What ECUs will work in my car?

[SteveR6]

Well unfortunately I think I've narrowed my problem down to a fried ECU. I've been trying to find one in the classifieds but I'm not sure for instance a 96 GSX manual ecu will work in my 98 GST Auto (just an example) any help would be greatly appreciated. I need to know if ANY ecu that's a 2G turbo will work.

 

[-TunedDSM-]

You need an ecu out of a 97+ turbo car.

 

[snowborder714]

You can use any 2g ECU, but if it's a 95-96, you have to swap the spark plug wires.

Read this thread:
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/newbie-forum/263397-2g-ecu-question.html

 

[SteveR6]

Thanks for the info!! I searched but the results were toooooo many for "ecu" and the stupid search feature won't let you use a 2 character criteria like 2G. Anyone know a surefire way to test this thing? I couldn't find that info either. What started this whole thing was my car not starting and throwing a cam position sensor code. I did the troubleshoot from the service manual and the plug checks out but when plugged in and cranking I'm only getting .004 volts and the manual says it should be .5 to 3 volts. If it's not it says the ecu is toast.

 

[-TunedDSM-]

Yes, snowboarder is correct. If you want to use an ECU out of a 95/96 you will need to swap plug wires 4 and 3 along with 1 and 2 because the firing orders are different.

A quick way to check the ecu is to pull it and inspect it for leaking capacitors. Look for a type of "goo" building up. Although I have not seen many 2g ecu's with leaking caps. Even if the caps are fine, try to find someone with an ecu to swap out with. Good Luck!

 

[snowborder714]

If you think it's the ECU, find a friend or local that will let you borrow their ECU and try it out.

And as tuneddsm said, open it up and have a look at the circuit board inside.

 

[skatefiend]

What about an ECU for a 90 Talon AWD? What ECU's will be compatable??

 

[SteveR6]

Well I misread my service manual, apparently the ECU is not the culprit, but still "could" be. Anyway I'm going to rerun the tests from the service manual on the cps and connector since I was running on three hours sleep yesterday. It just make no sense I did notice the cps was coated in oil when I pulled it out. I'm wondering if perhaps that little housing is full of oil and causig it to not pick up the magnetic field.....hmm.....going to check that today. My buddy has a JDM motor with a spare ECM it's a 96, not sure if the JDM parts will work but I'm going to give it a shot anyway I don't think it can make the situation any worse.

 

[snowborder714]

What about an ECU for a 90 Talon AWD? What ECU's will be compatable??

You have a few options. First of all, you could look into getting yours fixed. steve (View Profile: steve - DSMtuners.com) is who you should contact about this.

Another option is to get an ECU from a '90 turbo. This will be much easier than getting one from a later 1g.

And if you can't/don't want to do either of those, you can get one from a '91-'93 (steve said once on here to stay away from the '94 ones as California had added EGR hardware and if you run that in a federal car, you could run into some problems - http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/newbie-forum/273369-1g-ecu.html#post151307278). Here are two links you'll need to read to make it work though:
KEYDIVER Chips -1991+ ECU in a 1990 DSM
converting a 1990 to a 1991-1994 ecu system