computer flash

[1stRAM]

can anyone tell me what it means to get the computer "flashed". i can across this term on another forum and was curious what it means.

[BleedDodge]

The guy that was posting that is an idiot. It was about 6 months ago that he came around here talking about the death flash trying to scare everyone. Whatever. Don't worry about it.

[rksnc]

Yes that only applies to GM Ecm's . There are some GM ECM that come Lets say brain dead. The info has to be flashed to ECM. There are times when GM has upgraded this and can reflash a ECM to correct some problems.

[galea_joe]

Dont know if its true or not but I found a website to fix it. There could be some validity to it. Here is the website

http://www.bionicdodge.com/Download/Curing%20The%20Death%20Flash.pdf#search='dodge%20d eath%20flash'

[scoutinkeith]

it applies to the dodges as well. "flash" is just slnag term for software update. there have been several software updates "flashes" that dodge has come out with, usuaily they are in responce to a common problem or complaint that people have, that can be fixed by just changing the programming in the ECM (computer).
about that "deth flash" thing, I haven't experienced it myself (only flash I've had dont to my truck was for trans shifting) but I've heard that it was a band-aid fix to the pinging problem (often casused by bad belly pan gasket), and supposedly pulled a few degrees of timing, which is said to hurt performance.

[crazys182003]

there is a flash also for the 2001 Manual Transmissions. They don't like to fully accelerate after a cold start but that flash was awhile ago. Although I just bought my 2001 Manual about a month ago and I personally don't think the flash was done......Havign a friend check it out soon.

[rksnc]

There are some changes that can be make to some of the auto trans. I don't see how you can flash a manual tran , there is no computer that. You are in control. You can set the tire size on some the models. This doesn't correct some drivability problems. But this happens after someone puts on new tires and goes to a bigger size.

[1thunder]

for your info scoutinkeith when the trans flash went into you pcm the complete flash goes in eaven the pinging part i do all the flash updates at our dealership and i know this for a fact and has been confirmed by service engineers as your vehicle shares the same computor for the engine and the trans together where the trucks equipped with the
45rfe trans they use a seperate computor for the engine and the trans so this gives us the ability to pick wich controller to reprogram

[1thunder]

oops i'm assuming your still driving your 99 ram1500 truck right??scoutinkeith

[rksnc]

The death flash was to fix pinging issues in 98-2001 Rams. This control a timing issue.
The dealer cannot flash backwards(remove flash to previous versions)The PCM can only be updated.
This is also can only be done with the DBR. Use google search and you can find out all the different things with dodge PCM flashes.

[crazys182003]

well here is the tsb I found about the manual flash I was talking about.
http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2002/18-011-02.htm

[BleedDodge]

That dude, I can't remember his name. It was funny. Someone would come here and say they were having such and such problems, like turn signals out or something totally unrelated, and he's like "it's the death flash"...

[scoutinkeith]

1thunder,
yes, I'm still driving the 99(thinking of selling it though, and getting a 03-04 2500)
anyway, thanks for the info, kinda makes me think that the guy lied to me though. I took my truck in because of some shifting isues, and the guy told me that they could flash the trans controler only, so that's what I told them to do. I had talked to people who said that after getting the "deth flash" (flash for the pinging) they lost quite a bit of performance (I'm assuming due to timing being pulled), and the guy that I talked to at the dealership said that flashing for the shifting would not effect the timing. so from what you said, either he didn't know what he was talking about, or flat out lied to me.

[1thunder]

well like i said before alot of people think that when we flash the computor it retards the timing but what it does it gives us another option on our DRB3 scan tool that alows us to retard the timing up to 4 degrees and if we just leave that option at o the timing stays the same so i don't really know how the term came about unless the techs did retard the timing you shouldn't notice any difference but in the shifting and then the timing could be put back to o again or back to -4 over and over

[scoutinkeith]

1thunder,
thanks for the info, I didn't notice any loss of performance, so hopefully they didn't change the timing.