Fault codes and psychokinesis

[Andrew Fisher]

Hello everyone. My son asked me to run through the dashboard lights the other day and of course the engine fault light didn't turn off after I fired up the engine.

Absolutely no noises, no change. Bridged the doodah today and turned on the ignition and the fault light just kept shining. No flashing, no anything. (I'd already tried just resetting the ecu in case it was a fluke - no dice)

Which apparently means the ecu itself is knackered.

I doublechecked my bridging and got a nice new shiny bit of wire, and redid it several times, again tried to reset the ecu, and disconnected the whole battery for good measure. Definitely no flashing.

Any ideas very gratefully received. I think my son put a spell on it.

[marcair]

I do not wish to hijack the topic, but this would be a good place to post the codes and the reset process. Is this info posted somewhere else?

Many thanks.

[Andrew Fisher]

Hi. Try http://www.u-ukhbc.co.uk/troubleshooting.htm

Bon chance!

[Andrew Fisher]

On the fault code page it says that poor earth connections can cause spurious fault codes. Has anyone had this happen to them? Are there any suspect connections I can clean up that anyone knows from other problems? I really don't want to have to (try and buy) a new ecu if I can avoid this.

Many thanks.

[Steve_M]

Ive never experianced any poor earth connections causing MIL light on.

Have always been ECU faults normally exploded capacitors/burn tracks internally.

Have you had the ecu out and cover off??? always worth a look, its normally quite easy to see.

HTH

[Andrew Fisher]

Thanks Steve I thought the earth connection was probably a bum steer.

I redid the capacitors last year, but I'll pull it out and see what's going on!

Thanks again

[TADO]

hi andrew
these guys might be able to help as a last resort? theyve done work on beat ecu's before by the look of it - could be a lot cheaper than buying a new one?
http://www.the-ecu-doctor.co.uk/

[Andrew Fisher]

Thank you so much for your suggestion Tado. I didn't reply earlier because I wanted to take it all for a long run to make sure it really had worked.

BUT, after all that, I can say:

YES, they can fix a ropy ECU, and
YES, even one fiddled and messed around with like mine, and
YES, they are fast and friendly to deal with,

BUT, it did cost £150 and is sealed so I can't look inside to see what they done to it. Don't blame them for that as they offer a 12 month warranty that it works, and they can't offer that without guaranteeing you haven't just cocked it up yourself as soon as you get it back.

AND, I guess £150 and less than a week away from home is a lot cheaper and easier than sourcing a working ECU anyotherwhichway.