Citation

Little DM. Collision 2011; 6(1): 22-27.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Collision Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Powertrain control modules (PCMs) are often located in the engine compartment, making them susceptible to damage in a head-on collision. If the PCM circuit board has been cracked in the collision, the crash data retrieval system may not be able to communicate with the appropriate location on the board. In this case, accessing the collision data may require removing the integrated circuit (chip) with the collision data and placing it in a surrogate module. This article provides a summary of how this chip-swapping process can be conducted and highlights two examples where chip-swapping was successful in allowing crash data to be retrieved. The author cautions that this method should be attempted only after more conventional methods for data retrieval have failed.