new vs. rebuilt ECU for 3.2 engine?
 

I need a replacement ECU (engine control unit) for my stock 1987 3.2 Carrera coupe. This was diagnosed during a smog investigation, where my mechanic finally swapped an ECU from another 3.2 car and my car passed smog (at 2500 rpm) without problem. My car now has my ailing ECU back in, and appears to run fine. I am concerned that dumping fuel (which is the problem) upon opening the throttle will eventually ruin the cat. convertor, and thus I need to change the ECU. The car has 120K miles, runs great and is used as a daily driver. I plan to keep the car 3-6 more years.

The OEM Porsche part is $1900. The Bosch replacement (which Pelican Parts says should plug in like OEM) is $1400. Otto's Porsche repair in Venice will repair the ECU on an exchange basis with a one year warranty for $425, not including shipping. They sound very knowledgable.

Questions:

1) Does anyone have any experience with Otto's, with regard to either ECU rebuilds, or any other repairs?

2) Do I need a new unit? Is the Bosch unit a reasonable alternative?

thanks,

SEW QUIK

You never responded to the suggestion I posted in your last thread on this topic: ask your mechanic to swap the chips in the two DME's (what you are calling the ECU) and see if your car passes emissions. If so, you probably have an aftermarket chip and you just need to use a stock chip. It is the chip that controls the fuel mixture mapping. Or you can just go ahead and spend the $1400. After all, it's your money.

I will try that and see. I don't think that the car has a non-stock chip, but I am the third owner and someone could have changed it before me.

Heck, EPROM-chip costs 15 buck and i have EPROM-burner handy, pity you don't live in Sweden :-)

You could always swap chips and see if it works...heck, open it and take a look, if it looks fishy (no label on EPROM) it's probably some aftermarket chip. 1400$ is rediculous...

Bosch makes the OEM Porsche DME.

There are 3 "flavors" of these DME's so chip swapping may not work.
The flavors use different Eproms: 24pin/2K, 24pin/4K, 28pin/8K.
The sticker on the stock chip is silver.
You can usually tell if the the DME has been opened.

The DME's do fail but the fix is usually just to resolder them i.e. no parts involved. Some of the more knowledgable mechanics do will do this for you.
-Chris