awd ecu vs front wheel drive ?

[gnes100]

I just got an awd 1990 eprom ecu , tried it in my front wheel drive laser, and it doesnt work , wont start the car , is this supposed to work in a front wheel drive ? what do i have to change to get it to work in a front wheel drive ?

 

[96whgsx]

It should work. From DSMLink:

- Does FWD/AWD matter when locating an ECU?

No. Any turbo model DSM EPROM ECU will work identically for purposes of running DSMLink. You do not need to concern yourself with whether the ECU came from AWD, FWD, automatic, or manual transmission car. The one exception to this is for the 1G automatic cars. If you're going to install DSMLink into a 1G automatic, please be aware that as of this writing (02/02/2005), we do not support the 1G automatic code base. We can install the manual code base into your ECU if you'd like, and there are a few people running like this, but we really haven't fully tested this configuration ourselves.

 

[bmwisthekey]

are you positive the eprom ecu you have is from a 1990 model and not a 91-94? yeah if it a 90 ecu then it should make no difference whether its a fwd on a awd , vice versa, since there were no 1990 automatics, another possibility could be that the ecu you got was bad, what do the caps look like, board condition etc...

 

[gnes100]

The caps in the ecu look good, no leaks , everything looks to be in good shape, the comptuer case says its a md145903 which im pretty sure is fm a 1990 , the ecu that is in the car now is a md128625. When cranking the car it smells like it is getting fuel , so im assuming no spark

 

[bmwisthekey]

check for spark, so you are saying the ecu from your laser starts the car up fine and runs fine, and when you went to use the eprom ecu u just got, it wont start?

 

[steve]

If the car worked and if the ECUs worked it wouldn't make any difference.
So, one or more of the above isn't true.

Steve

 

[gnes100]

thats correct, its got to be spark , everything runs fine w/ the original ecu i took out of it

 

[steve]

If the car still works fine with the original ECU then the other one is bad.

Steve

 

[gnes100]

is there anyway to salvage a bad ecu or is it just an expensive paper weight now ?

 

[steve]

I guess that all depends on what turns out to be wrong with it.

Some turn out to be junk because a key part is bad, a capacitor blows a hole throught the board, or corrosion damage is so extensive that it isn't cost effective to fix.

Others clean up quite nicely. From what you have described so far yours might have a good chance as long as none of the chips have bubbles in them. The port expander on EPROM ECUs seems to fail and the only replacements come from other EPROM boards.

Steve

 

[gnes100]

From visual inspection i looked at both sides of the board, no burn't spots , no signs of leaking caps, the board looks clean and clear.