ECU....all the difference

[Alchemist]

Hi Guys,

Many of you may have seen me whinging about loss of power, stuttering, bad idle etc... over the past few months, well tonight(so far) the problem seems to be sorted.

After changing HT leads, plugs, fuel filter, injectors being cleaned, new timing belt and an ECU throwing no error codes it's quite nice to know what the problem was....

Turns out to be the ECU, thought my mechanic was mad when he said the ECU might be faulty, anyway thanks to Wayne(1983Supra) we did an ECU swap one weekend and the car went back to it's glory days with Waynes ECU(power, fun etc...), as soon as we swapped back to mine, bad idle, no power etc....

Managed to score one on eBay for $51 last night(thanks to Witzl for stopping bidding ) got it this morning, swapped tonight and I've been driving for abit over an hour, from hot and cold starts and she is all sweet.

Throttle response is crisp, acceleration is smooth and quicker and I can actually cruise at 60 with no effort. Life is good

Just had to share the news And if you have changed everything and there are still gremlins, even though your ECU shows no errors try a swap with somebody to make sure.

Don't know if there is any more power in it now, or quicker 1/4's but we'll see.....

[RONA]

.......................

[Alchemist]

Yea if I found myself in the position where I couldn't get any stock ones cheaply and had to fork out for a new one(read $1400) I was going to go Microtec or Autronic, but it's hard to go past a $51 solution to the problem.....

I'll be curious to see what numbers your 7M puts down with a real computer controlling it, I'm guessing 140-150RWKW? Should be good times, with Wayne and you steaming ahead I think I'll just happily sit at the back of the 2.8L+ N/A catagory for now and watch...

[Dom-AE71]

ed'it - not all your posts require redirection of the topic to yourself - please stop it - ed'it

OT

but by god

owned!

hehe

[oldcorollas]

hahhahahahahhahahhah



so.... are you going to crakc open the old ECU and see if there are any burnt track or components or whatnot? or check for loose connections on the plug?

i'm curious to see if it was a mechanical connection issue... or or.... that sort of thing

failign ECU's are not the most common thing you hear of ( except for early 90's E class mercs... about $4000 per ECU .. and $2000 for the engine wiring lom that shorts out after 12-13 years )

good to know it wasn't a mysterious electrical gremlin in the wiring.... that would be even worse

[Alchemist]

That's not a bad idea *reaches for screwdriver* pics soon....

[myne]

Mate runs an EFI service shop - I've seen plenty of ecu's with dodgy solder that eventually just had bits come loose. If you're handy with an iron, it's a pretty simple option.

[Mos]

Bring it to a meeting a give me a perv!!
This is the first ECU that I've heard of that did that..
Only other ones were 1G ECUs where a track burnt that stopped the ECU from supplying power to the EFI relay, but once power was restored externally, the ECU operated correctly.

Once upon a time came accross a 5-6yr old merc loom with the insulation completely disintegrated - all the conductors were fine, but no insulation. Apparently they get some sort of concessions if proportions of the car are made from bio-degradable material - but IMHO that's just ridiculous!! Merc of course will sell you a new loom... (that will be gone in 5 years time..)

Mos.

[Alchemist]

OK small snag, 3 of the top cover screws came out easy, the other one basically disintigrated as I was unscrewing it almost like it was designed too, anway I'm sure it's something vice grips and sort out, but it too late for that now *yawn*, keep your eyes on this thread. Mos I will bring ECU to next meeting for you.

[Mos]

Thanks
Yeah, ECU screws are often things you really need to lean a lot of bodyweight on to crack them without damage... (I realise this would've been useful a little earlier ).
Mos.

[Alchemist]

Yea put all my body wieight on that particular screw and it just won't crack, even with a rachet screw driver, if I have totally f'd the thread(which I think i have) and the multigrips dont work any other ideas?

[Mos]

Myne,
The solder work and general assembly quality of toyota ECUs is excellent. Even the tiny little ones that don't do much are assembled with a high degree of precision and quality.
They are at least as good as life support equipment.
(Not saying they don't fail, just that they're on the higher end )
Can't comment on other manufacturers though.
Mos.

[Mos]

You could try an impact driver.. just support it on something solid.. depends how bad it is.
Mos.

[Dom-AE71]

drill it out?

[oldcorollas]

Once upon a time came accross a 5-6yr old merc loom with the insulation completely disintegrated - all the conductors were fine, but no insulation. Apparently they get some sort of concessions if proportions of the car are made from bio-degradable material - but IMHO that's just ridiculous!! Merc of course will sell you a new loom... (that will be gone in 5 years time..)

Mos.

thats exactly what happened with D's merc

"change the loom before it fries the ECU" they said....
$2000 and 4 weeks later.... ECU fries...

hammer drill FTW

(i'm kidding )