Well, after 2 defective reman PCM's from All Computer Resources, and 2 defective reman PCM's from O'Reilly's Auto Parts (Cardone units) I finally had to pony up the $1050 for a OEM MOPAR PCM to get a reliable one.


The Local Dodge service center did all the installs and troubleshooting after the first ACR unit didn't work.


All Computer Resources is a scam. Neither one would even link with the Dodge service DRB III scan tool, even after unplugging all related sensors and Tranny harness etc. Their units would not even work in a running Durango identical to mine that Dodge Service tested them in. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY. They are trying to claim that some bare wires from an ATF leak found on the tranny harness caused the problem and it wasn't the PCM but Dodge service had the harness unplugged from the PCM during testing and couldn't even establish a basic link with their DRBIII tool. I filed a credit card dispute with All Computer Resources and they are fighting me tooth and nail to keep my payment.


The first O'reilly's unit was dead out of the box. The second O'Reilly's unit worked for awhile but on warmer days when under hood temps were higher, the car would die randomly while driving, and waiting for 10 min while doing a battery disconnect reset would get it going again. Heat Issue.


O'Reilly's auto is MUCH BETTER to deal with! They didn't try to find excuses or blame something else for the problem. I got my money back right away including the core charge.


Dodge service explained to me that they see this issue all the time with non-mopar aftermarket units. They have had many customers bring in their self-purchased PCM's only to have them not work right out of the box. My Tech told me that even a blind squirrel gets lucky sometimes and they do get a few non mopar units that work, but 6 months later they often fail. My tech claimed that even though many PCM reman companies claim to completely rebuild and test their units, they actually only fix a few things and miss some things by testing them cold on a bench and not under running heat and vibration conditions. That's why the Mopar units are so expensive. They are completely rebuilt and tested to OEM specs and any available updates are installed.


Ironically, another guy was at Dodge service when I was there digging deep and buying an OEM Mopar PCM after his 9th non mopar PCM failure.


The idea of being stranded by a failing aftermarket PCM while 4WD'ing 50 miles from nowhere, and having to call search and rescue to come get me wasn't a pleasant thought. So I finally went with OEM. No issues so far.


YMMV. After 5 tries and 3+ months down time, my experience is...don't waste your time & money. Get the good OEM MOPAR one.


Good luck to all. Todd

 

Heard a lot of these type stories over the years, glad you got it going.

9th!!!! Wow I would have junked it before $9k bucks worth of PCM's.

 

He didn't buy The $1050 OEM Factory unit until the very last one. He got cheaper ones from internet places and auto parts stores and got his money back for the defective ones as they were under warranty he said. He didn't spend 9K for 9 factory OEM PCM's.

 

I went thru this on a 05 PT GT Cruiser. Exccept I have a great relationship with local Dodge store and know the service manager and a couple techs.


Was getting intermitant stalling, replaced the MIC (Instrument cluster with the internal BCM, most likely cause of no bus. THat didn't fix, borrowed CO-pilot tool. Captured event when it stalled but as usual started right up.


Tech could not find issue since the tool didn't capture anything, so borrowed a DRB III for logging. THis time when it happened and I hit the button to capture the event, it said loss of communications. SO ponied up and bought a Mopar PCM. That fixed it.


I think I am going to buy some spare PCMs from Chrysler while you can still get them.