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New Gray PMD Failed after 11,000 Miles

dazed

dazed

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Well the New Grey PMD that I purchased from Southeast Power Systems in Daytona
Beach FL , off of ebay failed already. I purchased It in October of 2009 and put 11,000 Miles on it.....and it came with a 2yr warranty...so Im sending it back....Hope the next one lasts longer.

It was a new GREY one on a Heatsink in front of the Drivers Side battery behind the headlight (not on the Pump)!

MY RANT:soapbox
Why Hasn't someone come up with a Reliable one yet? I mean it doesnt have to be the same size to fit on the IP since everyone's relocating them anyways. I would think some aftermarket company or even Stanadyne would make a larger more robust model (of course stanadyne would be admitting that theres a problem). But I guess at $300 a pop there making money....These things should be $20 IMO considering how long they actually last on average. I just think they could double it or triple the size of it to make it work longer...

Even though mine came with the 2yr warranty....it is still a hassle. First I had to figure out why it wouldn't start (at least it was at home and not on the side of the road)...and when it did it sounded like a fuel problem (I thought I had some bad fuel and changed the filter). Luckly I was able to borrow my buddies PMD and it fired right up and has no issues....But Now I wait for another one, and I hope it lasts longer!

The Positive side with the new gray PMD is....that at least it didn't string me along with the occasional stalling and nervous moments of taking that left in front of another vehicle, not knowing if the engine was going to stall.....This one pretty much just stopped working all at once....maybe that's the improvement I don't Know...:???::???:

END OF RANT

I Must say the Original starter has taken a lot of abuse in last couple years....they probably wont make the replacement like they did in 95...I cant believe I havent killed it yet.
 
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They all suck, no matter which one, where it's mounted etc. There are only two solutions. Carry a spare or convert to a DB2. Some people go 120k miles mounted on the IP some have remonte mount and don't make it two years. You just never know when where or if...I had a Heath one and it died within 2 yrs. Bill warrantied it with the new owner of the truck NQA. I have had atleast 2 Flight Systems die and two in use now that act quirky.
 
I,ve been having so many problems with the Flight Systems PMD that when I sell out of inventory Im not going to reorder anymore. Its not worth the headache and even though I have no control over their quality it still makes my customer mad at me if it fails.
FYI: Dtech, wellman, dorman all of the new black PMDs are made by Flight Systems.
They are going to have a serious problem selling anymore PMDs if they don't fix this problem and FAST!

I had one Grey pmd come back so far, so will be continue selling those instead.
 
This would be why we pay extra for the 7-year warranty...

And mount it to a proven Heat-sink system, OUT of the engine bay. All the way out.

And still, there's always the possibility... but for 7 yrs, it's covered.

Glad yours went within the 2-yr window.
 
My flight systems PMD has actually been sitting on the intake for the last 3 years, about 30K miles. the real killer of these is thermal cycles, high and low extremes. So many actually fail in the winter, even though people associate heat with the failure. Putting them inside the vehicle may be even better considering it may like the same climate you do. I dont get extreme temperatures high or low living from Southern to Central coast California.

Maybe the Optic Bump fails them early, since it changes fueling definitions in the commanded pulse widths, and can cause hunting at idle between 0 and 2mm3. Maybe setting TDCO outside factory limits accelerates failure. Maybe the extensions accelerate failure, maybe if we started leaving the new ones on the IP they would last? It could be the way we mounted it with the thermal pad or thermal grease or how tight we got the screws, did we seal around the PMD with silicon, ect....Who knows, theres a lot of possibilities. How about alternaotrs and batteries, or use of jump starting chargers. The PMD runs off ignition voltage and if its not stable or if ever goes above 15V from a charger attached or unregualted alternator could be damaging parts in the PMD. I dont think Stanadyne makes a better PMD than flight systems, they just havent been out as long to see all the same problems.
 
Ah,,keep a spare with ye and quit yer whining,you all know by now they fail at times.:rolleyes5:
I'll be good for a long time,i got 5 spares,+ one new grey one;)
NOT FOR SALE!
 
buddy said:
Maybe the Optic Bump fails them early, since it changes fueling definitions in the commanded pulse widths, and can cause hunting at idle between 0 and 2mm3. Maybe setting TDCO outside factory limits accelerates failure. Maybe the extensions accelerate failure, maybe if we started leaving the new ones on the IP they would last? It could be the way we mounted it with the thermal pad or thermal grease or how tight we got the screws, did we seal around the PMD with silicon, ect....Who knows, theres a lot of possibilities. How about alternaotrs and batteries, or use of jump starting chargers. The PMD runs off ignition voltage and if its not stable or if ever goes above 15V from a charger attached or unregualted alternator could be damaging parts in the PMD. I dont think Stanadyne makes a better PMD than flight systems, they just havent been out as long to see all the same problems.
Click to expand...

Maybe Some Kind Of filter, regulator, choke, etc. could be made to go in between the connections and see if this improved longivity....I would think that one of the PMD makers would have thought of that and done some testing, and if it seemed to work would market it with there pmd for some extra $$.....they just seem unreliable and unpredictable....and some other solution could be made....Im sure we would all love to see the end of the PMD failures...now if they just werent so damn expensive!

Besides the modifications to the original system......wasnt there a problem with them way before anybody started doing these changes as you describe...and didnt GM recall the pumps....only to realize that it was the PMD not the Pump all along ??
 
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buddy said:
My flight systems PMD has actually been sitting on the intake for the last 3 years, about 30K miles. the real killer of these is thermal cycles, high and low extremes. So many actually fail in the winter, even though people associate heat with the failure. Putting them inside the vehicle may be even better considering it may like the same climate you do. I dont get extreme temperatures high or low living from Southern to Central coast California.

Maybe the Optic Bump fails them early, since it changes fueling definitions in the commanded pulse widths, and can cause hunting at idle between 0 and 2mm3. Maybe setting TDCO outside factory limits accelerates failure. Maybe the extensions accelerate failure, maybe if we started leaving the new ones on the IP they would last? It could be the way we mounted it with the thermal pad or thermal grease or how tight we got the screws, did we seal around the PMD with silicon, ect....Who knows, theres a lot of possibilities. How about alternaotrs and batteries, or use of jump starting chargers. The PMD runs off ignition voltage and if its not stable or if ever goes above 15V from a charger attached or unregualted alternator could be damaging parts in the PMD. I dont think Stanadyne makes a better PMD than flight systems, they just havent been out as long to see all the same problems.
Click to expand...

The problem is atleast with the original Black Standynes, usually all you saw was intermitent stalling, possibly a code. These Flight System ones are doing dangerous stuff. I have read many stoires of Toyota syndrome(except it's really happening here, not the floor mats) . When mine acted up as I have reiterated in many posts, I thought the engine was going to tear loose from the Mounts. Also in really cold weather the truck can be sitting there just idling and all of a sudden it shudders like an almost stall. I'll probably go back to the Black Standynes when the dtech finally shit's the bed. If it wasn't such a bitch to convert to a stick or the compushift was cheaper, A DB2 would be on it. Of course I do like my cruise control which would be my main gripe of converting.
 
BTW Leroy, can you still get the Black Standynes ? I have had much better luck with them and as far as the Grey ones.....Well I played Guinea Pig with the D Tech and lost. No desire to go grey until a few years pass and they are proven. Atleast with the Black ones, I know what to expect...."help. My truck is stalling and GM says it needs a new IP...." :rof:
 
Acesneights1 said:
The problem is atleast with the original Black Standynes, usually all you saw was intermitent stalling, possibly a code. These Flight System ones are doing dangerous stuff. I have read many stoires of Toyota syndrome(except it's really happening here, not the floor mats) . When mine acted up as I have reiterated in many posts, I thought the engine was going to tear loose from the Mounts.
Click to expand...

I had a few instances this past summer were I would be at a light with my foot on the brake, and my engine just revved up like some one punched....but each time i thought I got pushed from behind...that will wake you up ...especially with a car inches form your front bumper.
 
Yes the PMDs were always a common failure item on the IP, thats why they were redesigned to withstand more heat and why everyone remote mounts them to get them away from heat. Yet now we have all these failures when they are never getting really hot. So there must be another failure mode, and I would guess a voltage thing. It might be worth thinking about everything that happened with the truck prior to failure, such as battery issues, alternators issues, has it been jumped much, ever use a jump starting charger? Especially those jump starter charger things, if they are spitting out 18V or something like that while you are cranking can inflict damage on glows, glow controller, and any electronics that run straight off of the battery. The PCM itself has protection and the sensors run off of PCM regulated reference voltage. The PMD itself are a couple transistors with heatsinks, so you would think its robust, but components are probably only rated to 16V max. If I had a bad one I would tear it up and see what else is in there that may be voltage sensitive, are there pics anywhere of one cut up?
 
dazed said:
I had a few instances this past summer were I would be at a light with my foot on the brake, and my engine just revved up like some one punched....but each time i thought I got pushed from behind...that will wake you up ...especially with a car inches form your front bumper.
Click to expand...

Well that supports the idea that the Stanadynes are also a cause of this, or maybe it is not the PMD at all, and some other glitch.
 
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