You can’t learn everything from a manual: Ram ProMaster City test case

You can’t learn everything from a manual: Ram ProMaster City test case

Today’s adventure starts with a customer coming into the shop with a 2015 Ram ProMaster City van with a 2.4L 4-cylinder engine and a 948TE 9-speed transmission. The customer came to our shop because the battery went dead, and after the new battery was installed, a bunch of warning lights came on. The odometer was flashing, and the transmission was clunking into gear, and his buddy who helped him change the battery had a generic OBD2 code reader that was able to pull a couple of transmission codes. They had no idea what they meant, but they were pulled from the TCM and useful to us. 

As the technician for this repair, my initial thought was that there was no way that changing a battery could cause this issue. Then my second thought was, could they have hooked up the jumper cables backwards, or possibly reversed the cables when the new battery was installed?

I started the engine and put the transmission into Reverse, backed up and tried to shift into Drive, but the shifter was locked into Reverse; it would not budge. I shut it off and moved it into Park. I started it up again, put it in Drive and pulled it into the shop. Once again, the shifter was locked, but in the Drive position this time, and would not move. The customer had never mentioned this as an area of concern. 

I then hooked up the Snap-On Zeus scan tool and ran a Vehicle System Report, which scans all of the modules equipped on the vehicle. It found the following codes in the TCM: P2784 (Input Speed Sensor 1/2 Correlation), P0610 ECU (Vehicle Options Mismatch), P1720 (Output Speed Sensor/Wheel Speed Rationality) and P1500 (ECU Configuration Mismatch). The ABS, BCM and ESM controllers were all showing configuration and low voltage codes.

FIG-1-RRDec

As with all evaluations, I checked the PCM and TCM calibration numbers to ensure they were up to date. While I was recording the calibration numbers, I noticed that the VIN was listed in the TCM with the nonsensical string of letters “ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ” across the board. 

At this point it was time to talk to the customer again and get authorization to look further into this issue. The only thing I knew at this stage was that I wanted to update the calibrations in the ECM and TCM, research why I could see no VIN in the TCM and try to figure out if this was the full extent of the issues.

The owner of the van authorized the additional time, and after a little research I came across something called “Proxi Alignment.” The function of the Proxi Alignment procedure is to copy the current vehicle configuration from the BCM to all the other modules installed on the car. Could this be the issue? I found a video from Snap-On for doing the Proxi Alignment, but they did not perform the procedure in the video because everything already showed up as “configured.” The Snap-On scanner had the Proxi configuration alignment tool located in the body control module miscellaneous functions. There was also the “check vehicle identification number” notification, and the VIN was correct for this vehicle as shown in the BCM. 

Read more articles from our R&R Tech series here.

I chose to try the Snap-On scanner first to see if that was a quick easy fix as it showed that the TCM needed to be configured. 

I followed the steps exactly as listed and it showed that the process was completed. 

Well, long story short, I still had the P0610 and P1500 codes that would not clear out. I then decided to update the calibrations in the PCM and TCM while I was still contemplating what to check next, as I’d hoped the Proxi Alignment would have fixed it. All of our locations have the WiTech 2.0 using the J2534 box as the interface, so I purchased a short-term Tech Authority subscription for programming and went ahead with reflashing those modules. 

I attempted to do the TCM first, and the dialogue said to make sure PCM was updated prior to flashing the TCM. I updated the PCM calibration and then the TCM, and all went well. The calibrations were updated, but the codes persisted. 

While using the WiTech, the Proxi Alignment is listed in the Guided Diagnostics, so I figured I would look at it with the OE scan tool. I was still hung up on this, thinking that it really makes sense that the TCM’s missing data could be the direct cause of all this. So, I repeated the PA process using the OE scanner this time, and I get to this screen:

FIG-2-RRDec

This showed that the TCM was already configured. A dead end. Still, being stubborn I decided to keep going and get to this screen:

FIG-3-RRDec

Now I saw, “You may still choose to align a specific ECU regardless of its status.” This was encouraging. I selected the TCM and started the procedure, and now the thing that stuck out to me was that the WiTech prompted me to turn on the radio. What?! The Snap-On tool never prompted me to turn on the radio, and in the last ten years I have programmed more than 2,000 vehicles and never once have I been prompted to turn the radio on. You can see the radio is grayed out (present but not responding) because it was not turned on. 

The procedure was completed and successful, and now the odometer stopped flashing, the shifter no longer locked, and the two configuration codes were gone.

A couple of nagging questions that I cannot 100% answer: would the Snap-On procedure have been successful if the radio was on? And why the speed sensor correlation codes? I am going to assume that the TCM did not contain the tire size data. Perhaps it was stored in the BCM, or it could be an unknown gear ratio. This transmission has a hydraulic park lock solenoid and a magnetic park lock solenoid so I must assume that when the vehicle came to a stop, the logic locked it into Park and would not release until the key was cycled.

In this case we’ve shown that some observation and utilizing two different scan tools were required in order to complete the corrective procedures on this vehicle. Sometimes the shop manuals don’t detail every needed step; the OEM scan tool had the guiding prompt where the Snap-On scan tool did not. It’s a very complicated field in which we work.

Mike Greer is an ASE-certified technician who has been in the industry since 1987 and with Certified Transmission since 1996.

Was this content valuable?

Thanks for your feedback!

You May Also Like

The technician’s duty to the customer

I want to talk about some of the recent trends of particular cars and trucks that we see showing up at repair shops for work to be done. It seems to be a perfect storm of high used car prices, lack of new car inventory, and a bit of economic uncertainty that brings us to

rr-feature-1400

I want to talk about some of the recent trends of particular cars and trucks that we see showing up at repair shops for work to be done. It seems to be a perfect storm of high used car prices, lack of new car inventory, and a bit of economic uncertainty that brings us to the climate that we are in right now. All the shops are busy (almost too busy) and we are adding technicians as fast as we can when we can find good ones, but it is still hard to keep up with demand.

Diving into electrical testing and wiring with the 948TE

We had a 2014 Jeep Cherokee come into our Bellevue, Neb. facility with a transmission that would not shift. This all-wheel drive vehicle was equipped with a 3.2L engine and a 948TE nine-speed transmission. Related Articles – Manual transmission sourcebook 2023 – Toyota/Lexus UA/UB series: Critical wear areas and vacuum test locations – Looking for

RR-Tech-June-FIG-1-1400
Potential causes of an overheated transmission: It’s not always what you think

If a transmission starts overheating, the root cause must be something to do with the transmission itself, right? Not always. The following are a few examples where the transmission was not to blame. Related Articles – 6T40 delayed engagements after overhaul – GM 6T70/75 slips and delays in first – How to fix GM 6T70/Ford

A mysterious shudder: Locating a problem with no fault codes

It was a dark stormy night… well, not really; it was just an ordinary Tuesday. Related Articles – Tips and tricks for Chrysler switch valve plug testing – GM 8L90 #7 Check-ball: The overheat that saved the day – ETE Reman: Ever expanding On that ordinary Tuesday, a customer came into our store very distraught.

RRfeature-April-23
TCM trouble and the importance of being certain about parts replacement

It’s a tale as old as time. A vehicle comes in and, despite having been recently repaired by another shop, the vehicle owner’s concern is still present. In the case of this story, the vehicle came from a local shop we work closely with. The truck in question is a 66,000-mile 2006 Chevrolet Silverado 2500

RR-Tech-March-FIG-1-1400

Other Posts

Watch: CVT modules and programming

CVTs usually will require a reset to the basic factory programming after repairing a major component. You can typically use a scan tool to help complete this. Watch the latest video from Transtar, above, for more. Related Articles – Road to AAPEX season 2 finale: Where the road ends and the show begins – Road

CVT-Fluid-Diagnostics-1400
TransTec adds new overhaul kits for ZF 8HP75

Freudenberg-NOK has announced the launch of new TransTec overhaul kits for the ZF 8HP75 transmission. Related Articles – Gray Tools releases insulated socket sets – RatioTek introduces new tuner kit for Ram trucks – Sonnax highlights GM 4L heavy-duty input shafts According to the company, the TransTec overhaul kit includes everything needed for a complete

TransTec-ZF-8HP75-Overhaul-Kit-1400
Scope testing the Ford 10R80

Recently, we at Certified Transmission had a chance to do some work with the Ford 10R80. We have easy access to test vehicles since our owner also owns a used car dealership. For our R&D testing we used a 2019 F-150 equipped with a 5.0L engine and the 10R80 transmission. I got to play around

RRfeature1400
Diagnosing an unusual problem: A slow-to-respond solenoid

A 2001 Chevrolet S-10 pickup came into our shop the other day. This job started with a concern of the engine revving high and not shifting correctly. With the truck being equipped with a 4L60E transmission, I expected to find non-functioning third and fourth gears, which is a common failure for these transmissions. Related Articles