On a recent camping trip, our 2005 Dodge Cummins 5.9 Auto started stalling without warning. After a minute or so of trying multiple crank attempts, it would finally re-start - but only for a short time/distance and then stall/die again. A few hours of research and diagnosing revealed that the A/C Fan Clutch wiring had become tangled in the fan blades, chafing and shorting the wiring to the point where the engine ECU quit and the engine would die. I read several error codes (P0243, P0480 among them, plus a couple more that I forget) at the time.

To get the truck running again, I unplugged the A/C fan clutch connector at the bottom of the radiator, un-tangled the wiring from the fan blade, and then zip-tied it out of the way of the fan.

I had the A/C fan clutch replaced locally last summer, so I brought it back to them to be repaired under their repair warranty - they repaired the wiring to the clutch and re-connected it. Before bringing it in for the re-repair, I also replaced the wastegate activation solenoid (for the P0243 code). I got the truck back after the repair, but am still getting the P0243 and P0480 DTCs via the instrument cluster readout (I do not have a scan tool for this truck, yet).

I've been digging into this some more (reviewing the service manual details and wiring diagrams), and in the 2005 both the A/C fan clutch circuit and the Wastegate Solenoid share Fuse 36 (10A) - I checked this fuse and it is OK (just a data point for comparison: from what I've read, it seems the 2006+ 5.9L uses Fuse 6 for these). I also got under the truck tonight and ran through the P0480 diagnostic procedure from the service manual - everything checked out through all 6 steps, leading me to the Intermittent Condition symptom.

I'm beginning to think that my original wastegate solenoid was fine, and that I still have an issue with my fan clutch or the wiring in that circuit. The fan clutch wiring was wrapped around the fan blade for a while (I would estimated ~800 miles of driving) before I discovered it - could the fan clutch have been damaged with the engine running but the fan unable to turn? If I spin the fan blade with the engine off and cool, it does not spin freely - it will spin an 1/8 or 1/4 turn and then stop - so I think this indicates that the viscous fluid is still functioning.

Just looking for ideas for next analysis steps...if the fan clutch is bad (bad coil, etc.), then I'll have to bring the vehicle back for a full replacement of the fan clutch - but I think they will want me to prove it is bad (as if the still-present DTC wasn't enough).

TIA

Wiring wrapped around the fan


Wiring freed from the fan blade


Connector zip-tied out of the way for the drive home


Wiring out of the way for the drive home

 

To close this thread out, the shop found that the wiring to the Fan Clutch was also chafed at the aluminum guide that comes out and down from the Fan Clutch. The shop replaced the Fan Clutch (under their repair warranty), and I am free of error codes, now.

BUT, I now hear a noise when on the throttle starting around 2000 RPM and up. It's sort of like an alternator whine through the speakers (but it's not), and sort of like the sound you get when you use a blade of grass as a reed between your thumbs and blow. I'm wondering, now that the P0243 code is cleared and maybe my new wastegate actuator valve is working, if the noise is due to the cheap actuator valve I installed. Otherwise, there is something wrong with how they installed the new Fan Clutch, because that noise was NOT there before. I will start a separate thread here in the forum, if needed, to figure that one out (after some searching).