Truck won't stay running in 20° weather runs fine when it's 40°

Asked by Gcnoble Jan 06, 2017 at 11:13 AM about the 2004 Dodge RAM 1500 Laramie Quad Cab 4WD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

When it's 20° outside my dodge will start up and then 10 seconds later it will
die it's a 1500 2004 hemi.  It throws no codes but the check engine light
shows up after dies and the transmission temp light lights up.  The truck
starts right back up and has a new battery and then it dies again maybe 20
seconds later.  I just went outside and reset the computer using a 30 second
key on  with battery disconnected on the negative terminal.  Current
temperature in the St. Louis area is 19° this morning and it still did the shut off
after the reset of the computer.
Last week it was 20° and I needed to go to a friends house so I used the
throttle set to around 2500 rpm and got it warmed up enough to drive but on
the way to his house at about 45 miles an hour it would just shut down and
then I would immediately start back up very disconcerting.  And again it
would not throw any codes.

1 Answer

Finally had a cold day with the truck at a local Dodge dealer. It produced the problem for them, turns out that it was the PCM. It got warmer, so they took the PCM out of the truck and put it in the freezer, when they reinstalled the PCM it failed immediately. Never threw any codes. New PCM installed, time will tell it this is the fix.

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