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Powertrain control module


Rowdysrides
10-30-2004, 06:55 AM
I was wondering if any of you have had your powertrain control module recalibrated or reprogramed??

If so what is that suppose to do for your vehicle??

I'm still dealing with a misfire on #2 and was wondering if maybe that might fix my problem, if not all I have left is to swap injectors.

Thanks for your all help.

DRW1000
10-30-2004, 09:46 AM
Hi Rowdysrides,

I think I am jumping in in the middle but here goes.

I do not know what the reprogrammings for the PCMs are for and I think there may be more than one but I somehow doubt they are specifically for a misfire.

What year is the vehicle? Have you ruled out the obvious such as an injector, spark plug, cable and distribution module?

What about EGR ports? On some years the EGR ports clog on some cylinders and not on others and this causes too much Exhaust gas to flow to the cleaner ports causing misfires in those (or that) cylinder.

Rowdysrides
10-30-2004, 10:52 AM
Well I've posted about our misfire a few times in this forum, we have a 96 3.8L.

Have replaced fuel filter, changed plugs (motorcraft) checked wires, cleaned EGR ports, replaced head gaskets on up. Injector spray appears well, but will swap injectors tonight to see if that solves the problem. Had the injectors, etc cleaned & MAF sensor as well. Replaced ignition coil as well.

This is what I found on Alldata about the PCM:

The EEC-V PCM contains specific calibrations for optimizing emissions controls, fuel economy, and driveability. Based on information received and programmed into its memory, the PCM sends signals to control:


Fuel injector
Ignition coil
Idle Air Control (IAC) valve
EGR vacuum regulator solenoid

12Ounce
10-30-2004, 11:03 AM
Rowdysrides
Just for info: I recently returned a set of cables to AutoZone because there was a split in one of the cables allowing a leak. The replacement cables that they then gave me have worked fine.

DRW1000
10-30-2004, 04:56 PM
Rowdyrides,
I see that reprogramming can control items that could be causes of misfires but I am skeptical that it would affect one cylinder only.

I would think that you would have troubles in more than one cylinder. If perhaps the one cylinder was "on the cusp" and a reprogramming could fix the misfire I would tend to believe that there is still somethng wrong in that cylinder and the reprogramming was simply masking it and more than likely only on a temporay basis.

Putting it in other words, I doubt if new code was written to prevent a misfire in only one cylinder.

I think your problem is somewhere else. As 12Ounce suggested it may be something simple yet not so obvious of a place.

I would still suspect something in the fuel delivery or spark delivery to the misfiring cylinder and I would not rule out EGR flow.

As a testtry disconnecting your EGR vacuum thus disabling the EGR system and see if that causes it to go away. (Of course this will give you EGR codes).
Try swapping to similar length spark plug wires and then try swapping spark plugs.
You may need to get a good look at the injector on that cylinder too.

Good luck.

12Ounce
10-30-2004, 05:20 PM
Rowdy
It's a long shot, ... but also make sure the crankshaft position wheel (the one with an incomplete set of teeth) is not loaded with crud.

Rowdysrides
10-30-2004, 06:18 PM
Thanks for all your suggestions, will check out EGR system tomorrow and I'll double check the crankshaft position wheel, and still need to swap injectors. To darn tired tonight, I work on vehicles all day and have just about had enough for one day...lol.

Only other thing I haven't changed is spark plug wires, but did check them with a meter, they were changed in January.

I'll post the results, in hopes of helping someone else with the same problems.

I think the wife is about ready to scrap it, but I'm not spending all this time and money to scrap it just yet.

Thanks again.

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