Is Your Car Suffering From a Water Damaged ECU?

Tue, 29 Oct 2019 13:27:06 GMT

The Diesel ECU Repairs guide to identifying water damage associated with your vehicle's ECU

Rainy season has arrived and for any vehicle owners who have experienced an ECU malfunction as a result of water ingress, you already know the impact that this kind of electrical damage can cause. Unfortunately there are several models of vehicle that are very susceptible to this type of ingress due to the way the ECUs are positioned.

Common Signs & Vehicle Models

If you happen to be the owner of a Vaxhaul Corsa 1.3 diesel, sorry to say you are particularly prone to a water damaged ECU of this kind. Here at Tamar Electronics, we specialise in diesel engine ECU repairs and the Corsa is one model we see regularly during wet weather periods.

The Corsa however isn’t the only model that finds itself susceptible in this way, as many others also find their way into this category depending on the age of the model. The VW Golf and several BMW models are also vehicles that can be placed into this “water damaged” category amongst others.

We would always recommend checking your model in our “common problems” page which has been designed to make it easy for you to find your car and check the common ECU faults associated with that model.

Find our page here - https://www.dieselecurepairs.co.uk/common-ecu-problems

Get Your Vehicle Tested

In terms of typical symptoms, there isn’t one but rather a number of possible things. Of course the only way to be sure if to have your vehicle ECU tested (which is actually a much lower cost than taking it to a garage in the first instance).

Here at Tamar Electronics we offer testing services for all DIESEL vehicle models - please note we only service diesel models however and not petrol versions.

So whether you find yourself experiencing intermittent start-stop problems that leaves the mechanic scratching their heads, or if you find that when you push the throttle, you get nothing happening (sometimes accompanied by warning lights on the dash). It could be advisable to rule out the ECU as the cause of the problem before taking your car to a garage and ending up with a hefty bill as a result.

If you suspect you may have an ECU problem like this and wish to discuss it further before getting it tested, give us a call on 01752 894519.

We specialise in Diesel ECU testing and repair and have compiled this list from our years of experience from the thousands of ECUs we have looked at over that time. In almost EVERY case where the ECU comes to us BEFORE any other substantial work is undertaken on the vehicle, we can save you both time AND money.

If you think you have an ECU problem similar to those above, we can test and diagnose the problem for you from as little as £45.

Simply contact us directly via our website or call us on 01752 894519 and speak to Neville quoting this article.

5 Signs That Your Vehicle E.C.U. Needs Testing!

Mon, 08 Jul 2019 11:44:08 GMT

The Diesel ECU Repairs guide to the most common faults caused by ECUs

When it comes to uncovering problems with your vehicle, none can be trickier to spot than the engine control unit. While many mechanical problems can be fairly easy to identify, diagnosing an electrical issue is less straight forward. There are however a number of obvious symptoms to look out for that could imply your vehicle has an problematic ECU.

1) Intermittent Warm Starts

So, you’ve started up the engine just fine. Off you travel on your journey to the shops, you arrive at your destination, jump back in the car to continue on and then… OH NO! IT WON’T START!

This can be quite a common ECU issue on vehicles up to around 2009/2010.

2) Intermittent Cold Starts

This one tends to be a more common issue if you live in the North, North East of the U.K. where temperatures tend to be a little more on the extreme. Similar to the above start problem, in this case however your vehicle decides it doesn’t want to start and then you try it again an hour or so later and it fires up without hesitation.

If you’ve ever experienced this, you’ll know how frustrating it can be, as guaranteed when you take it to a mechanic to get checked out it will behave perfectly giving you a sense of feeling a little daft. Of course, as soon as you get back home the problem appears again.

3) Water Damaged ECU

If the heavens have been pouring down and suddenly your car starts to misfire and run on less cylinders producing a rough sounding running noise, this could very well be a symptom of a water damaged ECU.

Vauxhall Corsa, BMWs and Rover 75 are particularly susceptible to this problem due to their design around the ECU housing, which often leads to them sitting in a pool of water and susceptible to water ingress.

4) No Throttle Response

So your vehicle starts up fine, you push the accelerator to open up the throttle and… nothing! This can sometimes be accompanied by a warning light displayed on the dash. Whilst it’s worth noting that this can also be caused by an injector fault, we would always recommend in the first instance you test the vehicle ECU for one very simple reason… COST!

Whilst the cost of an injector for a common rail diesel engine can be upwards of £1,000. It simply doesn’t compare to testing an ECU for £45. I know which one I would be checking for first!

5) Car Doesn’t Start… At All!

There are a number of faults that can lead to this situation, including issues with the vehicle immobiliser or even someone cross wiring the battery! However, the main reason we would recommend eliminating the ECU in the first instance is once again due the cost difference.

Taking the vehicle to your local garage for an inspection is likely to be the first thing that most people will do and yet this is likely to rack up costs in excess of £100 before you’ve even started (no pun intended). So once again the moral here is eliminate the possibility of the ECU and have it tested before you find yourself with a substantial labour bill only to find out you have to pay for an ECU test and repair anyway!