Bill shock

Warranty doesn't matter. The shop that installed that ECM ####ed up.

 

Working at a small truck shop, I find it odd that the dealer didn’t plug into it and see what the eco is seeing. This is the first step on 90% of rough run or low boost/power complaints that I see. They should have found ecm wrong first.

 

I found a shop, an independent, 40 miles from my house, that give me good cash money prices, and I give them good cash money. I was one of those guys who was planning to do as much as I could myself. I did my first in frame and it took me a month (I found out that beer was good during the dailY NCIS marathons...I had never even heard of NCIS until I went home). The next time, I bought my inframe kit from the Cat dealer and asked the gu6 behind the counter if he knew someone that would do an inframe for cash. He gave me two numbers...one for $1200, one for $950. I asked him what the difference was and he told me that the $950 was fast and to be sure to have my money together. I dropped the truck and the inframe kit off Thursday morning. Friday afternoon, I picked it up. I can’t touch this guy...let him have the truck. Been going there ever since.

When I first decided to start upgrading my truck, I talked to this guy about putting an 18 in instead of a 13.

“I just bought an 18 that I’m going to rebuild.”

How much do you want for it?

“$3000”

How much do you want for it installed in my truck?

“$3000.”

Done! Call me when you’re ready.

Well, I built the engine and doubled the HP, that 1850 gave way to the current 22918B. I will keep my old truck and just keep building.

 

Why I avoid dealers at all costs.

How ever,.. even small shops can and will burn you.

Recently had my Columbia in the shop for oil change/filter and PM service. During their mucking around they said the driveline was worn. The slip yoke had play and the universal joints were showing 'signs' of wear. Driver commented that he was feeling some vibrations. Truck has 10 new tires,.. so I agreed to have the parts replaced. Put driver up in a hotel and let them do what hey needed.

So,.. they come back. Truck has a Meritor driveshaft and yoke. They cant get one right away. But to save some time (Truck was under a load) they can have a Spicer yoke welded on. Said it would not add that much difference to the cost.

Ok,.. well when they called to settle the bill I wanted to reach through the phone and choke someone. What started out as a $350 service turned into a $4300 bill. They fixed a few other things,.. but realistically all said and done,.. I did not see this going over $2000. Talk about Bill shock.

This is why I spend so much time going over my trucks while parked at home, to avoid getting raped like this.

Hurst

 

One of my former employer’s would tell us that we needed to find anything he could claim was safety hazard and no truck was ever legal until “needed safety items” were fixed. Very quickly I terminated my employment with them.

 

To the OP, it would be wise to understand that there is another possible problem or problems that they discovered and fixed without telling you. This has happened to me a bunch of times, I always ask for the parts back when it comes to engine issues, and I tell the drivers if they don't agree with it, tell them I won't pay the bill. The last issue was a cam sensor, the mechanic "threw it out" and the service manager got my screaming at him and a demand that they eat the labor because we don't know if the part was defective. I got free labor but they got more business from me and parts go back to the driver.

However ... speaking about ECM and firmware ... I have a couple trucks which have the same exact engines, produced on the same line on the same day (the engines that is) and each of them have different ECM firmware installed. I can not figure out why this is the case but when we had one of the trucks in for service, the dealer decided to update the firmware and that's when we had so many issues with the boast and injectors. The mileage dropped from 7 to 4 and had other issues with rough running.

So it took the Mack regional tech to take the truck and see what was going on, the dealer was no help. When they called me and asked if I had the ECM firmware updated, I said nope and gave him what version I have in my records, which he said it wasn't the one in the ECM. He put back the right version and the truck runs great.

 

ECM's are flashed to the engine serial number. Both being epa04 doesn't matter. For example a series 60 13 liter could have a difference of cams and injectors requiring a diffrent calibration for each engine.