Pete and KW Random Shutdown...

[Rawze]

(09-03-2015 )bigmike5103 Wrote:  I'm having an issue with my ecm in my 2010 KW with a ISX871.
the truck just shut's down while driving and I can't communicate with ecm. I've been through 4 ecm's in less than 7 months. every time they have been replaced it's been at Cummins. I've replaced the alternator, starter, batteries, engine harness. Cummins say's they are at a loss with it and KW says that it has to be on the Cummins side to keep doing it. I'm just wondering if anyone here has any ideas or other directions I could look into. any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dealers are freggin useless, clueless morons!!!.... They are a total waste of money!!!.


Thats a shame,... I know exactly where they like to short out, and it is a common problem on those trucks. In your particular case, I could have told you it wasn't the ECM the first time.

There are 3 places it is likely to be... OR it is a major short in the batteries!... Let me explain...

SPOT #1: First of all,.. there is a small wire that powers the ECM and goes to the batteries, and into the battery box. It has an inline fuse in it (in a sealed fuse holder) near where it connects to the batteries. This fuse is notorious for going bad just enough to be intermittent, and when you look at the fuse,.. it looks fine. REPLACE THE FUSE WITH A NEW ONE!. The fuse is not that many amps,.. I think like 5 (maybe 10) or something amps. sometimes they just go bad from vibration,... sometimes from someone changing the batteries,.. and sometimes because the circuit is starting to rub through. This leads to ,...

SPOT#2: Second of all,... that same wire likes to rub through where it branches away from the main harness. This is what usually causes the fuse to end up partially bad,. It is on the drivers side of the truck, right at the back corner of the oil pan.

Here is a pic that is worth 1,000 (words) ECM's eh?...





SPOT#3: I have faced this when installing boost and pyro gauges on them,... There is a Wire in the fuse-box that has a quick-connect fitting,... I cannot describe where it is,... and I do not have a pic of it unfortunately,.. but it is in the bottom right corner, behind the glove-box, to the far right,... near where you would plug in all the accessories (those white plugs). it is buried in amongst all the wires there and in tucked down into the bottom right corner. if this connection gets loose,... it will cause the ECM to die randomly!. If a truck were here, I could likely point it out, but I have no truck here at the moment.

SPOT#4: They like to short out where this harness makes sharp bends around the top back of the engine. It causes many different issues on them.
   


MAJOR SHORT!!!: I have seen this before,... If you have a MAJOR,.. and I mean MAJOR short in the battery cables,.. or in an Inverter cable, that blows sparks,.... It will Overload the electrical system and send a surge through the entire truck, and make the ECM actually DIE COMPLETELY!,.. for exactly 15 minutes. You can set your watch by it, it is so accurate. if your ECM is dieing like that,... and it takes exactly 15 minutes for it to recover,.. no matter what you try, it will not come back for that 15 minutes!,... then you have a short that is sending surge current to the ECM. ... I had a person last year discover this, because he was using jumper cables to his inverter, and they were shorting out sometimes under the cab. He accused his ECM repeatedly,.. and it was his stupid poor-mans install of his inverter all along. Corroded ground wires to the block or cab can surge the voltage to the ECM too.

You know,.. It is a complete SHAME!!!,... That a person who has never owned,.. and has only worked on a few Kenworth trucks knows more about ECM shorts on them that the typical dealer who sees 200 of them a week!...

Just my 0.02 cents worth of it,... Rawze.

How long do you think It would take me to find that problem?,... eh?,... I have had more than a few people come here with that exact problem,.. and it is NOT THAT HARD TO FIND!!!.


I think it was about 2 weeks ago someone called me from the side of the road, and I told them where to look in less than 20 seconds of them describing this same exact problem,... They said I must have a special kind of truck-whisperer E.S.P. or something. LOL ,... and it freaked them out because I knew exactly where for them to Look!,... That is how common this problem is on them!.

Tags:

peterbilt, peterbilt no start,pete no start, intermittent start, engine dies, intermittent shutdown, pete shorts, pete wiring problems, isx no start

[biscuits and gravy]

Most people don't know how many wiring harnesses there are to the ECM. I know I didn't at first.

The ECM on some trucks have 3 harnesses that plug into it.

The OEM Harness, the ECM power harness and the Engine harness.

If you have an Autoshift or Ultrashift truck then you have a TCU harness that connects to the ECM also.

It's amazing how 1 little electrical short at any of those harnesses can making you Knucking Futz and bankrupt.

[Streachy]

Would using dielectric grease in the electrical connectors help to prevent corrosion?

[Brock]

(05-26-2016 )biscuits and gravy Wrote:  Most people don't know how many wiring harnesses there are to the ECM. I know I didn't at first.

The ECM on some trucks have 3 harnesses that plug into it.

The OEM Harness, the ECM power harness and the Engine harness.

If you have an Autoshift or Ultrashift truck then you have a TCU harness that connects to the ECM also.

It's amazing how 1 little electrical short at any of those harnesses can making you Knucking Futz and bankrupt.

I hear you there! My prostar is a wiring nightmare right now. I've constantly got codes coming up for lost connection with the ecu or the tcu. I have a autoshift and it will randomly stop shifting and have me stranded, haven't been able to pinpoint the problem area in the harness so I am replacing every harness on my truck..... not because I cannot find the problem but because every harness has needed repair multiple time so my wiring has obviously reaches its expiry date.

[Rawze]

(02-19-2017 )Streachy Wrote:  Would using dielectric grease in the electrical connectors help to prevent corrosion?

it could help, but it could cause issues too like attracting salts from the roads and/or causing deterioration of the rubber seals of plugs after a year or 2. - i am up in the air on that one.

[Waterloo]

(02-19-2017 )Streachy Wrote:  Would using dielectric grease in the electrical connectors help to prevent corrosion?

I use it on some of my connections, like in the battery box and pigtail. I keep an eye on things and try to keep the connections free of dirt/salt as Rawze mentioned. I use it sparingly too, just a light coating is all you need. I have been using it for years without issues.