With a scan tool no it will not detect a bad fuse, it will detect a bad or a short in a circuit. Most likely when they were trying to diagnoise your electrical problem they were looking at the fuses and relay under the hood because the fuses in the cab have little to do with the ECM, PCM, ABS ect, ect. Fileing a claim wont get you no where you just loose some more of your hard earned money. You have made a good choice by joining us here a Diesel Bombers there are a few of us that actually work on these truck and alot of us who have fiqured out how to fix the stupid thing. Just take your truck and dont go back to them, if you cannot work on your own vehicle go and start looking for a good repair shop, as hard as it is to believe their are good honest shops in this world. I hate to say this I may have to side with the shop, because things are not always go as easy. My question to them would be is do they have a mechanic that understands the Cummins Systems and knows how to diagnose issues. When it comes to diagnoising electrical issues first we have to know the issue and in your case thinking it was a bad computer, they most likely checked fuses first, and connections then moved onto the scanner and use it to try to find the bad comp, then go and find why the computer is not relaying infromation and at least they did not replace it and charge you 1500 bucks just for the comp and flash and still not have corrected the issue, but if they do not have a OBDII that can read the Cummins Comps they would not get as far as fast. Some like the Snap On Varus can pretty much do anything and everything. Sorry for the lengthy post but maybe I can give you a Mechanics View point.

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[QUOTE=RanchhandTCR;978432]920 bucks to splice a wire?? they gave it to ya without lube!!!!

I kinda wish i did not say this because I should know better, it was not the cost to just splice a wire it was the cost of finding the cause of the problem.

 

First of all I realize I didn't spend $930.00 for them to just splice and run a new wire. As I mentioned above, I spent $930.00 for them to diagnose and fix the wire. I know 95% of the cost was the time spend trying to find the problem.
The other thing to address here is if your a mechanic and you spend 7 hours total diagnosing and fixing a simple wire problem that's really only going to cost you, the mechanic, some time and a few bucks to fix and you charge a customer $930.00, you better include a happy ending because that its rip off either way you look at it. It's dishonest and wrong, especially when I have to come back twice with new problems likely cause by them. Anyone agree or I am just mad and rambling?
One more thing...I have done everything from ball joints to replacing the vp44 on my own with these forums. I only took it to dodge because I thought it was a bad computer which is something only they could fix.

 

I just divided 930 by 7 and it 132 bucks and hour! I take it back they did give it to you. I never seen shop rates at 132 bucks and hour? I agree you may need to speak to the owners and politely explain them of your issue. Going to small claims wont get you anywhere in my oppinion.

 

Well, any shop in the country can replace a computer with a pre-flashed unit. Whats the shops labor rate? How did they describe it word for word? Better yet scan the R/O and black out any personal information and post it up. Heck if he had to determine which wire shorted that could have been quite the process. There's nothing short of 70 or more wires in those bundles in some cases many more. Which wire did they fix?

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I have the repair order here. They actually charged me $889.00 for labor, and $40 for parts. Comes to $127/hr on the labor if they did actually spend 7 hours on it. The repair order doesn't specify how many hours of labor, they just have $889.00 for labor. I'll see if my scanner works and I'll try to get it posted. I'll type what they have in the description here...
This is word for word, not the best punctuation. Also found a couple things in this that make me question even more.

Lost ignition feed to ECM.
Customer towed vehicle to shop on a trailer, he said that it died and would not restart and not take off trailer if it was going to cost more then $1000.00. We had to hook the trailer up to a shop truck and tow the trailer and truck over by the back bay door and try to work on the vehicle. I found battery's bad and both the cable ends on the passenger battery needed repaired or replaced. I removed both battery's and the customer took them and got new battery's for it and I replaced the negative cable and replaced the positive end. I retested the system and had no buss communication with the ECM or the PCM and the instrument cluster and the wait to start light were INOP. I had to get the truck off the trailer and inside because it was too cold to work on outside. I hooked up my truck and repositioned the trailer so we could push the vehicle off the trailer onto one of our four post hoist inside. I tested all of the fuses and found one of the inside fuses blown. Once I replaced it I could communicate with the PCM but the ECM was still no one the buss. I tested all the power and grounds to the ECM and they were ok. I tested the ignition feed to the ECM and found that I had no power at the ECM. I removed the steering column shroud and tested the feed wire back the the PDC there I had power to the ASD relay and at the c130 connector but still nothing at the ECM. Rather then cut the entire harness apart between the PDC and the ECM I ran a new ignition feed wire from c130 the ECM and soldered the new wire in and heat shrank the the solder joints to seal them. I tested the system again and now the cluster works and I can communicate with the ECM and PCM. I cleared all codes and tried to start the vehicle. Vehicle starts and runs fine. No codes came back and all the warning lights work as they should including the wait to starts light.


So like I said, not the best punctuation. Its kinda hard to understand what hes saying in some spots. But I think the two things that stand out to me the most is him saying in the end the instrument cluster works. When I took it back to them because the instrument cluster had gone out, they told me I was missing a fuse. Now I know they lied. I made sure and got a R/O for the last two visits too, when 4x4 wasn't working and the instrument panel stopped working. Also thought it was fishy they charged me $930.00 for all of this knowing I didn't want to spend over $1000.00. What do you guys think about all of this?

 

That would the worst written r/o ever in my book, ive NEVER see one written in that manner. If thats his entire process you should have been charged no more than 500.00 with a minimum of say 300.00. Are you sure thats a dealership? I would really like to see a copy off that. :confused:

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My scanner won't work. I'll see if I can get a good pic with my phone or something. But that is word for word what they have written down. There's also another 2 other pages stapled to it. One is an inspection sheet and the other is the invoice with pricing that shows labor $884.00, parts $5, misc charges $40, total charges $929.00, and a please pay amount of $929.30.

 

By god a 8 year old writes better than that!!!

 

What i dont get is the way its written. Typical operations at any dodge dealership, require the tech to take notes but the service writer actually prepares the r/o. The writer is trained mainly on preparing this document for the customer in a way they can understand. Maybe the writer would use one line repair descriptions but never anything like this. There's something a little fishy here. Jmo

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I's fishy to say the least. How could my instrument panel have worked like the mechanic mentioned in his report, and then when it goes out and I bring it back in they say it was completely missing the fuse.