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in my 88 ford van with a bosche ICU I wonderd if I could replace the electrolytinc capacitors so I opened the cover, had a look and found that some had indeed leaked their oil.. when I looked at the board I could see a slight stain or different colored patch near some capacitors.
the caps can sometimes plump up or explode themselves, they are filled with stuff you dont want in your eyes so careful if you do clip them, they can squirt. I dotn see much harm in opening the container for a peek but Im not sure what that one will look like physically. if you ddi see what I saw a bit of discoleration near them then its definitely a sign of bad caps.
I bought new caps, accidentally clipped the end of a transistor so I just orderd a reconditioned ECU not wanting to change the transistor which would require a bit more , but I guess it's somethign to look for IF you can see and access the capacitors. they aren't expensive or very hard to swap if you are ok witha little soldering.
what I did ws clip the cans just above the board leaving wire stubs, then coiled the wires of a new cap around a pin so they look like a spring then crimp on the stubs and solder, it meant I dint have to dig in further to get to the backside of the board where there is heat transfer putty.
electrolytics have their capacitance in microfarads and working voltage on the side and a line , the line indicates negative and polarity IS important with electrolytic caps.so take pics first.
its not uncommon for the electrolytic caps to fale with age, the results would be a bit of a gamble.
If you own an ESR meter you can check them in place without unsoldering. caps are only a dollar or two apiece.but obvioiusly if you go mucking int here you run some risk of doing damage.
if you touch the board particularily the Eprom you can wreck it by discharging static, they are sensitive to that so good to ground yourself with a wrist strap
likely you could send it for rebuild or buy a reconditioned one.
what actual symptom would be the result of failing capacitors? not sure. in the case of my van it was still running with csome physically leaky caps. I assume it could do strange things maybe mess up the fuel map or something?
nothing definitive here for sure.. just food for thougt...
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