ECU's caps are totally screwed. Car died. Fixable ECU?

[Dan2]

Damn, I am pissed. I bought a TMO Stage3 chip from a friend about 6 months ago and have been loving the 2-step and safe-powershift ability...

But a couple days ago I started noticing the dreaded seafood smell coming from behind my stereo. I knew it was the ECU...

So today I was planning on pulling it out and replacing the capacitors since I have an extra set.

Well, I was driving home from my girlfriend's house when the car died on me. The ECU didn't click off but the tach dropped to 0 even though the car was in gear, rolling. I pulled over and smelled near the stereo... the smell was much worse than before.

The car refused to start (it'd crank, but no go). I borrowed my brother's stock ECU and it worked fine.. the car started up and drove without a hiccup.

Unfortunately, the area around the capacitors on my chipped/EPROM ECU is pretty gross, some black crap has leaked and the capacitors are surely shot.

Think it's worth even trying to replace the capacitors? Or should I give up and spend another ~$200 on a new ECU?

 

[xxdprussxx]

if u get a new ecu ill be gadly to take ur crapy one off of ur hands pm me if u get a new one and throw away ur old burnt one

 

[Dan2]

Well, I'll try to fix it first I suppose, mainly because I don't feel like waiting to locate a replacement. If all else fails I'll let ya know.

 

[BUCK]

I thought my old ECU looked pretty good - but they denied the core fee because of a "burnt spot" on the Mother Chip or some geek thing like that... My bet is yours is D.O.A.

 

[xxdprussxx]

ya let me know cause im in need of an eprom and it doesnt matter how bad ill completely fix it up nice and ill even pay the shipping charges

 

[awd4g63]

www.jestrtuning.com

They fixed my ECU (faulty socket job). It was 80 bucks for a couple of hours work; that greatly outweighed the price of a new ECU.

I'm sure they can at least tell you something. For a diagnosis, it only costs whatever it is to ship your item there and back. I'd at least try that, it was only 10 bucks to send mine off, so it wasn't that bad. They fixed it a couple of days later and it was working perfectly Awesome customer service for me, too.

 

[Mike1992]

Im gonna have to say its gone, you can try putting new caps in and cleaning the board, but i dont think its gonna help ya.

I work at an Electronic Restorations company that deals with mainly fire/water/lightning damage, heres what I would do first get the old caps out, pull the board from the casing, and go at it with some mean green and a short paint brush or tooth brush and water clean all the gook off as best you can. Use some compressed air and blow the water off, after rinsing and let it dry in front of a fan for about 2 days if you have no type of heat room to put it into. Put in the new caps and give it a go. Good Luck

 

[Dan2]

Well, I replaced the caps and it didn't help, the car still won't start. There is a copper line exposed under one of the (22u I think) capacitors. I don't know how to fix this...

I have already found a replacement but it's setting me back a pretty penny. Did someone want this broken ECU? I'll let it go cheap, PM me an offer, or I'll try ebaying it.

 

[Mike1992]

Throw it away its no good.

 

[Dan2]

I guess I'll pull my socket and chip off, and maybe the caps since I just put them in a couple hours ago w/ 0 miles. Oh well...

 

[Mike1992]

Did you clean the board as I did a write up about it above? Solder connections are good?

 

[Dan2]

No, when I saw the burned spot and the exposed copper I lost hope and gave up.

 

[Mike1992]

I guess I'll consider myself lucky, Im still using the same ecu from my old car, and its entire wiring harness fried itself when the positive terminal on the battery arced and stuck tot he hood. The casing was covered in smoke/suit and now its all resty but the board is fine. I was going to change the caps, but I dont trust my soldering skills.

 

[awd4g63]

Originally posted by Dan2
Well, I replaced the caps and it didn't help, the car still won't start. There is a copper line exposed under one of the (22u I think) capacitors. I don't know how to fix this...

I have already found a replacement but it's setting me back a pretty penny. Did someone want this broken ECU? I'll let it go cheap, PM me an offer, or I'll try ebaying it.

I'm telling you; www.jestertuning.com

At least send an email asking if they've fixed that problem before. You never know, it might save you that pretty penny.

 

[steve]

If it's just a corroded trace, that's easy to fix.
But it's likely some of the close surface mount parts may also be damaged. A good ECU shop can replace them. A popped processor pretty much makes the ECU worthless for anything other than as a donor for fixing other ECU's.

If you give up on it Dan, let me know what your think about asking for it. I wouldn't mine spending a few bucks for one to play with knowing that it might be dead and only usuable for spares.

Steve