truck runs great when it runs but something is causing the ECM to just shutdown. Im running out of ideas here. Just to recap on whats been replaced, Ignition switch Crank sensor and pigtail Cam sensor and pigtail Used vp44 Coolant temp sensor and pigtail External voltage regulator Pins on fuse 9 of the dash fuse block Asd and FP relays Oil pressure sending unit Checked and cleaned all grounds i could find Recalibrated apps And just disconnected the grid heater relay wiring from the batteries.

That was with the alternator connected. I'll have to check with it disconnected when I get home. I warrantied out the external voltage regulator because my voltage was jumping to 15.25volts.

Put the alternator back on and at idle I get AC voltage at the battery. Is that normal?

Took my original alternator to a local alternator shop and they tested it and the ripple was 0.03-0.04. they took the back off and checked the brushes as well and said they were real good. So I guess the alternator is not the problem... Guess I'll throw it back in and see if I can reproduce the original symptoms.

Someone said the bench test wasn't testing AC leakage? And that's what's supposed to be below 0.03? This is so confusing....

Well I've had 4 alternators tested and so far the lowest has been 0.33... This is proving to be more difficult than expected

OK I found one at another AutoZone and the guy said under actual ripple volts it showed 0.00 so I'm guessing that's the one I want? I'll have it tested again before I buy it just to make sure.

AutoZone claims this as a pass.. and their new one tested at 0.40... Should i keep looking for another one?

OK I'll certainly do that. Thank you

Well I decided to check my alternator for AC noise since that seems like a common problem on these trucks. It dropped to .01 and .02 a few times but seemed to consistently hold at 0.3 most of the time... Took this picture where it was at 0.5... Gonna replace the alternator today and recheck.

Well I've got corrosion on the relay pins so I'm gonna try cleaning them all up real good and may even buy a couple new ones for the ASD and the FP relay.

Well I got the new oil pressure sending unit installed. The new one was much smaller than the one I removed but it threaded into the block fine. I guess my batteries were too weak because when I went to start it the grid heater kicked on and turned off every light on the dash and then it didn't want to act right. So I unhooked the grid heater power wire from the battery and tried again but the WTS light wouldn't come on even after I had my TDI charging the batteries... So I got frustrated thinking this replacement vp44 was bad because I had 2 hard codes in the pcm saying no communication. I used my power probe in the PDC and put power to the pin under the fuel pump relay and tried starting and sure enough it fired right up. Turned it off and replaced the relay and now it's been starting no problem from the key... Haven't the slightest idea what's going on but I also have the grid heater and my abs unplugged. Went out this morning and it fired up no problem.... very confusing. After it started I was able to clear the codes and nothing's come back yet.

That makes me feel better because I've yet to find anyone else who's had anything similar happen. I'll update after it's changed

Traced it down to I'm assuming an internal short in my oil pressure sending unit. Gonna replace it and see how it acts.

Well I know it can't really be 160volts but what's the IVS and do you know what the procedure is to test the actual voltage of the apps?

No it's an Autel Maxidas. I was in the Chrysler section but no it isn't a dodge or Cummins scan tool. The live data was however being read through the PCM/TCM, not the ECM

My map and ECT were unplugged that's the reason for the codes. Just not sure now why my APPS is showing 160volts

Just found this in the live data...

The coolant temp sensor I believe is shorting to ground. Using the power probe ect3000 I plugged it into the blue wire and it immediately sounded the tone and lit up the light "short"... Well I put it in the ground pin on the map sensor and the cam sensor and they are all shorting. And with the tracer device I got the strongest signal of the short from the big cluster of wires under the ECM. Guess I'll open up the harness there and see what I can find. Looks like it's already been taped up by someone else.

Just got home, cleaned the ground on the inside of the cab under the drivers kick panel area. Plugged the ECM back in and turned the key on and now the WTS light came on and I have codes for all the sensors I unplugged. Gonna scan it to make sure but this is why it's got my puzzled.... Cleared out the codes and these are the only 2 that came back because these sensors are unplugged. Not sure why the coolant temp sensor has too high of voltage when it's unplugged...