Easy question and some troubleshooting help Challenger RT2018 shake when shifting 7-8

Team, thanks in advance, I start with my question, then I share with you explanation of a case to see if you think same thing as I do. I clarify I am not professional tuner, here I am trying to help a friend who purchased an RT imported from US to EU with problems:

QUESTION: is there a way to confirm if the PCM is unlocked already on a recently purchased RT-2018? (I mean, can I confirm that before purchasing the HPTuners license for the PCM? because I suspect the car PCM has already been unlocked.

CASE TROUBLESHOOTING (for those interested):
- My friend purchased an imported RT chally 2018, the car was salvage for flooding in Raleigh (NC) when it was almost new. The history of how it was repaired is not available.
- The car gives permanent P0172, P0175, P0452. When driving the car it does not feel bad, but when speeding and shifting 7-8 it shakes back and forth quite hard and need to raise the pedal so it stops the shake.
- The guy took the car to the dealer and claimed for guarantee, the dealer sent it to an "expert in PCMs" (there are no experts in EU) and we saw photos the "expert" did open the PCM casings: not sure what they did into it...), they did remove the yellow light in cluster but the problem and the Ps remain. The dealer is a disaster and my friend has gone to court to solve dispute for various other issues plus this one. Option here is going to Chrysler dealer and ask to solve and charge cost to dealer through court: however Chrysler here is not very experienced in V8s and if the problem is somebody manipulated things, they may have difficulties to resolve). However my friend asked me to investigate if my HP Tuners could give some advise before going to Chrysler.
- This is what I found: (trends attached):
- I see O2 probes understand each others well with the injectors (I see O2 oscillates perfectly when driving normally).
- I don?t have bypass cable (purchasing now) so I compared the trending parameters with the an stock 2017 RT I found in repository, and cams follow RT standard table, spark apparently also do. BUT: I observed the WOT happens about 54% pedal (stock is 100% pedal), the fuel enrichment goes to moon on .0392 (stock is .0161), and the engine knocks very hard.
- This is what I think: I think somebody tuned those parameters very wrongly, I suspect the shake is caused because of these WOT and enrichment crazy settings. Probably we will find the PCM already unlocked: If we go to Chrysler to write the original program maybe they could lock it again (we prefer keep it unlocked if it is already)
- Options we have: I told the guy go Chrysler dealer and ask to reload original program, after that we will trend it to confirm following right WOT and enrichment, and confirm problem solved. However... we don?t know why somebody would input those horrible WOT and Enrichment, and maybe they did to hide another problem which may arise when returning to the original tune, so for this reason my friend and I agreed best is to buy bypass cable, read the PCM program and compare to the stock, to identify all the changes. Assuming somebody has modified those parameters, I would expect finding the PCM already unlocked so we can pay license to HP Tuners and return ourselves to the OEM program: after that we will see how much the problem becomes solved or moved to a different one.

Thanks guys, I think the case here may be interesting for some of you to follow or to offer some insight. My experience is very limited so any help and suggestions/observations are welcome.
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yes that is the actual plan... but do you know if there is a way to know if the PCM is already unlocked before having the HPTuners license paid for this PCM?

I wonder, if I would go now and try to write the stock file without having the HPTuners license for that PCM: will it first advice me the PCM is locked? or I need to have paid the license then I will doscover that the PCM is locked?

yes and no :) so OK, when I receive the bypass cable and Im able to read and compare to an stock file, I will see if it was modified: I agree with that and thats the first step.

If I see the file is misaligned to the stock file, you say it is because the PCM "has to be unlocked"... so I should have no fear to pay license because I will be abel to write on it. OK UNDERSTOOD... but I wonder if I can confirm that before purchasing/applying the license.... I explain:

As I only used my MPVI2+ in my chally 2011 and those are unlocked, I don?t know.... but you guys who played more with this device in different cars: if I try to write on a locked PCM without applying the HPTuners License, will I first get the advise that the PCM is locked or will I get first the one asking me to apply the license code?

What I want is to confirm it is unlocked before paying the HPTuners license, because it it is locked it will be cheaper for the guy to go to Chrysler and ask to recover the ORM file into it... but if it already unlocked I just pay the HPTuners license and I apply an stock 2018 RT file into it, quite cheap. I understand... if the file is different from stock it has to be unlocked... OK but is there any way to verify that without applying an HPTuners License over this PCM?

Hey I appreciate your patience and help, I know my english is not the best to explain my question. Thansk a lot.

did you have a chance to take a look at one of the attached scan trend files? do you see that 54% pedal WOT and the .0392 Enrichment has no sense and indicates PCM has been unlocked and wrongly tuned? why would anybody tune like that the WOT and Enrichment?... doesn?t it sound totally irrational? do you agree those parameters may be the cause of the hard knock also advisable in the scan trend?

Ben L.

Zu viel Worte um den heissen Brei…
Schreib mir mal ne PM mit kurzen knappen S?tzen, was du m?chtest.
Hast du ein File ?

I sent you private message F.creek. I don?t speak German but I read your message here using Google translator. Thanks.

sorry, i thought ive read something about german.

The first thing that seems to be unclear is the high map at low rpm and the negative long terms.
I wouldnt start with pedal, I think about a leak in the intake...

Yes good observation, I also noticed that but the PCM is able to correct it right? as I see the O2 oscillating normally outside of WOT?

I purchased the bypass so I can retrieve the as running file and compare to stock, as soon as I receive and pull/compare I will feed here the findings, will be interesting.

Thanks a lot, remains the question if there is a method to confirm locked or unlocked PCM before applying the HPTuners license. I did open a case for support on this question but if anybody in the forum can answer I appreciate.

OK HPTuners support replayed about the question "how to know if a PCM is unlocked before applying a license to write on it" I add here summary of replay for future reference:
- they say if the PCM is unlocked by HPTuners it will have an sticker from HP attached to it, if unlocked by others HP don?t guarantee the MPVI2+ will be able to write on it. (ours has no sticker from HP).
- They said also for HPTuners to unlock it (if it has been reprogrammed) we first need to go to Chrysler and write the car original file into it, then we can send to HP for unlocking.

So here in our case we will have to go to Chrysler in any case, so probably we will take this one as the very first step: go to Chrysler and rewrite the original file, if this solves the problem great, if not then we send the PCM to HPTuners to unlock, pay license and start tuning for what we do not know has been changed or is damaged in the engine.... but starting with scanning the engine operating under the OEM file which is the right reference to troubleshoot I think.

Team, thanks for your help. I will create a new discussion as the title has clearly changed from easy question to complex problem. Long history short we went to Chrysler to load the original file in the PCM but the problem is still the same. I purchased the post-2018 smart cable to be able to pull the PCM file and yesterday we got the actual car file downloaded so now we have a lot more information for troubleshooting, but the problem does not look simple at all. If you guys can help me continuing discussion in the second post being created I appreciate.

The fuel pump sensor is bad, from the flood, also your 7/8 shudder is mechanical, trans was flooded and must of sat long enough for the water cause an issue in the valve body.

Purple, what do you call the "pump sensor", the fuel pressure regulator maybe? why do you appoint for it being bad so I understand?

About the transmission comment, you refer to the TCC valve? or to the gear shift pressure regulator?

I want to think there is a single cause of all the problems, but maybe you are right there could be multiple. I am thinking to check first Fuel pressure, fuel injectors part number, maybe then replace MAP and IAT probes which are cheap... and see... I don?t think it is dirty injectors or bad O2 sensors as the two banks behave almost exactly on LTFT, knock and O2 readings. what do you think?

I reopened the discussion under different title with more organized information, there you can find more data logs, the actual PCM file, etc. I appreciate your help!