14of2000
Well-known member
Hey guys,
So after my car was down all winter long, and after ALOT of time, money, and busted knuckles I thought she was ready to go! When I went to start it the other day, the fuel injector relay started clicking like crazy and my car wouldn't start. So I look to the CEL to see if it was popping any codes and low and behold no CEL with the ignition on!
So I removed the ecu that was already repaired by ecmtuning, and sent it back to them. After they diagnosed it they came up with this as the issue.
"After an extensive effort to understand the nature of the problem, we have finally found the cause of the difficulties that you have been seeing. Repeated thermal cycling (summer/winter) of the ECU had caused the solder joints on the processor crystal leads to crack and cause intermittent operation of the ECU. This explains the clicking relays that you were experiencing. At some point, the intermittent operation of the ECU caused the ECMLink chip configuration to become corrupted, putting the ECMLink chip in a state where it would not operate the ECU.
To fix the problems we re-soldered and repositioned the crystal to eliminate the stress on the crystal's leads during thermal cycling. This resolves the intermittent ECU operation and will prevent the problem from recurring. We also reprogrammed the ECMLink chip back to its originally-shipped configuration. You'll need to restore any configuration changes that you had entered for your car's configuration"
So I get the ecu back and install it today, and its no longer clicking, however im not getting a CEL again, and it will not connect to link at all. So I emailed Dave at ECMtuning again and asked if it was the ecu or the wiring and this is what I get as a response.
"Anything is possible. However, given the nature of the problem we tested the ECU quite thoroughly and saw that the intermittent operation exhibited during vibration of the ECU before resoldering the crystal was immediately resolved upon completing the repair.
Our standard testing performed on every ECU that passes through here includes verifying that the CEL output of the ECU is working. Is it possible that you simply have a burned-out CEL bulb?
I'm not sure what to suggest as a next step"
So I guess what im asking is, would you guys think its the ECU or maybe a wiring problem with the car itself? Any HELPFUL input is appreciated.
So after my car was down all winter long, and after ALOT of time, money, and busted knuckles I thought she was ready to go! When I went to start it the other day, the fuel injector relay started clicking like crazy and my car wouldn't start. So I look to the CEL to see if it was popping any codes and low and behold no CEL with the ignition on!
So I removed the ecu that was already repaired by ecmtuning, and sent it back to them. After they diagnosed it they came up with this as the issue.
"After an extensive effort to understand the nature of the problem, we have finally found the cause of the difficulties that you have been seeing. Repeated thermal cycling (summer/winter) of the ECU had caused the solder joints on the processor crystal leads to crack and cause intermittent operation of the ECU. This explains the clicking relays that you were experiencing. At some point, the intermittent operation of the ECU caused the ECMLink chip configuration to become corrupted, putting the ECMLink chip in a state where it would not operate the ECU.
To fix the problems we re-soldered and repositioned the crystal to eliminate the stress on the crystal's leads during thermal cycling. This resolves the intermittent ECU operation and will prevent the problem from recurring. We also reprogrammed the ECMLink chip back to its originally-shipped configuration. You'll need to restore any configuration changes that you had entered for your car's configuration"
So I get the ecu back and install it today, and its no longer clicking, however im not getting a CEL again, and it will not connect to link at all. So I emailed Dave at ECMtuning again and asked if it was the ecu or the wiring and this is what I get as a response.
"Anything is possible. However, given the nature of the problem we tested the ECU quite thoroughly and saw that the intermittent operation exhibited during vibration of the ECU before resoldering the crystal was immediately resolved upon completing the repair.
Our standard testing performed on every ECU that passes through here includes verifying that the CEL output of the ECU is working. Is it possible that you simply have a burned-out CEL bulb?
I'm not sure what to suggest as a next step"
So I guess what im asking is, would you guys think its the ECU or maybe a wiring problem with the car itself? Any HELPFUL input is appreciated.