I hate when this happens, fried electronics..

[TimT]

Took one of my cars out of mothballs a few weeks ago, turn the disconnect to on, turn the key, listen to the various relays click, the fuel pump runs and primes the system....Turn the key to start... it cranks, and tries to start..

Key to off, relays click, fuel pump primes...turn to start... vrooom a bit of oil smoke... and it settles into a nice idle...

Today, turn the key, relays click, no fuel pump.... wait what is that smell? I turn and look for the source of the smell.... and see smoke pouring from the ECU... Something failed in the relay causing 12v to be fed to the chip that controlled the fuel pump... i.e. a pull to ground circuit got a dose of 12V

No bueno, Sacre Bleu , and other more indelicate words were uttered...




I'm going to see if I can source a replacement chip, and solder it in, and try and figure out why the relay sent 12v to the ecu...




Or I might just get another Link, or maybe a Haltech, the harness is in place, and all the necessarily sensors etcs are in place...

And then there is always Megasquirt...

[Dave Colangelo]

Just be thankful that it is of the digital era that you can still trouble shoot my hand, and re-solder the bits that need fixing.

Good luck on the repair.

Regards
Dave

[sc_rufctr]

Is that OEM? Why not source a good second hand unit?

I know it may be tempting to "upgrade" but it gets slippery.

[turbobrat930]

Tim, I wonder if Link would be able to service that and return it to like new condition? A few week turn around time, I am sure... But, would be a whole heap of a lot less then to buy the newest version of their ECU (and because the header connnectores are different at the ECU end, a new wiring harness woud be needed as well)...

I would say, give them a call....

[TimT]

I've already got an email out Link with a photo of the damage, I'll fix it myself if they will tell me the p/n and mfg of the chip..When "the smoke came out" it ruined any identifiers on the chip, as near as I can tell its a Ti 4CNC.... the rest is obscured by damage.

From further examination, only one trace was damaged, and this particular chip controls a set of outputs that I am not using (ac,purge, stepper, shiftlight, fan)

The plan is to wire a on/off toggle switch for the fuel pump, and see if the engine will fire, if it works, Ill leave the unit as is and just add an inertial safety to the fuel pump circuit.

If it doesn't work Ill see what Link can do, but then I get Haltechs at cost.. Getting this ECU working again is preferable... I have a really good tune in it that has been developed over a few years

[Bill Verburg]

It happens to oem stuff too, I shudder to think what a nightmare the latest 991 etc will be to keep running 20yrs from now

Maybe a thriving electronic repair/rebuild service will crop up.

[TimT]

I rewired the fuel pump so that at key on the fuel pump is running full time... Most ECUs run the pump to build pressure then turn it off, then when the ECU is seeing steady RPM above cranking it activates the pump again..(having the pump running full time is not really desirable)..

I refitted the Link Plus, manually turned on the fuel pump, turned the key...vrooom engine start.... and after a few moments settled into a nice idle

So now finding the correct chip and installing it is on the back burner, just need to neaten the wiring, and off to the track...

Is that OEM? Why not source a good second hand unit?

I know it may be tempting to "upgrade" but it gets slippery

No not OEM at all... this engine build was very slippery.... 200 hp from 2.2L in a #1850 car...causes smilitis

And there is more power available.. tuning at WOT is easy peasy... finding the max power in between makes a huge difference..



I really need to neaten the wiring and clean the engine bay after this last episode..

[T77911S]

the chip may be a common chip, problem is is getting the part number and the part.

had a power supply fry at work. i called the manufacture and they were not going to help. i said look, i work for the government. they are not going to pay you guys to fix it but you could help ME out with a part number. i need the PS and i am betting it is just a common part. the guy yea, it is. its just a 2n2222 transistor.

i have also seen this on other commercial parts. the manufacture just puts their PN on the part.

the other problem is there may be other stuff bad too.

i would look for another bad one and try to get parts off of it.

[TimT]

Did a bit more inspection of the ECU... and then... that dull fading light bulb went off.... I decided to use one of the many other available outputs on the Link Plus to save me from having to....switch the fuel pump on manually...

I drove the car around the neighborhood, and it responds as I remember. The tune is what worried most about lunching the ECU... Talking to Link USA gave me a shortcut inre copying older files to be able to be used on new ECUs ...

Will subject the car to some stress soon...