Ecu acid damage/ questionable longevity . . .

[nightspeed87]

Ok new thread time...
Anyways about 3 months ago I purchased a 90s Eprom off a friend for 170dollars
and Im currently running it in my car for the keydiver chip features.
When I had gotten my ecu chipped Jeff ( at keydiver ) told me that there was a lot
of acid damage to that ecu but someone had replaced the capacitors in the past
but obviously mustve gotten to it too late ...

This is what he told me in an email-

The acid had run EVERYWHERE on that board, and was
eating lots of components. I can't believe actually
that you didn't have some issues. It all depends what
traces are parts get eaten. Sometimes you have a
starting problem, because the MFI relay won't
activate. Sometimes it will run on only 2 cylinders.
Sometimes the car will just randomly stall while
driving. I've seen so many different issues, all
caused by acid damage, which is why its hard to tell
you what the symptoms are.

So far Ive been driving on this ecu for a month or two with no visual problems other than me having a constant check engine light stay on after 2 minutes of driving, but my car is hard to start sometimes. When its hard to start I have to gas the pedal a little on warm starts in which I thought was due to me not having a fuel pressure solenoid but my friends car doesnt do it despite he doesnt have a fps either. Could possibly be one of the potiential sympthoms jeff described.

Since this car is my everyday driver I dont need any more problems with it and soon as I get some other stuff fixed was planing on just buying a new eprom ecu and taking out the possibility of that one failing but it will be at least 2 or 3 months before I can save up to get another one...

With that being said Im nervous on the fact that if the ecu is this random by acid damage could it
cause it to screw up all my fuel trims and cause any harm/ or destruction to my freshly built 6bolt engine... ?

So for the time being can any one give me any of their bad experiences with leaking caps, how long they were able to drive their cars on the bad ecu and or what sympthoms the acid damage gave their cars? Or any electrical/ ecu experts who can give me an opinion on my situation...

 

[jredgo1234]

My leaking ecu caused hard starts probably 2-3 weeks before the ecu failed. Then probably a week or 2 before it failed i was noticing idle surging and other weird things related to idle. After i started the car it would settle at 750 rpm, then in a couple seconds it would move to 3000. After a minute or 2 it would jump down to 1500, then back all the way down. Very weird. After a week of this very weird high start up idle, the biggest capacitor if the 3 blew, and the board was totally shot.

 

[nightspeed87]

My leaking ecu caused hard starts probably 2-3 weeks before the ecu failed. Then probably a week or 2 before it failed i was noticing idle surging and other weird things related to idle. After i started the car it would settle at 750 rpm, then in a couple seconds it would move to 3000. After a minute or 2 it would jump down to 1500, then back all the way down. Very weird. After a week of this very weird high start up idle, the biggest capacitor if the 3 blew, and the board was totally shot.

Damn... Yea, well unfortunantly that was the kind of response I was looking for.
So im on short time then with mines as Jeff told me.
Mines give me hard starts occasionally but not all the time, appears to only do it more so when the engine is already fully warmed up thats how I got the idea of it being a fps problem. I havent had any idle problems yet though?

Hey but did you have your caps ever replaced? See mines were replaced and Jeff cleaned up the board as much as possible and he tried to strengthen any weak spots. You say your big capacitor blew but thats because it was never changed out so therefore if it was changed ( despite present acid damage) it may have lasted longer possibly right? ( Im still trying to learn this ecu stuff )

Hope mines isnt the same situation as yours. Perhaps I should get in the market for a new ecu sooner than I thought just to be safe.
Its just that im in the process of replacing a blown 14b turbo and saving up for a new turbo
is hard enough at the amount of money I make considering I just dump loads of money getting my 6bolt fully rebuilt and im still attending college which is very expensive paying for my own classes....

Any more inccidents, experiences/ opinions, keep them coming......

 

[jredgo1234]

My caps had not been replaced yet. Maybe you caught it in time but you are just stuck with the hard starts. Hopefully it won't get worse. I don't think it will if you have cleaned the board off.

 

[BISHILVR]

You should be fine, because the damage is no longer taking place, and there is no more acid on the board to damage it any further, aka the damage has stopped progressing. Your ecu could last indefinately at this point, with just the same symptoms that you are having, annoying you.

 

[nightspeed87]

You should be fine, because the damage is no longer taking place, and there is no more acid on the board to damage it any further, aka the damage has stopped progressing. Your ecu could last indefinately at this point, with just the same symptoms that you are having, annoying you.

Well I hope you guys are right.
What i was trying to understand from jeff ( which he believes my days are numbered with that ecu ) is that since the capacitors are new ( no longer leaking )
and he cleaned it up and enforced it to the best of his ability.
What would cause further sympthoms beyond the ones i have if its working now.?..

But he basically said its just very random. I guess if it can last me for a few months like I was saying till I can have the money for another one just so theres no more worrying...
Opinions are nice too but any ecu specialist on this forum ( maybe steve ) could elborate on this.

 

[steve]

Opinions are nice too but any ecu specialist on this forum could elborate on this.

Jeff has seen your ECU and worked on it. If he thinks that the electrolyte has spread too far to be eliminated, then I go with his assesment. I know, hard as I try the stuff seeps into the solder, wicks into the circuit board, and under all the SMD parts it comes in contact with. At some point you have to say enough because nothing short of stripping the entire board, cleaning and baking it will get rid of 99% of it. How long it will last is an unknown, when it happens it may just need something simple fixed or it might be done for. Without a close look I couldn't guess.

You still need to read the codes before anyone can help you with your other problems.

Steve

 

[Irrational]

Dude you have no idea how lucky you are living in Florida. I live in NJ and my DD 1.8 eclipse has a bad ECU. I have one on order from a re builder on E bay hes taking forever to send it to me. But what I'm getting at is mine has acid damage. my ECU throws codes for barometric pressure sensor, Air temp sensor, and coolant sensor. When its cold out it just cranks for 5 minutes before putting for 10. My nabors must hate me at 5:45 every morning when i try and get her goin for work.

 

[nightspeed87]

Dude you have no idea how lucky you are living in Florida. I live in NJ and my DD 1.8 eclipse has a bad ECU. I have one on order from a re builder on E bay hes taking forever to send it to me. But what I'm getting at is mine has acid damage. my ECU throws codes for barometric pressure sensor, Air temp sensor, and coolant sensor. When its cold out it just cranks for 5 minutes before putting for 10. My nabors must hate me at 5:45 every morning when i try and get her goin for work.

It appears everyone suffers cranking problems at the least.

Jeff has seen your ECU and worked on it. If he thinks that the electrolyte has spread too far to be eliminated, then I go with his assesment. I know, hard as I try the stuff seeps into the solder, wicks into the circuit board, and under all the SMD parts it comes in contact with. At some point you have to say enough because nothing short of stripping the entire board, cleaning and baking it will get rid of 99% of it. How long it will last is an unknown, when it happens it may just need something simple fixed or it might be done for. Without a close look I couldn't guess.

You still need to read the codes before anyone can help you with your other problems.

Yes and I trust Jeffs evaluation on my ecu that is why I am going to buy another ( GOOD condition ) eprom soon as I get the money... I was just trying to take opinions and hear experiences so that for the next 2 more months I have to sufice with this ecu; Id at least have an idea of what sympthoms I may get.
Hopefully Jeff did somehow manage to clean it up enough to the point it wont cause me any problems and just work for as long as I need it too ( knock on wood ) but my luck hasnt been so spareing thus far.

And steve I fixed the Tach issue I was having by pulling out pin 109 out the ecu as I posted in my other thread. Im not sure if you read it though. Both tachs seems to instantly work after doing that. You and Jeff were right about that. One less issue...

I havent gotten to check for what cel signal im getting yet thru those links you posted, which Im not so sure how easy/ or hard it will be to check that way, ive never done it.
I do know that sometime soon in the next month I will get getting a logger though and by finding out what code my ecu is throwing could possibly help me deteremine more about this ecu and my cars current state...
Thanks for the help...

Any more opinions and experiences on acid damage/ leaking caps/ longevity feel free to keep it going. Im more so trying to learn about this as well...
The one thing that im still 50/50 with is I still dont understand if its working now and its not leaking any more what would cause it to suddenly mess up any further than it is if there is no more further damage being caused.?
I suppose the portion of the acid that already started seeping down into the board continues seeping deeper and the acid that was cleaned off was only the surface which has nothing to do with the acid already sunk inside the board correct?
That is what im making out of what you mean steve.