WHY DID THE POWERTRAIN CONTROL MODULE DIE?
One way to reduce the risk of PCM warranty problems is to find out why the old PCM died. Determining the cause of death may not always be possible, but it may be essential to prevent the same thing from damaging the replacement PCM in some cases. PCMs typically fail for one of two reasons: voltage overloads (often due to a short in a solenoid or actuator circuit) or environmental factors (corrosion, thermal stress or vibration). If the shorted solenoid or actuator is not found and repaired, the voltage overload it creates may damage the replacement PCM, too. As for environmental factors, water is the main thing to avoid. If water gets inside a PCM, it can short circuits and set up irreversible corrosion that ruins electronic connections. Most remanufacturers will not even attempt to repair a PCM if the vehicle it came out of was submerged in a flood. Replacement is the only option. Thermal stress and vibration can form microcracks in circuit boards (which are repairable). This often ha
