GordDavey
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2019
- Posts
- 218
- Reaction score
- 108
- Location
- Toronto, Ontario
- Ram Year
- 2015
- Engine
- Hemi 5.7
Jimmy07,
No I cannot write the VIN to it with Alfa. But I'm chalking that up to the VIN being for a 2015 and the BCM being a 2014 one. Alfa always returns an invalid sequence number when I tried. My mechanic decided to take an odd tactic to try to get it running (it did before the repair work started), and he thought well... if the intrusion is causing the truck not to start, we'd stick in the BCM, PCM and RFHub from the 14... switching the Engine Wiring harness to the 14 as the PCM connector is a bit different, and making a small change to the harness for the different A/C connectors. The only item we didn't have from the 14 donor was a key. So got one off the Net and got a auto locksmith in to marry it up. Truck still would not start and the only code I couldn't get rid of was a cannot communicate with transmission module. It took me a while to figure out why, and by that time I had convinced him to stop trying to do this, and go back to the proper 2015 stuff and I'd buy a new BCM, at least then the computers would be correct and I wouldn't have a dealer refuse to even flash the thing, let alone what sort of grief I would run into down the road if something went wrong with one of the computers. So he put the 2015 PCM/ECM back in, and the 2015 engine wiring harness, and the RFHub... and something else he had changed, the fuse box (PDC). He got it to that point, and the truck started and runs perfectly fine, with a 2014 BCM in it that still has the wrong VIN in it.
No idea why it is working, everything I've read says it shouldn't. He called me up to tell me the news, and I at the same moment realized why the thing wouldn't start with the 2014 stuff in it. He had put the 2014 fuse box in it, which was out of a 5.7L but an 8-Speed trans. The fusebox uses 2 pins to power the 8-speed and for the 6-speed it is just one pin (pin 19) which is a different pin than the 8-speed all the other connections that go to the BCM are the same. So the trany computer hadn't been getting power.
Funny enough so far virtually everything in the fuse box from the 2015 tradesman works with all the upgrades so far, thanks to using the body harness from the 2014 sport 5.7 8-speed. I had to add the connector and wires for our column shifter solenoid(BTSI), and the wires on the bottom of the column shifter itself (autostick), set the BCM to the correct Trany and Set the shifter type to 4 speed auto stick, and everything is happy.
So in summary, the truck is back to being mostly 2015, but has a 2014 BCM and a 2014 body harness from a Sport that had most of the upgrades in it, and our truck is running perfectly, and has been now for a week. If I have a problem down the road sometime, then I can just stick a 15 BCM back in, and no dealer should refuse to work on it (They don't need to know about the wiring harness). But for now, it can stay as it is.
We'll see what happens when I add in the remote start. Our 2015 RF hub doesn't have the antenna, and even though I bought a full new 2015 remote start kit for it, he wants to try to re-use the 2014's RF hub (which has remote start in it), he had taken the hood latch and wiring from the 14 too. I'll be figuring out if it is possible to use a used (junk yard) RFHub or not. If I cannot get it to work, then I'll just stick in the new one. I'm hoping I can pull the PIN for the 2015 and for the 2014 with the PIN Puller app, and see what a replace procedure will do as to whether the used RFHub will work or not.
I think he was really wanting it to work with the 2014 to save me some money, he felt bad that when they were cutting off the bad fenders. they didn't notice but they had started a small fire inside, which burnt the body harness, BCM, Dash, Headliner and cracked the windshield before they got it out, so I had to pay for a new windshield, the rest he got from the wreckers for free. Luckily the cost of the windshield with the re and re of it, and the kid doing it swapped out the rear window to put in our used power slider for $400 total. He avoided telling me about the fire and damage as long as he could as it was the cause of much of this woe. He is very good, so trying these things is easy for him, only a couple of hours to swap entire harnesses and give things a try.
Sorry, a bit long winded, but you sort of asked. But yes, I've been able to re-config the BCM with Alfa to get everything working so far, with no need to go to a dealer. Fingers remain crossed.
No I cannot write the VIN to it with Alfa. But I'm chalking that up to the VIN being for a 2015 and the BCM being a 2014 one. Alfa always returns an invalid sequence number when I tried. My mechanic decided to take an odd tactic to try to get it running (it did before the repair work started), and he thought well... if the intrusion is causing the truck not to start, we'd stick in the BCM, PCM and RFHub from the 14... switching the Engine Wiring harness to the 14 as the PCM connector is a bit different, and making a small change to the harness for the different A/C connectors. The only item we didn't have from the 14 donor was a key. So got one off the Net and got a auto locksmith in to marry it up. Truck still would not start and the only code I couldn't get rid of was a cannot communicate with transmission module. It took me a while to figure out why, and by that time I had convinced him to stop trying to do this, and go back to the proper 2015 stuff and I'd buy a new BCM, at least then the computers would be correct and I wouldn't have a dealer refuse to even flash the thing, let alone what sort of grief I would run into down the road if something went wrong with one of the computers. So he put the 2015 PCM/ECM back in, and the 2015 engine wiring harness, and the RFHub... and something else he had changed, the fuse box (PDC). He got it to that point, and the truck started and runs perfectly fine, with a 2014 BCM in it that still has the wrong VIN in it.
No idea why it is working, everything I've read says it shouldn't. He called me up to tell me the news, and I at the same moment realized why the thing wouldn't start with the 2014 stuff in it. He had put the 2014 fuse box in it, which was out of a 5.7L but an 8-Speed trans. The fusebox uses 2 pins to power the 8-speed and for the 6-speed it is just one pin (pin 19) which is a different pin than the 8-speed all the other connections that go to the BCM are the same. So the trany computer hadn't been getting power.
Funny enough so far virtually everything in the fuse box from the 2015 tradesman works with all the upgrades so far, thanks to using the body harness from the 2014 sport 5.7 8-speed. I had to add the connector and wires for our column shifter solenoid(BTSI), and the wires on the bottom of the column shifter itself (autostick), set the BCM to the correct Trany and Set the shifter type to 4 speed auto stick, and everything is happy.
So in summary, the truck is back to being mostly 2015, but has a 2014 BCM and a 2014 body harness from a Sport that had most of the upgrades in it, and our truck is running perfectly, and has been now for a week. If I have a problem down the road sometime, then I can just stick a 15 BCM back in, and no dealer should refuse to work on it (They don't need to know about the wiring harness). But for now, it can stay as it is.
We'll see what happens when I add in the remote start. Our 2015 RF hub doesn't have the antenna, and even though I bought a full new 2015 remote start kit for it, he wants to try to re-use the 2014's RF hub (which has remote start in it), he had taken the hood latch and wiring from the 14 too. I'll be figuring out if it is possible to use a used (junk yard) RFHub or not. If I cannot get it to work, then I'll just stick in the new one. I'm hoping I can pull the PIN for the 2015 and for the 2014 with the PIN Puller app, and see what a replace procedure will do as to whether the used RFHub will work or not.
I think he was really wanting it to work with the 2014 to save me some money, he felt bad that when they were cutting off the bad fenders. they didn't notice but they had started a small fire inside, which burnt the body harness, BCM, Dash, Headliner and cracked the windshield before they got it out, so I had to pay for a new windshield, the rest he got from the wreckers for free. Luckily the cost of the windshield with the re and re of it, and the kid doing it swapped out the rear window to put in our used power slider for $400 total. He avoided telling me about the fire and damage as long as he could as it was the cause of much of this woe. He is very good, so trying these things is easy for him, only a couple of hours to swap entire harnesses and give things a try.
Sorry, a bit long winded, but you sort of asked. But yes, I've been able to re-config the BCM with Alfa to get everything working so far, with no need to go to a dealer. Fingers remain crossed.