Anybody know abouts ECU`s

mx-3

Hi,

i`ve had a 1.6, 99 vectra some years now & decided to sell her, with a full mot...............she passed ok. Driving home she started to cut out.

Ive taken her to the local auto Electrician, who tells me the ECU is faulty. This is going to cost hundreds & then it needs to visit a vauxhall dealer to code it.

Basically its not worth speding the money on it.
Does anybody if you can have the ECU flashed or whatever & can you recommend anyone.............

balsingh

If its definitly the ECU, get one from a scrappy or even look on eBay. Vectras are popular cars so a cheap ECU shoudlnt be too hard to come by.

Silent_Bob_3

Check the alternator too - could be on its way out as one symptom when the coil pack inside starts to fail is the engine cutting out.

mikey-mike_2

there is a place in the uk that tests and (if necessary repairs) them. Something like 90% of the units they see are fine

It's much more likely to be a sensor, take it somewhere that can read the fault codes and see what is stored

northern_munky

I agree with Mikey Mike, could be just just a sensor gone AWOL or the coil/amp. Not sure an auto electrician is the best person to ask for this sort of work.

You might be lucky and be able to check the fault codes yourself, under your handbrake lever there is a cover, take this off and you'll see a 16 pin connector. If there is a terminal on no.6 then you can read your own codes by connecting a wire from no.6 to earth, switch on ignition and count how many times the light flashes on the dash.

The first group of flashes indicates 'thousand' units
The second 'hundred' units
The third 'tens'
The fourth the 'units'

For example, flash, pause, flash, pause, flash, pause, flash would indicate trouble code P1111, if you can post back what you find, i'll tell you the trouble code.

mx-3

Thank you for your replys.
The auto-electrician connected it to a bosch diagnosis thing, checked with technical support & they confirmed a faulty ECU.
I`ve checked on Ebay, mine seems to be the later ECU, which of course fetch much more money . Also if its second hand I also need the key & transponder.:mad:

mikey-mike_2

http://www.ecu-testing.com/ecu_testing.html

http://www.automatec.yows.co.uk/

http://www.bluehawkelectronics.co.uk/

have a phone round, see what they can offer

good luck

tomstickland

aptelectronics.co.uk
sell recon units

mr_accountant

What is this auto electrician doing? Simply to connect to a piece of machinery and claim its the ecu has failed- alarm bells would start to ring for me.

I would take it for a second opinion, simply because ecu's are extremely reliable and rarely go wrong.

Re the cut out problem are you saying the car does not start, or it simply cuts out when in neutral or changing gear. If the latter, i would suggest the problem could be the idle control vale (ICV), as this often fail on Vauxhalls.

It may be worth cleaning the ICV first to see if this helps. The cheapest option is normally the correct one!

Also post this query on www.honestjohn.co.uk. plenty of experts there

Red_Cat

Hi,

I work for an engine manufacturer, actually in engine electronics and software and ECUs. A few points regarding ECUs I have noted from my experience:

ECUs are very reliable - for our production ones, the failures typically occur when they have suffered mechanical damage. Ours are designed for +20 years life in temps from -40 degC to over +40 degC.

If an ECU fails, it is pretty obvious as everything usually goes dead. That means anything that is electronically controlled willl now not work.

Sometimes, some circuitry on the ECU fails. E.g. the engine injector driver circuits fail, so the injectors will not be able to be controlled, so no engine starting, though cranking will occur.

The only reliable way to determine what has happened is to plug in the correct service tool and read the fault codes. These tell you what the ECU software thinks is wrong and/or records abnormal engine behaviour. It can also tell you if some sensors are functioning incorrectly and also the engine condition (when the engine is running).

I don't work for Vauxhall, but if a third party tool could not fix it, and it was economically viable, I'd take the car to a Vauxhall garage or specialist.

That's my two cents worth.
RC

tomstickland

Do a google search for fault codes because you can often read them with no service tools needed. The early 90s Bosch units flashed the ECU light on the dash to reveal the codes.