Engine management light

Ratboy

Let's take this sensibly, and logically.

The ECU was diagnosed as being faulty, found to be faulty, and remapped.

Fault recurrs.

Now the garage is unable to interrogate the ECU, to get it's error codes, as they are interrogating the Airbag ECU, and not the car's ECU, they are two completely different systems.

So whoever is doing the new diagnosing is either incompetent. Or the CARS ECU is faulty.

It seems strange to me that nearly every running issue listed on this site, everyone seems to state 'Coil packs replaced/spark plugs', this is a misnomer, unless it has been quantified that that part is actually faulty, because people seem unable/unwilling to diagnose the fault, and more importantly, clear the error from the ECU memory - this can usually be done by removing 30A fuse, or battery negative

elliesmemory1

when plugged in to diagnostics it says cant connect to ecu it does connect to airbag system. Think I will try to get it checked by a differant garage. If it is the ecu after payin £600 14 months ago should I have to pay again??

Stooby2

Quite often ECU errors are caused by poor connections, either at the ECU itself or where components are connected to the loom, or poor earth connections to the vehicle body. Diagnostic kits simply check the ECU and find a fault - not the cause of it.

It may have been the case that simply taking your ECU out and putting it back (after its remap) restored a poor connection for a while - and now it's playing up again.

I cured an ABS problem on my car by redoing all the earth connections I could find (under the dash, behind the foot panels, under the bonnet) and checked all the connectors on the ABS system (all the wheel sensors, etc) - a couple were looking fairly grubby and/or corroded. They were replaced or cleaned and I haven't had a problem since.

Horizon81

Scrap it. Seriously - it's getting you down and you could throw hundreds (if not thousands) at it and still not fix it. It's an 11 year old Ford Ka, so well past it's intended lifespan, plus whoever re-mapped it have obviously stopped you being able to read the codes, which isn't particularly helpful.

arcon5

How much does it shudder? If it isn't that bad I'd just get on with it... My mk3 mondeo has been like it or the last 22k miles, sometines worse than others though... Could be an injector or something causing the mis-fire but if your getting rid soon just sell it as 'EML on and misfires' and let the buyer decide if they want it or not

Rolandtheroadie

OP, just re-read your original post with regards to the coil pack being changed when it was remapped.

Did the car get a coil pack fitted first but it didnt help? Or did it come back remapped and with a new coil pack.

artbaron

When that happened on mine (not a Ka) it was a faulty lambda sensor misreading the fuel / air mixture and causing it to be wrongly adjusted, e.g. too much fuel causing it to judder and sound like a gun fight in a tin sh1thouse. That was on the one occasion the warning light actually signified something. Most of the time the light comes on due to dampness, heat, driving through water, sitting with the engine idling, starting from hot, starting from cold, inserting a CD incorrectly (yes, really) or allowing a micron of rain water into the electric window switches. We don't even read the faults any more because they mean nothing.

It's worth saying also that I've never heard of such a problem necessitating replacement of the ECU.

elliesmemory1

scotsman4th wrote: »

OP, just re-read your original post with regards to the coil pack being changed when it was remapped.

Did the car get a coil pack fitted first but it didnt help? Or did it come back remapped and with a new coil pack.

The garage tried a new coil pack first this didnt help. it was then found to be the ecu which was then sent away to be remapped. I was told that they had to put a new coil pack on it when the ecu was refitted as the old coil pack may cause the ecu to go wrong again?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

ECU lock out is a sign that either the ECU is not getting sufficient power to it (i.e not grounded properly) or its lost all its firmware software.

Ratboy

There seems to be a lot of BS, backtracking, and strange statements....

There seems to be a myth on this forum, that anyone with a misfire, has a faulty coil pack? or faulty spark plugs!

GET OVER THIS!!!!! There are far many issues that affect your cars! DO NOT REPLACE COIL PACKS per say...