Trivial observation about cars and ECMs

[Programmer]

Yeah--I actually do have a list of known "trouble" computers...but it's the
last
thing I suspect until scoping the rest. I know a lot of other "guys" that
just replace computers--and
THEN look elsewhere when the swap didn't work out...I think every
manufacturer has
had trouble with water intrusion, poor placement (high collision location),
in the battery tray
is a good one--didn't know that. Probably not much better than mounting the
computer under the
tray, either...
Just noticed the tag on a reman I have on my bench "Check all the solenoids
(resistance value, I assume) before replacing the computer".

Lyndon.
----- Original Message -----
From: Shannen Durphey <shannen at grolen.com>
To: <gmecm at diy-efi.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2001 10:25 AM
Subject: Re: Trivial observation about cars and ECMs


> Hold on here!
>
> Nobody, but nobody, has asked what year cars/what ecms?
>
> 165's had an extremely high failure rate.  727's mounted in Luminas also
had an
> extremely high failure rate.  747's in fullsize vans had trouble for many
years.
> Some cars are much more likely to lose an ecm than others, for example the
82
> Corvette where the ecm is mounted in an enclosed battery box.  My
experience has
> been that different parts of the country tend to be different regarding
ecm
> failures.
>
> Anyone working with ecm's/pcm's now has likely forgotten how much trouble
those
> blasted boxes caused in the 80's, and in many cases, up into the 90's.
The 165's
> had bad solder joints, the coolant fan drivers would fail, the injector
drivers
> would fail.  Failure of the component on the output side would kill the
ecm.  A
> simple EGR solenoid failure would often show up as a quad driver failure
before the
> an egr code.  727's would spit and sputter, often failing to run.  Tapping
the case
> would straighten the problem temporarily, and a new ecm always cured it.
>
> I am still replacing 165's in GM cars, and I only use GM reman ecm's.
Newer design
> ecms fail much less often, but they still do.  I was surprised at finding
my first
> bad 8051 last summer, but 2 more showed up right after that.
>
> If I were stripping ecms and reselling them, I'd worry about the units
coming back
> as non-working parts.  Maybe I'm a little biased from the days when ecm's
had
> shorter life spans, but I've got good reason to be.
>
> Funny how the techs were the first guys to say the problem lies with the
techs.
> Makes one wonder what kind of business we're in.
>
> Shannen
>
>
> Gonyou, Jeremy (.) wrote:
> >
> > I think you hit the nail on the head.  I worked with a guy who used to
work
> > at a dealership.  If someone came in with a drivability issue, the ecm
came
> > out.  When the factory asked for the "bad" ecms, they rigged up a jig to
run
> > 120V through the pins...
> >
> > Jeremy
> >
> > Having parted out another car last weekend, I couldn't help but notice
> > something.  Seems like nearly every car I get to strip down has a
> > remanufactured ECM in it!  It's uncanny.. I'd have to guess that about 8
> > of the last 10 cars I've parted out did not have the stock ECM.  Anyone
> > notice a similar trend?  I can't believe that the stock ECMs had such a
> > high failure rate.. Could it be that ECMs have a bad rap among service
> > techs, and automatically get swapped out when a car comes in with
> > drivability problems?
> >
>
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