EFILive's explanations do not make sense

[Black6spdZ]

With the ABS and brake light on after flashing my 06 5.9l something is not making sense here.. EFILive is quick to point fingers at the "other" tune boxes causing problems and needing dealer reflashes at your expense! I'll run through the steps I've been through. first I made a backup of my TCM WITH the superchips tune loaded, then reset it to stock and made another backup of the "supposed" stock tune. Then I flashed the "gift" tune, key off, key on, updated the vin in scan tool "before cranking", key off, backup of gift tune with my correct vin then cranked it.. truck runs fine without issue other than now the dash is lit up like a Christmas tree. Since the truck runs there isn't a VIN mismatch correct? So say there was a VIN mismatch between the ABS/TIPM modules.. I checked the VIN in the original superchips tune, it matched the VIN on my door panel perfectly. Next I flashed the "supposed stock" tune back and still have the lights. Apparently EFILive IS altering something that it cannot change back in the TCM or else the prior tune should correct it how it was BEFORE ever flashing a tune with EFILive. Please explain someone why I have to drive to the dealer and pay to fix something that was not broke until an EFILive flash OR after flashing back the prior tune. What I'm getting at is at no point did EFILive alter anything BUT the TCM "so they say", yet after reflashing the original tune read prior to even the first reflash it DOES NOT go back to the state it was in before the flashscan was ever plugged in.

[anarchydiesel]

In all likelihood it was the loading of the gift tune with the incorrect VIN that caused the issue. There is no need to load a tune and change the VIN with the scan tool. You can edit the VIN in the v7.5 tune tool directly before flashing the tune in. The wrong VIN is now programmed into your abs module and you cannot check that vin with EFI Live. It will need to be reprogrammed with a Chrysler scan tool.

[Black6spdZ]

In all likelihood it was the loading of the gift tune with the incorrect VIN that caused the issue. There is no need to load a tune and change the VIN with the scan tool. You can edit the VIN in the v7.5 tune tool directly before flashing the tune in. The wrong VIN is now programmed into your abs module and you cannot check that vin with EFI Live. It will need to be reprogrammed with a Chrysler scan tool.

I followed instructions to change the vin from the bidirectional menu prior to cranking the truck.. Afterwards the truck cranked and runs fine with the exception of abs/brake/airbag lights. So in what stage of this process does the abs module pull the vin from the ecm? If it can be done once why not twice? I've also read of people replacing bad abs modules with used ones from eBay and not needing to reflash them. Does it take pulling the fuse/unhooking battery / initiating another VIN change inside of scantool to update the correct vin?

[Black6spdZ]

So, a friend of mine's shop had the WiTech tool and pulled up all of the codes "C2206 and B2206 VIN missmatch".. it seems that the instructions for changing the VIN AFTER a flash do NOT work.. the CCM module had the wrong vin stored, the TIPM and ABS module had the "current" VIN as the correct one BUT the "original" VIN field had the incorrect VIN stored. It needed a "restore factory configuration" procedure to repopulate all of the correct VIN information. All of this was of course after the EFILive flash.. would having the correct VIN in the tune to start with have prevented it?.. possibly, but I have yet to see where the Superchips came into play.. and I can point to a dozen EFILive threads blaming this issue on Superchips, Bullydog, Smarty.. what gives here?

[anarchydiesel]

The issue was not from the superchip. The issue arose when you loaded a tune into the ecm that had a vin number different from the truck's. The same thing can happen when a box tuner does not unload properly or messes up the VIN stored in the ecm. It is not always the box tuner's fault, but it can be. In any case it is not EFI Live's fault, it is the operator. I have done the very same thing and ended up with a Christmas tree dash. That is why the VIN can now be edited in the tune tool which keeps from possibly having the issue you faced. There are a lot of other issues that stem from box tuners like corrupted stock files and disabled checksums. Those are the things that you will hear blamed for causing issues when using a return to stock file from one of those tuners as a base and then flashing the file back into the ecm resulting in a bricked ecm.

[Black6spdZ]

that makes sense.. I suppose it does happen. Shouldn't EFILive check for VIN mismatches in this case and hopefully prevent a flash to keep this problem from happening in the first case? Would two flashes back to back or two VIN changes back to back have fixed it? I don't quite understand how/when the sub modules pull the VIN info from the ECM but in theory they should change again in subsequent flashes.

[anarchydiesel]

There are times when you want to be able to flash in a tune with a different vin from what is stored in the ecm. conversion trucks and ecm replacements make this necessary. I have never been able to rectify the issue with EFI Live. It has always needed a wi tech to reprogram the correct vin in the other modules.

[Black6spdZ]

sure, but the procedure for changing VINs after the flash is still available.. and fummins conversion would be the exception and not the norm. A VIN mismatch warning would go a long way in helping the community. I thought I did my due diligence with Google searching prior to flashing to make sure there wouldn't be any problems, check "ok to flash", look for check-sum errors and the procedure was there for changing the VIN after the flash.. they failed to mention the slew of other problems that would occur.. but hey, the truck runs and drives so that's where support ends.

[cindy@efilive]

The Cummins ECM reference notes document explains about the VIN mismatch, and the solution we have implemented. It is available for viewing on our website here http://content.efilive.com/documents/Cummins%20ECM%20Reference%20Notes.pdf or in your V8 software installation by opening V8 Scan and Tune and selecting HELP>Documents.

The issues you describe that relate to other programmers are not VIN mismatch issues. The issues with other programmers is that their stock setting isn't a true stock setting. They are not restoring the ECM to it's original state, and in some cases they are leaving the ECM in a potentially unsecure state which can lead to them being more easily bricked. In many cases, the best solution for customers in this scenario is to start with a clear dealer file.

Cheers
Cindy