Shortest possible version: I'm looking for a Duramax ECM carrying part numbers 19260758 or 12609441.
Longer version: Dad's 08 Silverado Dmax dually is sick. It kept giving him DPF failure codes/regen/reduced engine power. Considering that he only uses it for towing long distances (and it only has 46k on it), it's not a short-cycle problem. He doesn't take it out of the garage unless it's at least a 100 mile trip, and usually towing 10k or more. Three times now the Chevy garage has diagnosed it as a faulty DPF sensor and replaced the sensor. They have now diagnosed it as a bad ECM, which I thought smelled a little like "we don't know, so we'll throw parts at it," but maybe they're actually right. They did send dad's ECM to an ECM repair joint and they said it was not fixable. Again, is that the truth, or is that some dealership spin?
That ECM is not in production and there is no NOS around. Junkyards turned up nothing, but not sure how hard a dealer checked junkyards since that isn't their cup of tea. They thought they had found one, then they didn't, blah blah. Dad is giving them til Monday before he comes to pick it up. I told him to tell them he wants his money back for the truck. They sold him an unrepairable vehicle, so he wants $80k toward a new Dmax, right? :D
So, the part numbers above... one of them is the part that came out of it, the other number is the other compatible (supposedly) ECM. Looking for one or the other. His next step was to take it to a custom diesel place, but they would be doing the same thing we would. They would search car-part and ask some buddies.... but we are a network of a lot of buddies. I bet we can find what a shop can't.
Getting the VIN from dad so we can reference digits if we need.
Mr_Asa
PowerDork
12/30/21 5:23 p.m.
A buddy of mine found a shop down in (I think) the Miami area that actually repairs ECMs. Doesn't take them out and resolder then then ship them back out, but actually troubleshoots and repairs them. They had a backlog when he used them for his truck, but I can get the name and number from him if you want.
Mr_Asa said:
A buddy of mine found a shop down in (I think) the Miami area that actually repairs ECMs. Doesn't take them out and resolder then then ship them back out, but actually troubleshoots and repairs them. They had a backlog when he used them for his truck, but I can get the name and number from him if you want.
According to the shop that tried to repair this one, it is non-repairable. Not sure if that means it's totally toast, or just beyond the abilities of that person.
Three links within 7 minutes. Y'all are amazeballs
Take it to a brotato diesel repair shop. They will have the knowledge needed to swap any similar-to ECU in it and do some nice tune upgrades at the same time. Dealers can't do that sort of shenanigans, even if a tech knows how, since it would be their ass if they use HP Tuners or EFI Live or a cracked version of TechIIWin to repair a vehicle. An 08 D-Max is not an uncommon truck. That exact ECU may be odd, but a good diesel shop will know how to load that calibration (or even better, a modified calibration) onto a similar ECU, swap the VINs so it will still OBD test fine if that matters, and get you on your way.
Taking a 12 year old diesel truck to a dealership for repair is not going to have the same level of success as taking it to an indy shop that specializes in that sort of vehicle. Shop around, there are likely different shops for Ford, Chevy, Dodge, and heavy equipment and they all have different tools at their disposal.
LMM Duramaxes are not particularly advanced, should be nothing to fear or uncharted territory at this point in the game.
This wasn't a dealer trying to fix an ECM.
The only reason it was there was because he gets free lifetime oil changes and inspections, and he asked them to diagnose the DPF fault while it was there. Dealer diagnosed bad ECM, looked for new ECM and couldn't find. They sent this ECM to their go-to ECM repair spot and THEY said it couldn't be repaired.
I don't disagree about dealers. He's one of those retired guys who used to do all his own stuff, but he figures he's old, he can't spend his money when he's dead, and he's earned the right to just pay someone with good knees to work on his vehicles. This time it just so happened that it was at the dealer, and throwing money at it was OK with him. It just turned out that it wasn't as easy as ordering the part and putting it in so we're looking on our own.
He has a great custom diesel shop he uses for performance stuff just across town. He talked about taking it there if the dealer couldn't find one, then he asked me to ask you guys first.
This is not a discussion about whether or not dealer service is good or bad. We know this isn't their wheelhouse. I'm just trying to find him an ECM and we did. Several options, in fact.
My guess is that it probably could be repaired, but the electronics needed to do it are unobtainium with the pandemic.
