I'm waiting for the class action lawsuits...

Trucks manufactured before the mandate was published, that would absolutely be the case. Once the mandate was published, however, they should have anticipated the need and made the necessary adjustments. Any 2017 or newer truck with ELD connectivity issues and the manufacturer ought to bear some of the liability.

 

Thing is, I don't think there's anything in the mandate directed at the truck manufacturers. It merely dictates that ELD interface with the ECM, but I don't remember anything in the rules as far as specs on the truck side of the data bus. Specs out the wazoo on the ELD, though.

 

Guys, many of you don't know how it works.

The ELD only reads information by polling the bus line and that's it. It doesn't interject anything into the ECM or mess with it, it just says to the line "I need PID 128 MID 203 please" and it waits for the reply.

From an electronic engineering standpoint, it would take a lot to screw up an ECM with an ELD, they seem to use the same interface design with the same protocols and the same voltage levels with no exceptions I could find. That design has been out for the past 10 years and is in every diag unit that the dealer uses.

These engine manufacturers have been mandated to provide a system for emission diagnostics, which in turn is a mandate for the truck manufacturers to compile with the mandate. THIS is long long before ELDs/EOBRs came along.

AND speaking about the bulletin, I don't have it listed anywhere for anyone except for Volvo and that has is about something to do with the adapter or harness. They don't get into anything about the ELD and any other piece of equipment that is hooked up to the bus line - which by the way includes your auto-shift trans, the ABS and so on.

I know I had a mack mechanic tell me a bunch of crap about it a few weeks back because we had an ELD plugged in and he was telling both me and the driver that it will fry our ECM and I told him that I also have my logging unit plugged into every truck and it doesn't seem to bother it and that's made by me. He handed me a bunch of BS about how it works and so on. I just said "yep you're right but don't **** with either unit".

Class action suit, be for real. if there are a few issues, then it would be nearly impossible for the engine manufacturer to determine what caused a problem with the ECM, the dealer and truck manufacturer would have to refer to them.

By the way the law is clear and so are the court cases that have gone through the courts, the manufacturer has to up hold their end of the warranty.

 

That's my take on it as well, it's a passive device, doesn't send just receives info.

 

About the only way an ELD can mess up an ECM would be sending a voltage spike, which is very unlikely. The J1939 bus is just a slow LAN used for onboard communications, both engine and emissions components, as well as the gauges in most newer trucks.

Dealers are just using the ELD as another reason to try to deny warranty. They tried to blame CB's for issues with the 1st generation electronic motors, rather than admitting that the harness and plugs weren't up to snuff and causing intermittent faults.

 

The ELD does send data, although it's just data requests.

 

Applications do many things they aren't supposed to when they are buggy, Bugs do some really strange stuff. The ELD is just supposed to listen but that doesn't mean it's impossible for it to do something else. Look at Omnitracs and how many of them are crashing and running like garbage.

When you unhook the ELD and the problems go away then it's a good bet the ELD is causing it somehow. maybe it's "fuzzing" the databus .

 

nope, the dealer has to fly that past the regional people and they have to contact the factory to have the company back it otherwise they will ding the dealer hard for going outside the protocol.

Well don't mind the correction, but not really a LAN system, it is a CAN system which is like a LAN system but different communications layers are used. There are three or four different protocols on the bus at the same time, pretty amazing and actually harden to outside interference.

Yeah I am thinking that's the bs they are trying to spread.

What bothered me the most dealing with some factory trained mechanics is that they don't have a degree in Electrical Engineering but think they do.

 

Governmental entities can usually claim immunity from civil suits. Not always, but the bar is pretty high. The idea is that they are acting in the public interest and shouldn't be held accountable if someone gets hurt in the process.