I have a 1996 Eclipse with the 420a, basically stock engine. I'm looking to get a new ECU as I think that will solve some problems I have (no power at ignition coil, ASD relay doesn't click on). My question is this: if I get a new ECU on eBay of a matching part number, does it need to be reprogrammed to have my cars VIN number in it to work? Information on eBay listings has me believing this, but I couldn't find any information on DSMtuners.

Attached is the only photo I have on my phone of the ECU.

Thanks in advance. And yes, I am VERY new still to working on cars, so be gentle with your advice.

You do not have to program the VIN to the ECU. But you will need one from the same year, there was some pinout changes depending on the year. So be careful about that

Excellent! Thank you. Yeah I actually also bought a 98 Eclipse this past weekend. The guy said it was a 96 so I was hoping to use it for a parts car, but it's a 98. We were already there and had a car trailer, so I just said f*ck it, he only wanted $300 for the whole car.

But yeah, upon getting home I began to research and realized the ECU on the 98 isn't plug and play. I'm aiming for two running 2g's, so it worked out.

i attached the pinouts for 96 and 98 in case you wanna swap pins to use the 98 ecu on your 96

looks best when viewed with notepad ++
you can download it here

dustyboner said:

i attached the pinouts for 96 and 98 in case you wanna swap pins to use the 98 ecu on your 96

looks best when viewed with notepad ++
you can download it here

Click to expand...

Thank you for these. I'm considering doing this, just to see if that will get the 96 to crank. Then I will know it is the ECU that is bad. I was having trouble finding 96 pinouts, and it being a 420a doesn't make it any easier.

So far this community has been fantastic. Hopefully I will gain some knowledge and can help return the favor in the future.