ECM Serial Number

[Road]

What is the best method for copying serial number for file restriction? If you copy and paste from the file it 90% time give error $0531 wrong serial number, I believe from not have zero's or too many...
23089

[GMPX]

That is the wrong serial number, that is the Engine Serial Number, not the ECM serial number.
Scroll down a little on that screen and you will see the ECM Serial Number.

[Road]

O heck what a dummy....

[Road]

Try this one then. If you restrict it to the vin it will give the error code of vin mix match. Yet there is no serial number included in this file.
23097


And on T87 and A50 controllers you it is a gamble to restrict to serial or vin.

[GMPX]

There is no ECM S/N because that file probably wasn't read from the ECM (Incal, Insite .xcal sourced correct?), not sure how you could expect to lock a file to an ECM S/N when it isn't read from the ECM :music_whistling_1:
Actually you can but you need to get the S/N from the ECM by the label on the side or connect to the truck and get the OBD-II data through V8, but then if you are doing that then you'd just read it.

[Road]

There is no ECM S/N because that file probably wasn't read from the ECM (Incal, Insite .xcal sourced correct?), not sure how you could expect to lock a file to an ECM S/N when it isn't read from the ECM :music_whistling_1:
Actually you can but you need to get the S/N from the ECM by the label on the side or connect to the truck and get the OBD-II data through V8, but then if you are doing that then you'd just read it.

I understand all that. If you sold and locked as many files a day as I do you might get a better understanding as to what is going on in the field....

[GMPX]

But because there is no individual or unique information in the distributed xcal files that could be used to lock tunes to I'm not sure how it could be expected to be done, but if you have any thoughts on that please let us know because we might be missing something in all this. I'm having trouble trying to get a feel for the tone of this conversation to be honest.

[Road]

But because there is no individual or unique information in the distributed xcal files that could be used to lock tunes to I'm not sure how it could be expected to be done, but if you have any thoughts on that please let us know because we might be missing something in all this. I'm having trouble trying to get a feel for the tone of this conversation to be honest.

On Cummins HD if you try to restrict to vin it don't always work and will give vin mix match.

GM trans controllers I wouldn't recommend restricting any of those to vin unless you like talking to customers and revising files:grin:

I see Dodge Cummins frequently if you use serial number and it has several zero's in the prefix it can return with a mix match, and if you restrict them to vin and it fails the flash then you will get a vin mix match error and will need a recovery file to repair the vin to accept the restricted to vin file, try that on a CM2200 and customer is in for a long stressful day:frown:

Not trying to ruin your beautiful weekend:pokey: just seeing what general census is for restricting files, or is it even worth the effort anymore:nixweiss:

Sorry for any short previous reply been a week of these issues:throw:

[GMPX]

Restricting to a VIN is not the way to go, yes I know it is in there and it is there because some people have a use for it, but it has its limitations as you've experienced.

1 - The VIN can easily be changed in the ECM/TCM by a programming tool (well not even a programming tool just a simple OBD-II command), therefore file security is not strong at all.
2 - All ECM's I can think of will not report the VIN when in the recovery state (eg, failed flash) so you must use an unrestricted file to recover a failed flash. This is an ECM design limitation, not EFILive.

If you are trying to recover an ECM then you are probably best to just supply a stock file with no restrictions, that way when the ECM won't (or can't) return the VIN or S/N it isn't a problem, however.....
In Feb 2018 we did change the Dodge flashing to be able to get the S/N even when the ECM had a failed flash and was being recovered, unfortunately just for the 2007-2012 this is only on the bench due to the TIPM being a problem, all other years should still be able to report the S/N when they need to be recovered on the truck, therefore S/N restrictions should work in full running mode or recovery. None of the Cummins ECM's will report the VIN in bootmode.

Some of the issues also come from inconsistency of the OEM messages, eg I remember there was one Cummins HD OS on the 2350A that added a '*' at the end of the VIN response!

So take from this the following.
1 - Don't restrict files based on the VIN due to recovery issues and security weakness.
2 - Restrict the files to the ECM S/N for Dodge and HD as they should be consistent in bootmode or fully operational.
3 - Most GM controllers should work with S/N restrictions in place, except Bosch ECM's, they do not report the S/N or VIN in recovery mode :frown:

I am unaware of any issues with leading zeros causing problems on S/N's, I know it is probably too late to give an example of where this caught you out but next time it happens please let us know some details.

Cheers,
Ross