Q: Can i buy a used pcm and have the dealership reflash it to my car?
Car went into limp mode and the guage cluster light up like a christmas tree, everything from CEL, ETC and the ESP lights were on and the car would only rev to 3000 rpm after a 3-5 sec delay from pedal to ETC and anytime i touched the brake pedal the throttle would completely stop functioning and it would stay at idle. Car did not run rough and nothing mechanical seamed to be wrong with it, i was a tech. For 15 years and am now retired, my first thought was the PCM. So i took it to the dealership, they diagnosed it as a bad PCM and bad batterie. And quoted me 1350.00 to fix it. Which is outrageous, so my question is can i buy a used or refurbished PCM, install it and have the dealership reflash it to my car with my vin and will it function how its suppoaed to? Thank you for your help Branden Padgett
My car has 96000 miles.
My car has a manual transmission.
Hello, thanks for writing in about your Dodge Challenger. From what you’ve described, this is a question you’ll have to ask the dealer. Most PCM’s I know of do not let you reprogram them to a different vehicle VIN number to prevent theft problems. This is why the dealer’s new PCM is so expensive. For some years, some manufacturers allowed reprogramming so you would need to have the dealer advise you if this particular vehicle and PCM can be reprogrammed to another vehicle. Best of luck.
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