He doesn't want to deal with a CARDONE remanufactured one from a local parts store. Says there is to much risk, as he had a bad experience once with them. He is also sending me to the dealer. Its about $400 from the local parts store . They come programmed to my VIN.
It's $700 for the unit, $150 to have it programmed from the dealer + the cost of getting it to them. Both have 1 year warranties.Don't know what to do. If I do it on my own. I inherit any future problems. If I go through the mechanic , he owns it if it fails within the first year and leans on the dealer. Can't get a sense for the reliability factor for A CARDONE unit, even after talking to them. The dealer says, what they usually say.

 

I would get the Cardone one and install it yourself. BUT, many mechanics jump to conclusions and blame ECU's. Do you have any other info on how he determined the ECU was bad?

 

I have sent a few PCMs out for repair through my local NAPA and have good results. It took a ew weeks, but it was only 170 bucks.

 

He explained it to me. He has a way of testing to see if the PCM is working or not. He can test for the signal from the PCM to other parts that it controls. For instance, the fuel pump. It's not working. I believe him, because when the vehicle was running, I could hear it. He also said that when he taps on it it will work intermittently, which is what I experienced. He's the second mechanic to come to the same conclusion. I can't honestly believe that both were incompetent, or this is a conspiracy going on with local mechanics. I mean I have two mechanics telling me the same thing and everything on the internet doesn't give me a good indication of how reliable the re manufactured ones are. A couple of the local auto parts stores carry them and they come from CARDONE. I even called CARDONE and spoke with a Rep there. Of course he makes it sound all safe and easy. I don't blame him for that. I was unable to determine where MOPAR gets the units they sell. They are not new either. Then there is the place in Miami and reading about them does not give me confidence. I can't determine if this is a common problem or not. One source tells me that PCM's rarely fail. Others say its getting more common as these vehicles age. This particular one has only 140,000 miles on it. The 4.7 engines and these PCMs are also used in the RAM Pickups and I read about them failing in those trucks as well, but like in the WJ's I am not able to quantify the level of occurrence. Of course I regret buying this vehicle. Anyway. This is my experience for all who can learn from it.

 

It seems that Chrysler had a problem with PCMs in the 99-01 model years.

 

There is one thing you can do before buying a new one. Take the cover off and check for solder cracks where the plug sockets attach to the circuit board. 5 minutes with a soldering gun could save you a lot of money and heartache.

 

^^^^ I to have seen this. From vibrations while driving can cause cracks that a few minutes and a soldering gun can tackle with ease.

Max

 

Thanks for this suggestion. I already gave the go ahead to take said vehicle to dealer. Mechanic is closed on Fridays but I can give him a call on Monday to see what the progress is. I get to keep the old PCM. I intend to open it up and see if I can find any cracks in the solder. As I have absolutely no faith that the dealer PCM is going be worth anything, it will be good to have a spare on hand.

 

Amazing! I had a 4th gen. Camaro that had an intermittent and simultaneous failure of the power windows and the radio. Turned out to be a solder joint in the BCM and the problem was so wide spread among the 4th gen. cars that there were several on line tutorials on fixing it. I did that and the problem completely disappeared. Just commenting on how crappy the wave soldering process must be at the factories in China or Mexico that provide these circuit boards to American manufacturers. Reliability really sucks on newer American vehicles.

 

One of the other reasons for cracking solder connections is the change to lead free solder. Too much tin can cause brittleness. A roll of leaded solder is worth it's weight in gold!

 

My Jeep is 15 years old. Nothing lasts forever and I expect things to break, but just not when I own them! I would think though with the vast numbers of WJ's on the road still that MOPAR would still make the part (PCM) available new, or by now a more dependable and honest industry for after market PCM's would have emerged. I don't believe this is a common problem. These are popular cars. I couldn't quantify it scientifically, but I see what appears to be hundreds of these WJ's around where I live. And, all of them running. I keep asking myself, "why me"?
I had this happen with a TV once. My first color TV. After a couple years it stopped working. I took it to get repaired and it was "broken solder" . Once fixed, that TV lasted another 15 years. 18 years total. Guy said the same thing about lead and solder.

 

Well, I got my Jeep back today with a manufactured MOPAR PCM, installed and programmed by the local Jeep/Dodge dealer. Interesting turn of events. It appears that the PCM that was in the Jeep was not original. I was one of those "re-manufactured" by Auto Computer Exchange. Thats one of those fly-by-night outfits in Florida that the local BBB and YELP has a long record on from unhappy customers. And not even a year old. Appearance wise it did not look like the replacement from MOPAR. I know someone had asked the question about how these places get through the gel that the PCM components are encased in to do a repair. In this case, they just peeled it out and just flopped it back when they were finished. The gel is actually pretty thin and came out in sections. If the function of the gel is to help absorb shock, it was totally useless for that function. Somebody paid $200 for this thing, It did not last a year and I inherited the problem when I bought the vehicle. It is disconcerting to me to have had to spend that kind of money on a vehicle with a resale value of perhaps only several thousand dollars at most.
It was quite a bit more expensive than dealing with this internet company. It does come with 2 year warranty and only time will tell. My appreciation to all who took notice of my dilemma and offered advice. I am hoping that someone can benefit from this experience and its easier on them than it was on me.
I am more than happy to put this thread to rest now.

 

Just as a point of info, I was told by Liberty Mutual, my insurance company, that my total loss value was $1000 on my 2000 WJ so I didn't purchase collision insurance because that was my deductible. Max trade-in value was only $2000 in pristine condition with low miles. It's got 176K on it now and is far from perfect condition. That was 3 years ago.

As far as dealer's are concerned, if it's more than 5 years old, they don't stock parts and have to order them from warehouses that may or may not still have them. I needed 2 of the tiny bulbs for my overhead VIC and they checked their computer to find them. There were 5 in a warehouse the Texas, were $7 each, and took a week to get here. I looked in junkyards and those bulbs were either already gone or were burnt out.

 

Really???, "crappy" "China" "México"??? what the f**k???

 

I'm not trying to put anybody down, but in the '90's, I worked for Pass&Seymour and we had just hit the market with a receptical style GFI (ground fault interrupter). Demand for this unit got so furious that we opened an assembly plant just over the border in Mexico. We shipped all the US made parts and all they had to do was assemble them. Six months later we closed the plant because of a 30% failure rate on the parts put together in Mexico. IDK if this was because of unskilled labor or faulty testing, but you can see where people get nervous about Mexican quality. Pass just couldn't stand to get a reputation for poor quality. A lot of this has to do with the industry's switch to "just in time" production, that is not stocking a large inventory in warehouses and producing to fill orders when needed.