2014 RAM 1500 flash, no crank

[MD-Aaron]

We flashed to disable MDS. New engine started up, he drove it for a week. Then we were revisiting for some actual tuning. Client happened to open the door while flashing "Write Calibration" on ECM only. It finished flashing procedure, but said "failed". So we reflashed again. Said successful. Now truck doesn't crank and VCM DTC read says "cannot detect ECM" or something (from memory sorry this was a couple hours ago, just finished up a GTR too).

(on Gen 3 GM I've had customers end up hitting stuff and it cause CAN issues, like kill gauge clusters and kill wipers etc, but we just "write entire" and then everything's golden. Apparently dodge is much more picky than GM? )

Now truck will not crank. We tried reflashing, same issue. Tried reflashing old tune it drove on minutes before we reflashed today, (the tune with MDS disabled that he drove on for a week). All of the subsequent reflashes it says "completed" or "successful" or whatever it says normally. But truck doesn't start and VCM scanner reads in the DTC "ECM not detected".

If someone's has some light to shed please do! I have a ticket open with HPT but it's saturday. I'll try to remember to update with results at the end of this.

Sucks was excited to have the client see the massive difference from the throttle tuning and some AFR tuning, as well as timing to optimize his drop in cam.
Anyway I'll update back, chime in if you can!
Thanks!

-Aaron

[LilSick]

went "all the way thru the procedure" as in it had you cycle the key off and back on?

what version of the suite are you running???

[MD-Aaron]

Yes, went through to the end, and did the key off, wait 10 seconds, key on, then hit "okay" or "close" whatever it says. Also voltage was 12.2 at time of flash, and after. Not a low voltage problem. Connection was solid, scanned in VCM and looked at voltage there and did simple log to make sure connection was good and not finnicky. Then closed scanner and opened the editor. I used VCM scanner to make sure ECM was seeing sufficient voltage before scanning. (I always do this, like I just did a house call to flash a mustang and his voltage was too low, I saw it in the scanner before I even did the read, and had to leave and tell him to charge it.) Did the client opening his door really cause it to brick? I also noticed there was no "write entire" option.

I was reading other people having issues. It seems dodges get a lot of bricked ECUs on HPTuners? I'm just starting dodge tuning, I was considering getting more into challengers and chargers as there's a TON in the area here. Do people reliably tune those without bricking? Are the truck ECMs more picky? I've been doing GM gen 3 and gen 4 and 5.7 toyota, and ecoboost stuff and no brickd ECUs. Works fine. I actually primarily started/focus on standalone race cars, LinkECU and ECUMaster, Haltech etc. but market kinda pushed me into reflashing. Anyway I'm just curious if the HPTuner stuff is less stable on the dodge platform? Found a couple threads of a BUNCH of people chiming in about bricking their ECUs.

[LilSick]

dunno... i only tune dodges

did you save the info.txt file from before the read?

which version of the suite were you using?

[MD-Aaron]

I saved the as read tune before. The truck did take one flash successfully and drove on it for a week. Just wondering if client opening and closing his door during flash really bricked it? Waiting for HPT Support.

Editor version : 5.0.4

So you tune a lot of dodge sand bricking is rare?

I did not save a info.txt file.

[LilSick]

define a lot

have written to dodge pcm hundreds of times, more than 500, not thousands like some people have

had one get stuck on me... it was recoverable

without a saved info file (that would have showed what codes where present, if any) i do not know what hpt can say other than send it in

opening the door can cause a surge and a surge can be all it takes

i am as careful as possible with this shit and still had a issue once

hopefully they can get it to wake up

[tyler_h]

I once had a heart attack when I opened the door during a flash, it was a non issue.

Did get stranded for a bit at a Costco when my knee bumped the usb cable out if the hp tuners module during a flash. I was able to reflash.

Good luck.

[JamesG901USA]

MD-Aaron do you have any updates on this matter? Was HP Tuners able to recover the ‘bricked” PCM?

[fixit]

did you try "write entire" ?

[LilSick]

why???

did you have one get stuck too???