GooeyGus
10+ Year Contributor
- 459
- 1
- Sep 23, 2009
-
Marysville,
Washington
I dedicated my entire Sunday to talon maintenance today. I started off by pulling the ECU to check for cap leakage. Everything looked perfect inside, not even a hint of anything wrong. I popped the ECU back in and went for a quick drive; everything was great as usual.
I got home and decided to change my oil. I had to borrow a wrench from the neighbor to get my oil filter off, but other than that everything went smoothly. After I finished I started the car to make sure there were no leaks, everything looked great.
After I got cleaned up, my girlfriend and I were going to grab some food. We hopped in the talon and drove down the street. I made a quick stop at my neighbors house to return the wrench and left the car running in the road. As I walked away the car shut off. I asked my girlfriend "why did you shut the car off?" she replied that she didn't touch anything. I had been having a few idle issues lately so I didn't worry about it, but thought it was very strange how it literally sounded like someone turned the key off.
Sure enough, I got back in the car and it wouldn't start. Not even a little sputter, we're talking totally dead.
Crap.
So I began to diagnose. The check engine light wAs on. "great!" I thought. The codes should tell me what is wrong and I'll have this thing back on the road in a couple hours.
I proceeded to check the codes, but got absolutely nothing. Again, the CEL is on, but no codes. I didn't even get the 'heartbeat' of a healthy ecu.
I proceeded to check every fuse and relay that I could think of, but found nothing wrong.
One weirs thing I found... The MPI relay clicks like it should, but usually it stays on for like 10 seconds after the key is out, then I hear a "click" signifying that the ECU has shut down. Well, now the MPI clicks off the second the key is turned off.
So what do you guys think? Is the ECU toast? Is it possible that a capacitor has died without leaking? I will try replacing them tomorrow.
Here is another tidbit that I think might be relevent:
about a year ago, while I was driving home, I heard a click and the CEL came on and shut off a few seconds later, like the ECU just reset itself. This happened a total of maybe 3 times in a year-long period, but hasn't done it for around 6 months.
I'm sorry for the long post, but I wanted to be thorough.
What do you guys think?
I got home and decided to change my oil. I had to borrow a wrench from the neighbor to get my oil filter off, but other than that everything went smoothly. After I finished I started the car to make sure there were no leaks, everything looked great.
After I got cleaned up, my girlfriend and I were going to grab some food. We hopped in the talon and drove down the street. I made a quick stop at my neighbors house to return the wrench and left the car running in the road. As I walked away the car shut off. I asked my girlfriend "why did you shut the car off?" she replied that she didn't touch anything. I had been having a few idle issues lately so I didn't worry about it, but thought it was very strange how it literally sounded like someone turned the key off.
Sure enough, I got back in the car and it wouldn't start. Not even a little sputter, we're talking totally dead.
Crap.
So I began to diagnose. The check engine light wAs on. "great!" I thought. The codes should tell me what is wrong and I'll have this thing back on the road in a couple hours.
I proceeded to check the codes, but got absolutely nothing. Again, the CEL is on, but no codes. I didn't even get the 'heartbeat' of a healthy ecu.
I proceeded to check every fuse and relay that I could think of, but found nothing wrong.
One weirs thing I found... The MPI relay clicks like it should, but usually it stays on for like 10 seconds after the key is out, then I hear a "click" signifying that the ECU has shut down. Well, now the MPI clicks off the second the key is turned off.
So what do you guys think? Is the ECU toast? Is it possible that a capacitor has died without leaking? I will try replacing them tomorrow.
Here is another tidbit that I think might be relevent:
about a year ago, while I was driving home, I heard a click and the CEL came on and shut off a few seconds later, like the ECU just reset itself. This happened a total of maybe 3 times in a year-long period, but hasn't done it for around 6 months.
I'm sorry for the long post, but I wanted to be thorough.
What do you guys think?
