HELP - Spare ECU needed

[dean_ratpac]

Unfortunately my ECU has met some water trickling down the loom and disintegrated one of the pins on the ECU itself (see photo).



I had a new loom put in 23 months ago by Raceproved, however you can see from the pic that somehow water is either going down the loom itself or in through a grommet. Not good

Does anyone have a spare ECU that they don't want for sale or know of any around?

What price etc are they going for these days...?

Also if its that bad and unrepairable, are there no more ECU's around?

What recommendations for alternative solutions?

What's cost of these for those who have ditched the MBE route?

Cheers
Deano

[wolf1]

Can't see any reason why that can't be repaired. Email the pic off to some of the ecu repair companies and get them to qoute for the work.

[spitfire4v8]

Give simtek a call to make sure it's right but you could get any local tv repair place to solder this replacement in for you.

http://www.simtekuk.co.uk/www.simtekuk.co.uk/info....

[scotty_d]

That is a easy fix for any good electrical engineer. I would have it fixed before looking to replace unless you have been waiting for a reason to do so

If you were local to me i would offer to fix it for you.

[dean_ratpac]

scotty_d said:

That is a easy fix for any good electrical engineer. I would have it fixed before looking to replace unless you have been waiting for a reason to do so

If you were local to me i would offer to fix it for you.

Scott if I were to send the unit insured and registered post, would you be able to have time to fix this sometime soon. Of course let me know costs as I would gladly pay you

[dean_ratpac]

spitfire4v8 said:

Give simtek a call to make sure it's right but you could get any local tv repair place to solder this replacement in for you.

http://www.simtekuk.co.uk/www.simtekuk.co.uk/info....

spitfire4v8 thanks for that link - very interesting - Scott would this be possible? I'm willing to give it any idea a go.

Cheers
Dean

[scotty_d]

YHM dean.

[aide]

That's pretty easy to fix - just get a pack of 10 of these spade connectors from Maplin and a bit of wire.
Remove the board, pop out the damaged pin and replace with a bit of wire and a spade connector on it.
(you might have to connect the ecu with the cover off to make sure the new spade goes all the way into to loom connector)

In the meantime you can still run the car without it.
Pin 25 just drives the fuel pump relay.

[Steve_T]

Another good contact is SB Developments in Surbiton if you need MBE spares. They supply MBE units in other applications and have been extremely quick to get bit for me in the past where supply though the traditional TVR routes seemed far harder.

Cheers,

Steve.

[scotty_d]

aide said:

That's pretty easy to fix - just get a pack of 10 of these spade connectors from Maplin and a bit of wire.
Remove the board, pop out the damaged pin and replace with a bit of wire and a spade connector on it.
(you might have to connect the ecu with the cover off to make sure the new spade goes all the way into to loom connector)

In the meantime you can still run the car without it.
Pin 25 just drives the fuel pump relay.

YHM Again Dean

The only issue i can see with the above approach is i can see corrosion where the pin is snapped off. I would think there will be a good chance water damage could be on the other pins and for the sake of it best replacing the whole pin block (11 quid ish) in case there is further risk damage or shorting to other ones. pins

[aide]

scotty_d said:

aide said:

That's pretty easy to fix - just get a pack of 10 of these spade connectors from Maplin and a bit of wire.
Remove the board, pop out the damaged pin and replace with a bit of wire and a spade connector on it.
(you might have to connect the ecu with the cover off to make sure the new spade goes all the way into to loom connector)

In the meantime you can still run the car without it.
Pin 25 just drives the fuel pump relay.

YHM Again Dean

The only issue i can see with the above approach is i can see corrosion where the pin is snapped off. I would think there will be a good chance water damage could be on the other pins and for the sake of it best replacing the whole pin block (11 quid ish) in case there is further risk damage or shorting to other ones. pins

Replacing the whole pin block would be better in the long run and not really that much more work than swapping out just one..
You just need a soldering iron and solder and some desoldering wick
It's really not that difficult to do at all.
If you haven't much experience soldering, you could get a broken radio and practice removing and re-soldering some of the pcb components yourself first?
A fun project!

[dean_ratpac]

Steve_T said:

Another good contact is SB Developments in Surbiton if you need MBE spares. They supply MBE units in other applications and have been extremely quick to get bit for me in the past where supply though the traditional TVR routes seemed far harder.

Cheers,

Steve.

Steve do they repair also. Scott is away at the moment.

[dean_ratpac]

knowing my luck - i'll leave to someone with some expertise before I attempt to coat the entire ECU in solder!

Thanks for all your replies though, much appreciated!

[Nickccc]

The ECU should be positioned with the plug at the bottom, that way water can not run down the cable and into the plug
As others have said pretty easy fix.

[dean_ratpac]

Nickccc said:

The ECU should be positioned with the plug at the bottom, that way water can not run down the cable and into the plug
As others have said pretty easy fix.

Agreed, although I think it's been taken out a few times here and there and placed "the wrong way up". I think I've found a solution to the connector. Also need to secure it more once in there!

[scotty_d]

I had my heater matrix hose pop off and flood my foot well and ECU!!!!!


I keep my Ecu on top of the Passengers Panel instead of behind it now so there is no chance of water from anywhere getting near the ECU. It will sit there really nice and easy to access for using soft ware.

[crypto]

I cannot agree with "its an easy job". Removing a 55-Pin connector from a multilayer pcb can be very difficult for the unexperienced and it can destroy inside layers and lanes on the pcb. Don't do it.

If I'm correct this is Pin 26 which is Ground. If this is the case, re-route your wire from Pin 26 in the connector to e.g. Pin 7, 50 or 51.

If its not Ground, try to find an unused Pin on the ECU. Solder a wire from the broken Pin to the unused one. Move the wire in the connector to you new Pin.

Peter

Edited by crypto on Thursday 11th October 22:17

[scotty_d]

crypto said:

I cannot agree with "its an easy job". Removing a 55-Pin connector from a multilayer pcb can be very difficult for the unexperienced and it can destroy inside layers and lanes on the pcb. Don't do it.

If I'm correct this is Pin 26 which is Ground. If this is the case, re-route your wire from Pin 26 in the connector to e.g. Pin 7, 50 or 51.

If its not Ground, try to find an unused Pin on the ECU. Solder a wire from the broken Pin to the unused one. Move the wire in the connector to you new Pin.

Peter

Edited by crypto on Thursday 11th October 22:17

Just soldering a wire on might be a "quick fix" But by looking at the red corrosion where the pin has snapped off I would think there is a high risk of further water damage to other pins. So best to change to lot out as there might be a build up of corrosion in turn might short pins out and cause further problems.

Scotty

[shpub]

aide said:

This is a great idea.
I just checked and between the AJP and S6 ecu loom wiring diagrams pins 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 15, 23, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 43 & 47 are unused on both.
I guess the connector will have empty female connectors to confirm this as well, so if you take crypto's advice you will have this fixed in a few minutes..
(but it is pin 25 and not pin 26 so don't short it to ground!)

Edited by aide on Friday 12th October 00:38

No you won't. MBE uses those pins for other functions and they are electrically active i.e. the MBE uses them. Just because TVR doesn't connect to them, it doesn't mean that they can be used without electrically isolating the connector pin which rather defeats the object.

Quickest temp fix: solder a wire to the pcb where the pin connects and join it externally into the loom.

[aide]

shpub said:

Quickest temp fix: solder a wire to the pcb where the pin connects and join it externally into the loom.

Apologizes OP, I've deleted my post so that someone doesn't take the wrong advice somewhere down the line.