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

Admin Account • July 8, 2019

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!

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.

Water Damaged ECU

Is Your Car Suffering From a Water Damaged ECU?

By Admin Account • October 29, 2019
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.
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