Is my ECU dead ?

[rjhowle]

Hi all,

I've just started driving my Beat again after many many months of inactivity.

I fixed a few minor problems and things seemed to be going well until one day the dash lights started a christmas tree impression.

All of a sudden I went from no problems to:

Exhaust temp light on
Check Engine light on with codes 4 (Crank angle) and 9 (#1 cyl position)
Zero acceleration and car would not go over 40 km/h

Bound to be the ECU capacitors I figured, so out came the ECU and I sent it to my local soldering wiz for replacement.

News back was "3 of them have popped and there was some damage to the board ..."

Put it back in the car and now still have exhaust temp light and check engine light, although only error 9 now (#1 cyl position) and the acceleration problem is gone, i.e car now running normally - apart from the lights.

Where to from here ?

Are the remaining problems the result of damage to the board from the leaking caps ? Or should I be trying to hunt down poor wiring connectivity or faulty sensors ? My feeling is it's still CPU related as surely multiple sensors would not fail at once ?

Also, does anyone know where I can get a replacement CPU (I am in Oz)?

robertH

[Mylee]

Have you checked the main relay next to the ECU?

[rjhowle]

Yes I removed the relay and had all the joints resoldered at the same time I got the capacitors replaced.

I thought problems with the relay only affected starting ?

[Mylee]

News back was "3 of them have popped and there was some damage to the board ..."


Then, I think you've answered you own question.

[rjhowle]

As the capacitor replacement did not seem to fix all the problems I went hunting for a new ECU.

Found a 2nd hand one on yahoo japan and got Juno to bid.

Got it forfinal bid of 23,000 yen.

Given it's 2nd hand, let's hope it works! I'll post an update in a week or so once I've received it.