Engine Control Unit
Discussion
A speculative diagnosos is that the ECU has failed on my 1989 Series 2 S. Its the Ford IV to control the 2.9 l injection.
Any clues where i can get a cheap replacement and or the current one I have tested to see if it is working. It would have to be tested off the car as I live in luxembourg
Any clues where i can get a cheap replacement and or the current one I have tested to see if it is working. It would have to be tested off the car as I live in luxembourg
i am not sure that this is the cause. I took the car to my local garage and after scratching their heads for two weeks that is what they think it is. However, I am not convinced and am also working slowly through all the other possibilities.
The symptoms are sounds like a tractor and is blowing loads of fuel out of the back end. I gve changed the throttle pot with no joy and am now going through all the threads on here to see if I can find the answer
The symptoms are sounds like a tractor and is blowing loads of fuel out of the back end. I gve changed the throttle pot with no joy and am now going through all the threads on here to see if I can find the answer
The first thing to do is get one of the Gunson/Draper diagnostic units and see what errors are reported. Then using that unit place it into service mode and check the timing.
The diagnostic unit I have is like item 200240231576 on ebay.co.uk. In the UK they are £10 from our well known motor accessory retailer so that gives you an idea of what to pay. You need to check to see if you need the 3 or 5 pin connector. The 5 pin connector still only uses 3 of the pins so it is the physical connector that you are interested in. It is located in the wiring with the ECU and mine has a rubber protective cap over it as well.
Jed
The diagnostic unit I have is like item 200240231576 on ebay.co.uk. In the UK they are £10 from our well known motor accessory retailer so that gives you an idea of what to pay. You need to check to see if you need the 3 or 5 pin connector. The 5 pin connector still only uses 3 of the pins so it is the physical connector that you are interested in. It is located in the wiring with the ECU and mine has a rubber protective cap over it as well.
Jed
tvrlux said:
Thanks for the advice I cant actually find a diagnostic port (3 or 5 pin)any clues as to where it may be located
its the black connection in the middle of this pic... (on my S3)
By the way, does anyone know what the 30 amp fuse is for in the purple connector in this pic ?
K
Hi
If you've changed the throttle pot check that it is wired correctly. If it's not you get overfuelling at idle and fuel starvation at full throttle. Disconnect the throttle pot and see if the car runs ok, if it does thats probably the cause.
A few years ago I bought a second hand ECU from a similarly aged 2.9 Granada for £10. It works, but because it was from an auto, the idle speed is slightly higher. I keep it as a "just in case" spare but if the worst came to the worst doing the same would get you mobile at a reasonable cost until such a time that you can find an exact replacement.
Cheers
Tom
If you've changed the throttle pot check that it is wired correctly. If it's not you get overfuelling at idle and fuel starvation at full throttle. Disconnect the throttle pot and see if the car runs ok, if it does thats probably the cause.
A few years ago I bought a second hand ECU from a similarly aged 2.9 Granada for £10. It works, but because it was from an auto, the idle speed is slightly higher. I keep it as a "just in case" spare but if the worst came to the worst doing the same would get you mobile at a reasonable cost until such a time that you can find an exact replacement.
Cheers
Tom
I've been interested to see the comments from Jed re the Gunsons unit but see from the ebay advert that it doesn't do the cat engines as per my S3C - is there one that is avle at a similar price that does those (anyone have a part ref or similar)? - also as I don't need the tester other than to put the car in service mode at the moment is there a way of doing that without the tester?? (All part of the trying to see what the timing is and possible adjustment as per my other thread).
Jim
Later - been looking for more info and have found that the Gunson 4152 is the one for the Cat engines but some reports say not very good as many Ford things not on the TVR which causes confusion. I'm even more confused as the Haynes Granada manual simply says to disconnect any earthed octane adjustment wires before trying to check/alter the timing etc- hmmm! The Steve Heath book says the S's with the later ECU doesn't need to have any chnages so not sure what wire and whether its normally connected or not.
IE I'm even more confused - (not too hard to do!). Any knowledge here ?/
mij (that shows how confused I really am!!)
Jim
Later - been looking for more info and have found that the Gunson 4152 is the one for the Cat engines but some reports say not very good as many Ford things not on the TVR which causes confusion. I'm even more confused as the Haynes Granada manual simply says to disconnect any earthed octane adjustment wires before trying to check/alter the timing etc- hmmm! The Steve Heath book says the S's with the later ECU doesn't need to have any chnages so not sure what wire and whether its normally connected or not.
IE I'm even more confused - (not too hard to do!). Any knowledge here ?/
mij (that shows how confused I really am!!)
Edited by jimed on Wednesday 27th August 15:29
Hi
I seem to remeber the octane adjustment plug is the connector covered by the red cap in the centre of the picture above.
Some time back I bought the adaptor to plug in to it to adjust the timing to run on normal unleaded (it's done by earthing various wires in different combinations to achieve different timing). As it happened, I never got round to installing it as I never had any problems with pinking when I ran on normal unleaded. - and more often than not I run on super unleaded anyway.
So chances are if you've got anything attached to this connector then I guess you just unplug it before messing about with the timing?
I seem to remeber the octane adjustment plug is the connector covered by the red cap in the centre of the picture above.
Some time back I bought the adaptor to plug in to it to adjust the timing to run on normal unleaded (it's done by earthing various wires in different combinations to achieve different timing). As it happened, I never got round to installing it as I never had any problems with pinking when I ran on normal unleaded. - and more often than not I run on super unleaded anyway.
So chances are if you've got anything attached to this connector then I guess you just unplug it before messing about with the timing?
Edited by grumpytvr on Wednesday 27th August 16:54
Hi Tom - Steve Heath S book says the plug has 3 wires brown/red, brown/blue and blue/yellow. Earthing brown/red retards ignition by 4 degrees 'throughout the modules calibration'; earthing the brown/blue retards by 6 degrees and the earthing blue/yellow increases the idle speed by 50-75 rpm. It goes on to say the 88BB ECU can be adjusted the same way but is not necessary as the timing calibration is designed for 95 ULG. It also says the tickover is set at 875 rpm which for the cat S's is incorrect as idling speed is stated as 1000rpm - ie Steve heath mentions the cat cars but doesn't really address it very well - certainly not in my 1st edn book anyway. It also makes me wonder what it all means as if it is calibrated for 95ULG and we use super then presumably we can advance the ignition to compensate but has anyone done this?
Jim
Jim
grumpytvr said:
I seem to remeber the octane adjustment plug is the connector covered by the red cap in the centre of the picture above.
yep that what I reckon it is too, I never did short out anything to change the settings as like you I decided to run on 95 Octane so 12 deg was OK for me...The Black one is the one you plug the gunsons diagnostic into though to put the ECU in Service mode...
K
Gassing Station | S Series | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff