Overheard a shop foreman say a bad ECM flash ruined 3 trucks last month

I was grabbing parts at the Cummins dealer in Tulsa last week and heard two guys talking about a batch of bad ECM flashes from a certain shop. They said the voltage spikes during the flash cooked the injector drivers on 3 trucks, cost like $12k to fix. Now I'm paranoid about letting anyone flash my work truck's computer without checking the battery and alternator first. Anyone else run into issues from rushed reprogramming jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

val_chen161mo ago

Has anybody else noticed how shop guys treat ECM flashes like they're just installing a phone update? I had a buddy who worked at a dealership and he told me stories about guys rushing through flashes with the engine still running (yikes). The whole voltage thing is real because I've seen alternators put out 16 volts when they're dying and that's basically throwing a grenade at the computer. One time my own truck got a wonky flash from a quick lube place and the transmission started shifting like it was drunk for a week until I got it fixed. Makes you wonder how many trucks get wrecked by shops that just want to move the line faster.

parker5431mo ago

The 16 volts thing is exactly right. I worked with a guy who killed two ECMs in a month because he never checked voltage before flashing, just plugged in and went. It's the same rush you see everywhere now, people skipping the simple steps because nobody wants to wait five minutes for a battery charger to top off.