ecu fried 2 in a row

[dreamin240sx]

i was playing in a parking lot the other day in my s13. i stopped for a min and shut the car off. when i decided to start going again i drove around the lot a couple of times then i started to hit rev limiter in first and then it happend. my car suddenly died and i looked over and seen smoke rolling out of the ecu. now the problem is i had another ecu which i checked all of the wires and fuses. they all checked out ok so i hooked up the other ecu and turned the key and bam smoke started rolling out of that one. so my question is what could be the problem my car ran fine for the longest time then it took a dump. i have a new engine harness and another ecu coming this week but i dont want to install the new ecu and it fries it also. i just dont know where to start looking if anybody could give me some pointers or hints i would greatly appreciate it thanks for all your help. oh by the way i have a dual cam ka thank you

[EsChassisLove]

Check your entire wiring harness.

When I fried my first ECU, I had the whole harness redone, I wasnt in the mood to track it down. It got fixed in there somewhere lol

[dreamin240sx]

are you meaning you got the whole chassis harness fixed. if so where at and how much was it. my engine harness was pretty chopped together so i think that might of been my problem. so i am replacing it this week so im hoping thta will fix the problem.

[EsChassisLove]

That's how my harness was. Shit was jacked. I can't remember how much it cost...$350? Up in Washington but the guy that did it doesn't own his shop anymore, he's working somewhere else, with the high end cars

[240sx-pat]

I've read a couple of post where people were melting their MAF wires on thier manifold while reading and trying to figure out what the hell was going on with my swap.

[240sx-pat]

have you opened up your ECU? it's not pin 36 is it?

[dreamin240sx]

idk ill open it up now if it is 36 what does that mean

[dreamin240sx]

ok i opened both of them and my first one is fried for sure it smells awful and theres a black burnt spot on the bottom now the other one isnt showing any burnt signs and now it doesnt smell but when i pulled it off it had some smoke rolling out of it so do you think the harness was smoking which in return made it look like it was rolling out of the second ecu? do u think it could be a relay?

[s14owner95]

Well seeing as how you hooked it up then it's not a constant power/ground issue, it's gotta be something that is only powered when the ignition signal is on.. I know that's not much help because I don't know all the wires, but that should at least cut your search in half..

[dreamin240sx]

well anything is better help then where i am at lol thank you

[spent27]

I would double check your grounds, specifically engine to chassis grounds. When an issue like this pops up all the sudden, a lot of times a corroded/loose ground wire can be the source.

[dreamin240sx]

ok im going to try and check it out tonight but i dont understand how this may of happen i just got the car back on the road after its been empty for 5 yrs

[240sx-pat]

ok i opened both of them and my first one is fried for sure it smells awful and theres a black burnt spot on the bottom now the other one isnt showing any burnt signs and now it doesnt smell but when i pulled it off it had some smoke rolling out of it so do you think the harness was smoking which in return made it look like it was rolling out of the second ecu? do u think it could be a relay?



Do you know how to read pins? was the burnt spot on one of the skinny lines, why don't you take a photo and show us the spot.

the reason I asked if it was pin 36, that's your start signal i believe ...I'd have to check but I'm pressure sure it's the start signal.

[240sx-pat]

idk ill open it up now if it is 36 what does that mean


Well, while I was googling "ecu not getting power" trying to figure out whats going on with my SR20 swap, I found a lot of guys posting how their maf wire got caught on the manifold they ended up frying the ECU and it was always pin 36 getting burnt up. That reminded me of when I was driving around in my KA-T 6 months ago I made a tight turn and my maf wire got caught on the pulley I didn't know much about cars then and I still kinda don't but I did learn a lot of things and one was checking the pins , I just happened to open up that KA-T ecu for the first time while waiting for new ECU since I jacked it up and I found my pin 36 burnt up.

[dreamin240sx]

i havent checked my cars harness quite yet. i also do not have a camera at the moment so could one of you guys post where the 36 pin is. im not real familiar with ecu's so thats y i am alil puzzled by some of this stuff. thanks again guys for all of your help

[dreamin240sx]

ok im not sure if this will make sense but bare with me. im looking into the ecu at the moment and to the left of Q457 is a black tube looking thing that's whats burnt up. and if you flip it over and look ast the bottom the burnt mark is right above R469 and R485. i hope this helps.

[240sx-pat]

ok im not sure if this will make sense but bare with me. im looking into the ecu at the moment and to the left of Q457 is a black tube looking thing that's whats burnt up. and if you flip it over and look ast the bottom the burnt mark is right above R469 and R485. i hope this helps.



damn im tired well I took my ECU apart we might have a differenet ecu i didnt see the numbers , but you can see the dark line where it was burnt off i'm poony at iy, just look at ecu pinout in google image its gonna help

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1476/img0386uc.jpg (http://img6.imageshack.us/i/img0386uc.jpg/)