Battery Short randomly losing ECM power w/ign on

[Gump12b]

Hello all, I am fairly new to the forum, I’m reaching out for a little help with a new issue I have. First some background to fill you all in.

I found this site after hours and hours of research on how to take care of my emissions system on my 2011 Intl Prostar Premium Daycab Isx 15 Cm871 10 sp man tranny, bought it last year from Ryder in Greenville with 554k miles, trucks in great shape. I tried the egr tuneup but after 40k of local work running 20-50 miles one way carrying liquid fertilizer this truck just couldn’t regen an entire cycle in that amount of time. A few parked regens and a few trips to the local stealership among several thousands of dollars for temporary fixes I found this site and did a full egr tuneup. Again nothing was extremely bad, I didn’t get much carbon out of the system and I wasn’t losing coolant or more than a gallon or two of oil in 10-12k oil change intervals.

After I tried everything I could in my eyes to keep the emissions system running I reached out to Unilevers and demandated my truck. This truck runs 2x better and temps are definitely cooler than before, oil comes out looking much cleaner. Have had it demandated for 17k miles, really the only smoke that comes out is when starting the engine.

My issue with losing Ecm power I believe originated from a battery shorting out on a bolt in my battery box. I know some of you may be wondering how I could let this happen, well I replaced the 4 batteries last winter and there is no strapping system for these batteries in my truck, at least as far as the dealership can tell, Intl relies on the battery box cover to hold them in place. I had to fill in for a friend hauling chips out of the woods since he was having shoulder surgery and my truck went on the chip dumps for two weeks. This allowed the batteries to slide and hence short out on the battery box.

I was left on the side of the road all day (about an hr from home) before I could get a tow truck to come get me. Luckily I was able to get a friend to come pick me up and take me to go grab my retired grandpa’s t800 to get my truck out from under the empty trailer and get it back to the parking lot.

After hours upon hours on the phone with friends (Mechanics) from Cummins and searching, locating, and inspecting wires I am at a loss. Of course as I had almost all day parked safely on the side of the road I was researching this issue. I came across several similar threads but none with the exact issues I’m having. The truck would turn over fine but it just wouldn’t start. Code 1117 according to insite, ecm lost power with ign on. All that code does is acknowledge that the ecm has a communication issue. Sometimes when I key on I temporarily lose the dash and the whole truck does a prestartup cycle with the abs valves and lift pump running when this issues occurs, other times it does nothing and the check engine light comes on and it beeps saying data n/a where the mileage should be and no connection on the dash display.

At this point I have checked and replaced all the related fuses. I found the one on the battery terminal (200a) that runs to the firewall bus (2x 100a) fuses was partially blown. I removed that fuse, and I replaced the two bus fuses. I replaced the inline fuse for direct battery to ecm power (powers the 4 wire plug) even though it wasn’t blown. I replaced the blown 10a fuse inline from the alternator to the batteries. I replaced all the fuses that are not circuit breakers in the fuse box for fear of the dreaded glazing issue. I have replaced the battery that I know had electrolyte come out where it rubbed through on the bolt. I checked all the other batteries independently and they all check out fine. I inspected the engine block ground tap connection for all wires, I inspected the starter ground wires, I cleaned all the battery connections and the frame ground. I replaced the ecm thinking it was bad, the truck wouldn’t start no matter what I did and I got a test ecm through a friend from Cummins and the truck started right up. Keep in mind my truck is demandated so of course there were lots of codes and the turbo was going nuts so I did not drive the truck. Put my ecm back on and guess what, it fired right up and ran, then shut off when I gently hit it against the side of the engine. Now I’m thinking wiring harness issue, so I started wiggling all the wires again and nothing happened. I’ve inspected every ecm power and ground related wire and pin at this point. So I decided to replace the ecm and get it redone by unilevers.

I did that and the truck ran for hours and hours idling and I test drove it 70 miles without a hitch. I got in it headed to the next job, got 25 miles away and it shut off. I waited, checked all my fuses and wires again. Everything looks fine unplugged the ecm, waited a few minutes, plugged it back in and it started up, I made it back to the shop and it tried cutting off on me a few times but i limped it back. It will randomly shut off and not start for hours, it might start right back up, hot or cold, driving or idling. I have had it keep cycling for a few minutes before like you flipped the key on and off every 5 seconds. My issue is that my ecm loses power with the ignition on and the truck dies, randomly. Sometimes it will start right up, I do not lose power to the four wire plug to the ecm.

All of the pins and wires appear to be in good shape from the fuse box to the ecm, fuse box to ign, ign to body controller, and body controller to ecm. Ignition appears to function fine and the truck will turn over in the state of “no connection” , code 1117 on insite. I ensured I found the right wires on the diagrams I had called for two days and had to make a physical appearance to get out of the local dealership who was reluctance to give them up to me.

I have done everything I can think of short of removing the one wiring harness and inspecting each and every inch of wire, or replacing the body controller (of which I have bought a new one) but I can’t program unless there’s a way to do it outside of the dealership for which I would have to get a tow 30 miles one way. I’m going to try to attach a photo of the body controller board that I so very carefully removed, I know how sensitive this technology is and what I’m looking for as far as this board goes. There was some corrosion on the pin from the body controller to the ecm power (pin 39). It also had these green bubbles on it which I’ve never seen nor could I find any information on. This board appears to have multiple layers of circuits so there is some possibility that there could be an issue out of view. I did remove it from the housing and inspect the underside, it looks perfectly fine. This body controller is powered by a wire that come from the area that the bus fuses are in front of the firewall, the same one that the inline fuse for power to the 4 wire ecm plug run off. The body controller does not appear to have burnt up at the power input but I want to hear more thoughts on it. I have contemplated replacing the ignition and started solenoids but since the truck turns over fine I’m not thinking that’s the issue. I would like to replace it either way since I bought a new one and electronics have a limited life so if anyone can offer help on how to go about programing it I would greatly appreciate it.
   

I apologize for the long post but I wanted to fill everyone in on what I’ve done and where I’m at. I look forward to any and all suggestions. If you’ve made it this far I would like to thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this. I really do appreciate everything that goes on here and I am grateful I found your site Rawze.