Team, looking for some educated assistance. I replaced my original PCM about 3k miles ago due to several resistors leaking. Last week was driving and the truck started acting up (loss of gauges, electical smoke and loss of power), immediately pulled over, shut it down and pulled the negative battery terminal. Had it towned home and pulled the PCM. The PCM had a couple of fried circuits (see pic). I have checked all fuses and all good.

My question, is there any sensors that I should check that are linked to the area on the PCM circuit board that is burnt. I have ordered a new PCM but also would like to check for other possible causes before installing the PCM.

 

without KNOWING ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR TRUCK
we cannot say much to you other than

Why was your first assumption to look at the PCM? Have you been monkeying with it?
I know you said replaced but Just checking...
I would say gut instinct is "WHO did you buy it from and is there a warranty"

 

It is a 1994 f250, 351, E4OD, 4x4 with 158k miles. The reason I went straight to the PCM was the smoke coming from that area during the event and the burnt smell coming from the kick panel post event.

While it is possible that the ECM gave up the ghost, but not sure if a bad sensor could also cause a circuit overload as well. The truck was running fine with no CEL prior to the event.

 

Can you back up some and get the whole label in pic?

 

 

That is the correct PCM for your truck as described. When these PCMs are rebuilt mainly the Capacitors are changed since they fail regularly like your other PCM. I don't think any other parts are changed unless the PCM fails hook up testing. I would chalk up the failure, in which the symptoms are common, to just a bad part that failed.

 

It might be a bad replacement part. It could also be a wiring harness problem in the vehicle that's causing one of the PCM's circuits to short out. Generally the sensors themselves can't fail in such a way that they'll cause the PCM to burn up.

 

Thanks for the replies, I replaced the PCM and back on the road, will continue to monitor.

V/r
Cory

 

Good it is working. Thanks for letting us know.

 

Just had a very similar thing happen. Tried to start got the whispy acrid smoke and immediately thought PCM. No spark or fuel pump turning on. My burned up in a nearly identical spot. I’m curious if you have had good luck with your new board. How can one inspect the harness to ensure the best case for the new part?

 

All was good until today, I suspect that I lost another ecm, ignition went out this time, will pull and replace with my back up tomorrow. Like it has been said before, all these replacement PCM are repaired one that only the issue it went bad is really fixed.

 

Mine from O'Reilly's (Cardon) 6-8 months so far, I opened it up, and looked, if caps were swelled, or leaked, before I put it in.