CAT ECM Module Brain Dead

[Larry Fisk]

Hello fellow Beavers, I just want to pass on something that happened to a close friend of mine. He has a 2005 Beaver Patriot Thunder with the 525 Cat engine. The other day he tried to start it and it would not start. He finally had a CAT person check it out and found that his ECM had lost all it's memory. It no longer had the data to make the engine run. The CAT dealer said there is a small battery that for the ECM that helps it keep all that information and if it goes dead it is totally lost. He also said there is a software update available to keep this from happening. Long story shorter he had to remove the ECM and CAT had to replace the battery for a better one and re-download all that info into the ECM to get it up and running again. He pulled and replaced the ECM on the engine himself and the rest still cost him 2300.00 and days waiting for this to get done. Just a heads up for everyone. Apparently you can contact CAT with your engine serial number and they can tell you if this software update was completed on your engine or not. This could certainly save you lots of money and headaches from being stranded somewhere. It absolutely will not run without this if it goes bad.  :-/

[Mel Griffin]

Does anyone know if my Cat 3126-B, 330 HP in my 2000' Patroit has a battery to replace in the ECM?

Thanks

[Richard And Babs Ames]

Go to http://catrvclub.org/ CAT RV Club and contacts and the CAT RV Hot line number and they will help or to Links and the yahoo forum and join and ask your question.

Always have your engine SN and build (if possible) when you call the CAT hot line.

[Joel Ashley]

I put the question to CAT, with my serial no., and they forwarded it to Peterson's CAT here in Oregon.  Peterson's probably won't get back to me until the business week starts tomorrow.  :-/

But, thanks, Larry, for the heads up.

-Joel

[John Shurtz]

Been there, done that.  Mine died a couple of years ago and had to be towed from Auburn to Sacramento CA.  I was lucky, CAT paid,  and frankly they should still be paying.  This is a design defect in several of the early engines.  CAT should have run these engines down and fix them all, free, before the customer is left stranded.

CAT told me they sent service notices to all known owners.  CAT checked the engine number on my 2005 Thunder their record showed the engine still in Monaco inventory in 2008.  Then softly said that Monaco never reported the sale of one of their engines to a dealer or customer..  Shame on you Monaco, I hope your new company is more customer oriented.

John Shurtz

[Joel Ashley]

John-

CAT should have had your info when you registered the engine with them.  There were several components in our new coach that I had to fill out registration forms for.  I'm assuming, though, that your coach was new from a dealer.   Still, one would think the vehicle ownership transfer info would have reached CAT, if Monaco and dealer had completed them.

[Edward Buker]

Just for clarification, because this issue probably concerns a lot of Cat Engine owners. I spoke with the Redmond Cat service manager and he thought that my C12 may be in need of a software update to avoid this problem. He did not see any service bulletin associated with this problem against my engine serial number. Because of that I called the Cat hot line and after some research looking at what was in each of the software updates for my C12 and some additional information available to them they concluded that this was a Cat C13 problem only that existed in RVs and over the road trucks. C12s are not susceptible to this problem and do not need updates to avoid this issue. Hope this helps.

later Ed

[Ron Johnson]

Thank you Ed for doing that research and posting the result. I, for one, am happy to hear about things I DON"T have to worry about.

[Joel Ashley]

The following is the reply I received from Peterson's CAT when I inquired about the software update issue:

"Thank you for your information request on the loss of engine control.
      The problem exist with serial number prefix KCB1- up C13, these
      engine were built from 2004 to 2006. Your engine ...  is a C9 engine model, the problem was not found in your
      engine application.

      If you have additional question please contact Caterpillar at
      www.cat.com or the Caterpillar dealer in your area. Our goal is for
      your Caterpillar experience to be the best.

      Thank you:

      Matt Torrence
      Technical Communicator-Peterson Holding Co.
      Peterson Holding Co.
      707.576.1616 ext 127
      510.346.1932 Fax
      mltorrence@petersonholding.com

                             Visit us on-line at  www.petersoncat.com "


-Joel