Strange electrical problem 4G67 maybe ECU? Help Please

[ecumisery]

Hi,
I have a 1992 1.8 DOHC petrol automatic Galant (viento), 4G67 fully loaded imported from Japan and in immaculate condition with only 50K miles. Recently when turning the ignition key I get ONLY the ignition light, no check engine or engine temp. Sometimes if left on the check light comes on and away we go, sometimes it goes hours before it suddenly decides to put the check engine light on. When it goes it runs beautifully, but 3 times it has cut out, instantly whilst going, twice restarting on its own.
When it wont start it makes no difference if the engine (or day) is warm cold, wet or dry, sometimes it drives to the shops, I park and when I come back to it, there is only the ignition light (no start), it has not moved, wait anything from 2 minutes to 2 hours and it will suddenly decide to put the check engine light on and allows the car to start.
The caps in the ECU have been replaced, and a new cam belt about a year ago, it has never give a moments trouble, until now.

So, any of you wizards got any ideas, or a spare ECU ?

Thanks

 

[ecumisery]

ECU part number is MD166267

 

[misterfixit]

Hi,

It's a shame I'm not at home at the moment. Do you have any pics of your car? What year is it? what options etc... ?

How bad was the ecu when it was recapped? There are a whole bunch of traces near the caps that are really suceptible to damage. Also what alarm is on it? If it's a clifford and is cutting power it might be the alarm brain causing the issue.

Post up the info and we'll do our best to help out.

hope this helps,

Rich.

 

[misterfixit]

Sorry, by year I mean give us a vin so we can hook it to a dpecific model break. Have you had a build date for it from mitsubishi for the SVA?

Other question, while my brain is on the subject when was it imported, and has it been undersealed?

Rich

 

[FlyingEagle]

Generic build in ASA Japan, E35a 1.8 FWD nets the MD166267 ECU from 1990.08.1 to 1992.03.3
Looking forward to see where all this crosses over.

 

[ecumisery]

Sorry for the delay gents, The ECU has been away for repair to two different places in UK, both have said it is un-repairable, they just dont have the parts. It is an E35A chassis, I am not sure of its exact year, I think early 1992. It does not have an alarm fitted, and we have not had it undersealed. The ECU is not back from its "non repair" yet, so they may have ruined it in their fault finding efforts. When the caps were replaced it failed about the same as now, one of the caps was leaking. Finding a scrapper/spare seems the only option

 

[misterfixit]

Right,

A slow response is better than none. You will find the ecu people little help. Is the ecu an eeprom one or not? You will find a hyundai elantra 1.8 a direct swap for the core of yours to get you up and rnning again. However it'll interact funny on the cat temp sensor.

Any elantra from 89-94 will serve ok.

If you get your ecu back and it is 'unrepairable' the I'd be interested as taking it for parts. There are about 4 or 5 traces you'll need to jump to re connect then it'll all be good. search my posts and you'll see the start of a track trace for the late eeprom boards (you'll have to go back a bit though). That may help you.

Lets see some pics of the car!!

Rich

 

[ecumisery]

I don't think its an Eeprom one, the key is just metal nothing to match it to the ECU. I have looked for a Hyundai Elantra ECU as I read somewhere that they had 4G67 engines. Maybe I am looking in the wrong place, mainly Ebay, do you know anywhere else?.

I will find some pics, had a laptop disaster a few months ago, but if I cannot find them I will take some more.

In your post you mentioned 4 or 5 tracks or traces, and I looked in your previous posts, you have an epic number of posts, any idea how far back I should go, or part of the post title ?

Thanks

 

[misterfixit]

Here is the ecu thread, match the board number and go from there. I unfortunately am not in the same country as my stack of ecu's (i have the 4g67 one on the shelf that i repaired back home).
click
If it's not an eeprom one then the board layout is slightly diffeent. You need to match the screen printed number on the board to use the trace map. If it doesn't then there is only a percentage here that is applicable.

Bookmark this index post you may find it useful too... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
click

Rich

 

[fuel]

if you get stuck, there are literally hundreds of E35A Galant Vientos (and Eterna Savas) in New Zealand which should have the same MD166267 ECU. As I am now currently living in London I could possibly help as I'm due to get a package sent from New Zealand to the UK in the next coming weeks.

 

[fuel]

also funny enough this ECU has already been discussed on the .org before and I even replied to this topic click about three years ago showing what happened to the MD166267 in my very own E35A Eterna Sava a few years back. It appears this ECU is NOT EEPROM (which means electrically erasable programmable read only memory) - if it were EEPROM it would have an additional chip on the board like below:

 

[fuel]

found one on TradeMe (New Zealand's version of eBay) for NZ$80 which is about £35. click

 

[misterfixit]

Here's the ECU I was referring to that I repaired. If you look in the centre just above the cap you can see the brown wire heading up under the heat sink.
I did the repair the simple way. I had a spare good ecu of the same part number, a meter and a pack of hobnobs and a cuppa or three and checked out all the traces one by one. If it was good on both then I moved to the next. Did take a while, and I got the car running ok and logging with it at the end, I think it's still in there now.

This one was a real mess. to start with. I did end up using an any old Mitsubishi ecu as a component donor for the surface mount stuff and the other parts that were nailed. Apologies as This was the only picture I took after it all went back together, but I remember there were about four jumper wires I put on to reconstitute the damaged traces.

Do not get rid of your old ECU it should be salvageable. Would be worth getting one from NZ too.

Another useful place to talk to is mudgways (a NZ wrecker) and I've had stuff from them before to the UK.

Still if you can find an elantra at a local yard that'll get you up and running quicker.

Rich

 

[ecumisery]

Some pics of the rascal. My brother lives and works in Tokyo, some 20 years ago my parents went to visit him there, he took them all around in this Mitsi. It is very comfortable, with aircon, climate control, folding mirrors etc and my mother raved about it so much that when he moved to a place without parking, rather than sell it for peanuts, he sent it to UK. It was registered here and lovingly cared for by my mother. It is exactly as imported apart from the broken glass on the front nearside foglight ( I looked on ebay but its not a type on UK cars), its done 98Km and drives like a dream

On the last pic you can see the ECU dangling in the passenger footwell, and the plastic taken off the steering column when I checked there was 12V leaving the ignition switch. Note also the original Galant floor mats.

Many Thanks to all who have helped.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[misterfixit]

Great stuff,

Looks lovely, Its a Super viento. I did post the brochure somewhere on here..

Cheers for posting the pics, great to see another one in the UK.

Rich

 

[fuel]

I may be able to help find a fog lamp too! The eudm models don't have the twin fogs only one pair, Jdm only I'm afraid but again there should be a few in New Zealand still!

Nice car and quite a story attached to it! If I'm in your area while traveling around the uk I will be sure to have a look at it in person!