I have a 1999 Ram Laramie SLT 4 wd 8 cyl 5.2 L. I filled it up Oct 27, 2012 with 87 octane (usual choice) drove 5 miles then it shut off in middle of road. Tried cranking numerous times acts like it's out of gas. Towed to (Dealership) mechanic he cant get it to read any codes and says it's not cutting fuel pump on and say's its $300.00 to $700.00 computer. I believe we should replace smaller and less expensive parts first- cam/crank sensor, coil, plugs, plug wires, cap, rotor, starter/sylenoid, fuel relay switch, battery etc. If it is the computer- okay but at least the other parts will be new. Please offer suggestions..Thank you all, David

Been reading forum for over a year now and just joined..what a great group of people

 

How are you with electrical troubleshooting? The schematic in the 2001 factory service manual available via the forum's FAQ/DIY section is about 99.99% accurate for your '99 truck.

The first thing I'd want to know if I were troubleshooting it would be whether or not the fuel pump relay is being energized, and if it is, whether or not B+ appears on the correct conductor to power the fuel pump when the relay is energized. If that's happening, then it is not the PCM at fault. Which is what I'd bet on if I had nothing else to go on, because fuel pumps fail far more often than PCM's do. And if that's not happening it doesn't necessarily mean that the PCM is at fault -- it just means that the troubleshooting effort should go a different direction.

 

I had this exact situation with my 01. Had it towed. Garage thought it was a fuel pump. They put a new fuel pump in and that wasn't it! THEN they started troubleshooting. Believed it to be the PCM (for $600). I no longer trusted them and had it towed home. As mentioned above, check the ASD and fuel pump relays to be sure they are getting the signal from the PCM. In my case ALL the gauges were dead with key on and I got a "no bus" lit up on the digital odometer. No power to ASD or Fuel pump relays. PCM = DOA. If it turns out to be the PCM, I got mine (reman.) from autocomputerexchange.net for $159+shipping w/1yr warranty. They offer a lifetime warranty too. IIRC they have an outlet in Atlanta too so shipping should be quick. Truck was 100% after that. Don't just throw money at it trying to eliminate things. Approach it logically. If you have to throw money at it, then spend it on diagnosis instead of parts. (my 2 cents worth)

 

thanks Wayne C Captain and Champion for reply. The dealership technician had it for over 8 weeks so i had it towed to local mechanic, best in town (Thomas Tire) they replaced the asd and a relay and installed my new $600.00 blue ridge dodge dealer pcm. The first new PCM was bad so got a second one. They had it running within a few hours. Also, it probably wasn't the PCM to begin with so a $200.00 job turned into $1,000.00