Resolved 1G Clicking behind radio. Fish Smell. ECU?

[JoeJuggalo]

1990 Plymouth Laser RS Turbo 5-speed.

This problem only happens maybe once a month but can be irritating as it mysteriously resolves itself after 15-20 minutes.

Symptoms:
1. (Cold Start) Car starts for a couple seconds then shuts off. Sometimes the car will run for about 15-20 seconds but the idle is very "jumpy" & I can hear a lot of clicking behind the dash.
2. Rapid clicking behind dash and radio.
3. Burning/Fishy smell inside car.
4. Engine light turns on.
5. I connect a multimeter to the 'engine diagnostic test terminal' to read error codes. All I get is constant volt reading. (no pulses)
6. 15-20 minutes later the car will start & run properly.
7. I connect a multimeter to the 'engine diagnostic test terminal' to read error codes. I get short pulses as there is no code to report.

So have I narrowed it down to the ecu as it has never been replaced to my knowledge?

Any help or insight will be appreciated

 

[Praeses]

Although I have never smelled a fishy smell before from my car, its possible you may have left something in there? Leaky/blown capacitors have more of a sweet stench. Its quite putrid but its possible.

Anyways, I'm no expert on these cars, but the rest of the symptoms I had as well (no code, ECU chattering away, would barely run, took about 1min before it'ld idle actually) and was pulling things apart left and right for quite some time. Ended up being simply the ground wire on the battery. Wish I looked there first.

 

[Spooling99]

Sounds like you got a bad ECU. Take it out and remove the cover to see if your caps are leaking.

 

[luv2rallye]

Rotten egg (sometimes fishy) smell is leaking capacitors inside the ECU. Pull it and look inside. All kinds of wierd stuff happen when the caps leak.

 

[JoeJuggalo]

Cool! So it's looks like it's narrowed down to th ecu?

I think the sweet fishy smell is the dead give away. Also that the multimeter diagnostic will read as a constant volt when I'm having problems, and then in pulses when it's running fine.

Now I just got to spend $200-300 for a rebuilt one .

 

[Spooling99]

They shouldn't be that expensive unless your looking for a Eprom wich is nice. But there are some on our classifieds for around 125$

 

[luv2rallye]

Or you get send to Steve for repair or do it yourself: http://www.tmo.com/howto/ecu1g/caps.htm