90 tsi idle, ecu issues ? need a dsm guru (PICS)

[holset]

Hi my name is Jose and I am new to these forums. I recently traded my 95 civic for a 90 tsi that was not running. I was told that the turbo was bad and that was all it needed. When i went to go check out the car, the turbo and downpipe had been removed. After seeing no shaft play in the turbo I figured the problem was somewhere else. The motor was rebuilt 8k miles ago but it sat afterwards for almost a year. compression is good and i have double checked all vaccuum lines and fixed a few that were bad. the wirring is a mess and a few sensors have been resoldered. cam sensor and thermostat housing sensor both have been spliced and resoldered as well with the injectors. the cooling fans have been rewired as well was told that they turn on with the ac on.

The issues that i have been looking into for 2 weeks now are:

When you turn the car on it dies if the pedal is not beeing feathered and the car sounds like it is cammed out. boost gauge is also registering boost under 1000 rpm idle and reads 2-4 psi. when gas is applied boost rises to 14 psi and then falls on its face like it had fuel cut. the car runs if its not under boost but not very good. I suspect it might have something to do with the ecu because last night i was trying to figure it out and was sitting behind the wheel and was going to start it so a buddy could check it out and then i heard some cracking and popping noises coming from behind the dash and then saw smoke fill the inside and it was coming from the ecu. I havnt had time to open it up and check inside to see how bad it is but my plan of attack is to remove the wiring harness and rewire all the sensors by depining the sensors and replacing with new wires so there is no solder in the harness or just replace it with a complete harness. next I will redo all of the vacuum lines to ensure that they are good. last is to figure out what is going on with the fans and replace that set up. so im hoping that someone might be able to help me out with my problems so that i can start to enjoy this car.

 

[91mits]

sounds like ecu as well, but it could be a lot of things, id also advise to check the mechanical timing to make sure it lines up, when i had my timing off it sounded like cams( i had stock cams at that time) and wouldnt want to idle, like i said theres alot of things you have to start from the basics and go from there, your boost gauge is reading wrong, or its not working right, as on idle the engine should be pulling in vacuum..

 

[autodsm]

First things first.....are you reading the STOCK BOOST GAUGE? Because that will not give you any sort of boost reading. If it is an aftermarket gauge, then i dont know....pulling boost at idle seems a bit unlikely.

 

[MY1GDSM]

Pull the ECU out an post a pick of the board so someone can let you know the extrent of the damage before anything...

i heard some cracking and popping noises coming from behind the dash and then saw smoke fill the inside and it was coming from the ecu

No point in trying to "fix" a car with a know problem ... .

Read over this, Has some basic test to rule out issues with the ECU

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/articles-tuning-ecu/435961-1g-basic-ecu-mpi-circuit-function.html

 

[holset]

thanks ill post some pics of the troubled areas tonight. i have to chase down an oil and coolant leak also. the car was running this way a few weeks now before i heard the noises from the ecu. last night my brother was over and said the car was making buzzing noises when the key was not even in the ignition so ill have to pull that and go from there and i was going off the stock boost gauge.

 

[Jay Zarcadius]

How do you know that it was rebuilt 8K ago? and what exactly does "rebuilt" mean and by whom? Was it a shop, or the previous owner? Cam timing would be good to check, just for assurance if nothing else since you know the motor has been gone through. ECU is probably fried, but it sounds like that's being addressed by several people. Also what did they mean by the fans come on when A/C is on? You have to run your A/C to get the fans, or is A/C gone and it's just using that switch?

 

[holset]

ill have pictures posted within the next few hours. The motor got new bearings, rings, pistons, rods, and everything micro-polished. the head was supposed to be built, but judging by the looks of it looks stock. I have not checked the timing I will do that also when i get home tonight. Reason for not checking the timing is because the car was running fine a few weeks ago and out of no where one morning started to run rough. My buddy thought it was the turbo since he had bought it off craigslist and was not the original one. When i traded cars it was all tore apart and the turbo looked good with no shaft play. I am gonna remove the coil and have that tested as well as removing the ecu to see how it looks inside. If it is the ECU, there would have to be a reason for frying itself and I was wondering if it could be due to the hacked up wirring harness ? this is what makes the most sense to me right now. Ill eliminate the timing tonight when I get home and if I can ill try and take a video of the car running to see if that will help out.

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So how common is the ecu to burn up like that ? I think my best bet is to buy a new harness with ecu and re wire the cam sensor ?

 

[autodsm]

Looks like leaking caps shorted out the boad....its common. New ECU my friend.

 

[holset]

so that would explain why it was running good than slowly went down hill ? it was running rough for a few weeks before i heard it burn up so i dont know if there was something wrong with the wirring that caused it to blow ? any clues as to why it would burn up that way ? and since i have to buy a new ecu ive been looking into dsm link v3 think they can salvage this board if i send it in or definetly need a new one ? thanks everyone

what do you mean by leaking caps ?