ECU fail issue

axelb

New Member
Some components on my ecu burned up. Engine turns over but won't start and the transmission wont come out of park without putting the key in the slot by the shifter. Any ideas to what might be the cause. The only thing I did prior to that was change out the throttle body, replaced the MAP sensor, throttle position sensor and the idle air control valve. After install took a test drive and everything seemed fine, car ran great. Parked car. when I went to drive it again, backed out into the street and when I shifted to drive it died would not restart our come out of park. Some articles say bad grounding?
 

nd4sped

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Its a 20+ year old ECU. It is a very well known issue that the capacitors on the main-board fail after 15 years or so. After 20 its basically expected to happen.

You can inspect the ECU yourself and watch a few youtube videos on replacing the capacitors if you plan on attempting the repair yourself. This issue is well covered and there are many videos showing how to desolder and resolder components.
 


axelb

New Member
Its a 20+ year old ECU. It is a very well known issue that the capacitors on the main-board fail after 15 years or so. After 20 its basically expected to happen.

You can inspect the ECU yourself and watch a few youtube videos on replacing the capacitors if you plan on attempting the repair yourself. This issue is well covered and there are many videos showing how to desolder and resolder components.
 

axelb

New Member
Unfortunately the board is toast, blew the lands off the board, our electronic techs where I work laughed when I said here fix this. They said it wasn't repairable. Thanks for the reply.
 


Dj_AmTrax

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this is scary! without a working ECU the entire car is junk. Now I'm worried about my recently acquired EJ1.
 

nd4sped

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Unfortunately the board is toast, blew the lands off the board, our electronic techs where I work laughed when I said here fix this. They said it wasn't repairable. Thanks for the reply.
Dude just get another ECU and plug it in, you will be good to go.
 

nd4sped

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this is scary! without a working ECU the entire car is junk. Now I'm worried about my recently acquired EJ1.
Its not scary, dude just had a dead ECU. You can go to the salvage yard and get one for $30. Or get one off ebay that has already had the capacitors replaced. This is a pretty common replacement.
 

Dj_AmTrax

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hope this is not a dumb question. =) is it located in the passenger side kick panel or is it in the passenger side quarter?
 

nd4sped

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hope this is not a dumb question. =) is it located in the passenger side kick panel or is it in the passenger side quarter?
Passenger kick panel, right side near door under glove box.
4 bolts hold it in place.
 


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