Hi folks. As stated above used wifes car to jump start my daughters VW Jetta. I didn't hook up cables wrong and the Jetta started right up. Disconnected jumpers and noticed van running with a mis-fire. Mis-fire cleared up shortly, though. We left for home. 10 minutes later on the freeway, the van died stone cold. Wife coasted to the shoulder. We were almost home so I pushed her home with the Jetta!!

Anyway, long story short. Fuel pump is running and I have good pressure 50psi. Checked ASD relay and its ok. I have 12 volts to coil and injectors while cranking but no spark. Changed crank and cam sensor with new ones. No start. Swiped a coil pack from my sister-in-laws GC 3.3 still no start. Checked all fuses. Did I fry the computer?? Any ideas would be great!

 

UPDATE: Used a test lamp at the coil pack to determine if PCM is firing the coils. I have power from the ASD relay during cranking and two of the three coil driver wires wil flash the test light during cranking, the third one go to a solid ground while cranking. In other words, the light doesn't flash it comes on solid..

Bad PCM i guess?? Any help out there??

 

Yes, the coil driver in the PCM is toast. The fact the light is on says the corresponding wire and contacts are good. That said, I would think the engine would at least cough while cranking with just one driver down. Might be more wrong in the PCM than it appears.

You can get PCMs for as little as $150 on the net. Preprogrammed, plug and play.

I've read of this happening before. People jump cars all the time (I have) without frying anything then there's those that have problems. No rhyme or reason to it.

 

Update 2: I extracted the coil driver wire that is going to hard ground from the coil connector. Its the one that fires cyl 3 and 6. Now the car coughs and tries to run (on 4cyl) with the suspect wire out of the picture. So apparently if one of the coil driver lines goes to ground during cranking, the others don't fire either, or as Cougar said, may have more problems as well.

That said, I also have jumped many many cars over the years and never had issues. I did nothing different this time.

How about a wrecking yard computer?? I was told that you don't have to program a 1996 year model pcm. That started in 97. does anyone know for sure?? Thanks Cougar

 

UPDATE: So long story short. Yes my ECM was toast. I ordered one from allmoparparts.com for $198 for a genuine Mopar part! I looked around alot and found them cheapest. Excellent service from them including warranty replacement after the first computer I got was defective. It was throwing code P0505. Idle air control circuit shorted. Got replacement ECM through my local Dodge dealer!! Nice. Van running great now right out of the box. Spoke with a Mopar Tech Line guy that was VERY helpful. He says a newly rebuilt Mopar ECM will run perfect right out of the box with no additional programming unless the vehicle has a factory alarm system. Then you will get a P code for the alarm. Programming of VIN and mileage should be done but isn't necessary on van with no alarm. I do recommend allmoparparts.com fosho!!

 

Good information! Thanks for posting updates, it helps all of us.