Trivial observation about cars and ECMs

[Len Sabatine]

      Yes , you folks just spelled it out  "like it is". There have been 
issues
      with 165s in particular and to a lesser extent 7730s.
      Len

>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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