

If it’s showing less than that, fully charge your battery and re-test. It should read at least 12.6 volts with the engine off, or 13.7 volts with the engine running. While you’re under the hood, use your multimeter to ensure that your battery has a full charge. If your PCM has experienced corrosion, you’ll have to skip to step 5 to see if it’s failed. Make sure that your PCM is connected to your battery, and that there’s no rust on the PCM itself or on the battery wiring. This isn’t the most common cause of a PCM failure, but it’s the easiest to identify.

Now, before you start doing any surgery on your car, the first thing to do is to check for rust or a disconnected wire. OBD or OBD II code scanner (check with your car’s manufacturer on device compatibility).

What Tools Do I Need?īefore starting any job, it’s important to have the right tools for the task. But if you’re experiencing two or more symptoms with no other obvious cause, it’s a good idea to check your PCM. For example, poorly-inflated tires can cause a drop in gas mileage, and hard starting can be caused by a weak battery or failing starter. There are other things that could be causing these symptoms. Your transmission sifts erratically, skips gears, or fails to shift at all.Your car stutters when starting, requires multiple attempts, or won’t start at all.You lose fuel economy for no apparent reason.Other warning lights may be on, including traction control and ABS.So before we talk about how to test a PCM, here are some common symptoms of a PCM failure. Many of your car’s functions are controlled by the powertrain control module (PCM), which works in conjunction with the engine control module (ECM) and transmission control module (TCM) to adjust engine timing, the air to fuel ratio, and other systems. To help you out, we’ve put together a handy guide. The disadvantage? Computers are a pain in the rear to diagnose. It also means you get better gas mileage and performance since computers can make adjustments on the fly to compensate for changes in temperature, humidity, and road conditions. The advantage of this isn’t just less maintenance.

There’s a reason for that we have computers to handle timing, air to fuel ratio, and even when and how our automatic transmissions shift. For example, when was the last time you or someone you know had to adjust their car’s timing? Unless you’re a classic car collector or you’re old enough to carry an AARP card, the answer is probably “never”. Modern cars rely on computers to manage their various systems.
