93EXCivic
93EXCivic MegaDork
10/4/15 12:46 p.m.

So my 93 Civic was dead for a bit. It was the ECU. I got it up and running last beginning of last month with a used eBay ECU. I went to start it this morning and the car was dead again. Same symptoms.

What could be causing them to blow or am I just unlucky with a used part?

logdog
logdog GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
10/4/15 4:28 p.m.

Its possible you bought an ECU on its way out. It is 20+ years old. However if it is indeed a second bad ECU I would clean every single ground on the chassis and engine harness as maintenance. I would pull each bolt and run a thread chaser through the hole and one the bolt.

wlkelley3
wlkelley3 SuperDork
10/4/15 8:23 p.m.

That will keep you busy for a while. Keep you out of trouble w/swmbo. I picked up a OBD II/CAN code reader a couple weeks ago if that might help.

Sonic
Sonic SuperDork
10/4/15 8:33 p.m.

How about the main relay? Those go bad pretty frequently, can also kill the car.

impulsive
impulsive Reader
10/4/15 8:35 p.m.

leaking capacitor(s)?

bearmtnmartin
bearmtnmartin GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/4/15 9:03 p.m.

Distributors go bad on them. We went through three on my kids racecar.

93EXCivic
93EXCivic MegaDork
10/5/15 8:45 a.m.

Brand new distributor and main relay. Those were replaced before I got to the ECU.

93EXCivic
93EXCivic MegaDork
10/5/15 8:46 a.m.
impulsive wrote: leaking capacitor(s)?

I see that damage on the original but I don't see it on the second...

93EXCivic
93EXCivic MegaDork
10/5/15 8:47 a.m.
wlkelley3 wrote: That will keep you busy for a while. Keep you out of trouble w/swmbo. I picked up a OBD II/CAN code reader a couple weeks ago if that might help.

Car is ODBI.

The car was throwing a code before it died again though. I hadn't found anywhere that could check and didn't make it to the dealership to have them scan it.

93EXCivic
93EXCivic MegaDork
10/5/15 8:53 a.m.
logdog wrote: Its possible you bought an ECU on its way out. It is 20+ years old. However if it is indeed a second bad ECU I would clean every single ground on the chassis and engine harness as maintenance. I would pull each bolt and run a thread chaser through the hole and one the bolt.

Does anyone have a diagram of where any others would be or are these all of them?

bravenrace
bravenrace MegaDork
10/5/15 9:02 a.m.

In reply to 93EXCivic:

What ECU does it use? I have several and would give you one if it would work. But I think everything I have is 88-91 model year. In any case, let me know and I'll check.

93EXCivic
93EXCivic MegaDork
10/5/15 9:20 a.m.
bravenrace wrote: In reply to 93EXCivic: What ECU does it use? I have several and would give you one if it would work. But I think everything I have is 88-91 model year. In any case, let me know and I'll check.

P28

I am ordering replacement caps today for both and the electrical engineer at work can replace them.

clutchsmoke
clutchsmoke SuperDork
10/5/15 11:59 a.m.

In reply to 93EXCivic:

This sounds like the best plan. Should hopefully fix your issue.

logdog
logdog GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
10/5/15 12:28 p.m.
93EXCivic wrote:
logdog wrote: Its possible you bought an ECU on its way out. It is 20+ years old. However if it is indeed a second bad ECU I would clean every single ground on the chassis and engine harness as maintenance. I would pull each bolt and run a thread chaser through the hole and one the bolt.
Does anyone have a diagram of where any others would be or are these all of them?

Those should be all of the ones for the engine harness but there are more on the dash/chassis harnesses (or is it a "flock of harness" to describe more than one?). I have a factory manual but it is packed up right now. Maybe somebody else can help. I believe there is one or two in the vicinity of the main relay under the left side of the dash.

93EXCivic
93EXCivic MegaDork
10/5/15 12:46 p.m.

http://techauto.awardspace.com/ecu.html

Someone pointed me to this. So I am going to run through these checks with my replacement ECU as I see no burnt traces on that one's PCB unlike the old one.

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