Hey my 2008 ford mustang stalled out in the middle of the road this past Thursday so I had it towed to j.c.lewis ford and they told my that they could not even get my car started because the pcm needs to be replaced and they said for parts and labor it would cost me $2500. I don't feel as if that's a fair cost so I'm wondering if anyone here in this forum can give me some sound advice as to what they think I should do because I don't necessarily have $2500 to pay them for the repair! Is there anyone that can tell me where I can buy one for the cheapest price because then I may have a technician that can install it for a lot cheaper but from my research it sounds like a dealership would still have to program it. Please help mustang community.

 

I've never done it and I'm no expert but should be able to get a PCM out of a similarly equipped salable car or wreck at a junk yard or something.

The PCMs have code letters/numbers on them like manual, v8 cars produced during a certain time period in 08 to maybe even 09 model year would share the same visible code sticker.

Automatic cars would have a different one and sometimes even the same model year can have different ones but for the most part they are pretty uniform.

 

My local U-Pick a Part lists computer brain box for $28.99. Finding a good one for something as new as an '08 might require some searching, but considering the cost difference I think it would be worth it. Other salvage yards may want more, but it's still bound to be a lot less than what the dealer wants.

 

How many miles on your Mustang?? $2500 would be too much for almost any repair if the mileage is way up there and the car is near the end of it's days.

 

Im very curious as to how they came up with the $2500 figure. PCMs of various configurations are on Ebay for $50-200.

 

2nd on the Fleebay

 

I replaced mine about three years ago. Steeda did it and got the PCM for $729 and then charged me another $200 to install and flash it for me.

 

*if* you CAN find a pcm with all the same codes (i did for my 06 gt stick, but i looked for like 6 months), try to get the keys that came with that car- I didnt
the chipkey is stored in there, so without keys you'll still have to get the pcm reflashed for your keys to match...

if you dont want to swap locks, not sure, but *think* if you had the two original keys, you could just hold one to the dash, wrap your old key with foil to shield it, do the key cycling thing with both the original keys to program more (must have two originals to do so- its in owners manual), then unshieled ad added your two 'real' keys, it might work without a reflash.

note the VIN is in there too, and ive heard some years require the vin to match the radio, etc, so there might be other things too... lots of levels of issues that can go wrong.


not that i dont trust dealer techs, but ive had a few really bad experiences...personally id tow it home and dig into it- a unplugged connector, corroded plug at the PCM/fusebox/cowl plug-sockets... PCMs are pretty darn reliable, I'd sure expect a wiring issue before PCM.
some techs dont care, might swap a pcm, find out it wasnt the issue and then find/fix a real problem that could be just a battery/cable/etc... i'm kinda cynical anymore, knew a couple techs that shared some of the 'throw parts at it' situations they do without even looking past the basics...

good luck- ive got a ton to learn yet on these pcms, as bought one i want to put on a old 429, bought the identical one to my 06 thinking i could pin out or datalog signals off my 06 to emulate on the bigblock, but its really a heavily integrated thing, stuff i never woulda dreamed....
would you believe ABS sensors are needed to detect a smooth enough road to do the coast down auto calibration of the crank sensor for misfire detection fine tuning? yeah, its got a lot of integration...
here i was thinking making up the variable cam setup, new front cover would be the hard part, not so sure anymore

 

Hello there I'm new here but wanted to offer up this website as a possible solution:

Partmyride.com

A few weeks ago I traded for a 2005 Mustang and kinda got screwed in it and have been fixing parts for three weeks. Due to oversized tires and rims the wiring harness got ripped in half and caused me to have to located a new ECM. Ford shop said they don't make them anymore and everywhere I found online was $700 plus. I stumbled across that site and ended up getting one from there for $70 shipped. It basically indexes salvage yards and actually has pictures of a lot of the parts you can order, which I liked being able to see the vehicle it came out of. I've ordered twice from there and both times went smooth as silk. Hope this helps.

 

I had this same issue with a PCM. I dorked it up while flashing it. thought it was locked up and disconnected the laptop, after that the PCM wasn't even recognized by the software. Bought a used one off eBay from a ford Ranger I believe, installed it and towed the car to the dealer. they charged me two hours labor. Done.

I found a PCM cross reference online somewhere that told me what cars to get one from.

Call around first as most had a fixed price, but the hourly rate is way cheaper.

 

Just hadda say this is a matter of opinion. $2500 on Awesome to keep her vs getting another car is just not a problem. I'll figure it out rather than let her go.

Yeah, I'm emotionally attached. Sue me.

That being said, I went to fordparts.com just to see the cost of the part for her, and it's $718.25 or 1203.58 (before taxes and reprogramming, and not terribly sure why they list both.) That's for my particular 2006 manual, for the automagic (deselecting my VIN) it's $1100 to 1350-ish.

Funnily enough, however, *all* the 2008 PCMs are the $718.25, no matter what.



So anyway, depending on age/model, that's the price area. And seeing that, $2500, installed, is just plain highway robbery on the dealer's part. It takes all of an hour to reprogram these things, and it's two bolts and three connectors to swap (PDF).

The actual reprogramming shouldn't take more than an hour, and if it's more than two hours, the tech assigned has to be... well, having an interesting day, I guess. But let's say 3 hours just to be absolutely, positively sure that the dealership extracts the most from your wallet.

At labor rate of an extremely generous $150 an hour for a dealership (I don't actually know their current rates), that's $450 to swap and program, plus the $718-$1350 for the module, for a grand total of $1168 to $1800. Which really should be $868 to $1500 when you get down to it, for 1 hour of labor to do the job.

Dealership needs to be told where to go. I leave it to y'all to say where.

Unless, of course, I'm off base, but I don't think I am...


Reprogramming two keys from scratch using diagnostic tool... also about 10 minutes.


Y'all feel free to correct me if needed. Only thing that might add to this is if you only have one key, so you'd add money for that. What, 200 bucks, tops? I see them for $50 or less on ebay and amazon...

/That's weird... the two youtubes are formatted the same, yet only one embeds...?