Okay well some of you may remember months back when I first got into burning PROMs and had an issue with my ZIF socket, and it was causing an intermittent connection, mostly throwing my car into limp mode.

Now, I have very similar issues but its more permanent. Its been like this for months now and I've been too lazy/busy to look into fixing it. But I have 20 days to pass emissions now, and I'm out of school, so I have more time. The 20-day limit is kind of hurting me though since I can't pass emissions in limp mode (too much fuel).

Everytime I've started my car for the past few months, the CEL comes on and the fans run. As soon as I start the car, it runs great, no issues at all, no codes...just crappy gas mileage.

The other day I was on my way to my girlfriends house and the CEL went on while I was driving, so when I got to her house I looked up the code chart and printed it out to have a copy in my car. While I was jumpering it, I wasn't getting any codes back. Then...I decided to start it once and forgot to pull the paperclip jumper. Something shorted real quick and all the lights went dead for a bit, like I had no battery. Waited a few seconds and everything came back...so I screwed something up. Then I kept getting the same issue with the CEL and fan coming on.

I really don't know what could have been causing the limp mode thing, and its still doing it obviously. At one point while I was messing around with the paperclip at her house, I got the car to "key on engine off" and the CEL flashed once and the fan didn't come on...which is whats supposed to happen. Honestly, I don't remember if this was before/after the short circuit.

Anyways, I've been trying to mess with this the last day or two now. When I burn a chip, it doesn't work, but it doesn't work even when I put the stock chip in, or a fresh burn with the stock bin. Still does the same thing.

My questions...
1) What could cause this? I haven't tried disabling the checksum, but since the stock PROM doesn't work, I figured something else is wrong. Keep in mind, I can read the stock PROM and it is the exact same one I found online for it (AKFN2178).

2) If the short screwed anything up, could it have screwed something up besides the ECM itself? I'm trying to acquire a new ECM/MEMCAL anyways.

 

I am not sure on your ECM, is it a 7730?
If you have the stock P4 and chip, put that back. Get your car to run right with the stock P4 and chip.

If everything went dead for a second (including car lights, and such?) I would start looking at your battery connections, alternator connections, and more than likely ALL your ground connections.

Something is definately wrong somewhere. Fix that, before you start burning more chips. Get it smogged, then start burning chips again.

Good luck, have fun.

 

Oops, 165 ECM as its a MAF setup. Problem is my MEMCAL is what I modified in the first place. If anyone has a MAF TPI ECM (i'd like the whole thing, not just a memcal), let me know. Otherwise, I'm heading to the junkyard on Monday.

 

No, when you flash the trouble codes, the fans come on. EDIT Whoops, I thought you meant the getting the trouble codes, not normal startup. Never mind.

2) Yes, you aren't supposed to start the car with the pins shorted. This can damage the ECM... but when you fix that, it probably wouldn't have fixed the original problem.

 

In response to "2", I know it can damage teh ECM. I was just curious as to what else it could damage.

I also forgot to mention some stuff in the first post.

When I have a chip in the ZIF socket, I can flash the codes and it always shows "12" over and over, so no codes in memory.

If I turn the key on with the ALDL pins shorted, and no chip in the memcal, it doesn't flash codes...just stays with fan running and CEL on.

I'm not getting a code 51 or anything for some reason, either way.

 

(Note quoted material) Your findings here are correct. This is how a good ECM should respond. No chip means no program to flash codes.

However, by the information in your other posts it sounds like the ECM is either flakey or there is a bad solder joint/connection in the modified MEMCAL. Being that it is a '165 I would be tempted to say the ECM is bad.

With the engine running and no CEL (SES) tap on the ECM case. If the engine stumbles, CEL flickers, etc., the ECM is bad.

RBob.

 

Joy, now to find another one. Or to find a 730 and convert to SD, but I've read that its not always a good idea to do that..especially since I'm going to have some fun times getting this car to run right with new heads, intake, cam, and headers in a few more months.

Thanks for the reply, I'll try tapping on it to see what happens. Like I said, the one time I had issues like this, it was one of the pins on the actual ZIF that went into the binswitcher was broken. But I've fixed that and checked for continuity between the zif socket and the bottom of the memcal.

How much would a working 165 ECM go for? I don't want to spend a whole lot on this

There's a 730 ECM setup in the classifieds that includes all of Moates stuff. I've decided I'm going to buy Moates' adapter next time just to have the peace of mind.

 

Bring your ecm to bills on Fri. I can resolder it or find your issue for u if u like. Its a real PIA, I had to do that in my GTA twice but zero problmes now. I tell everyone to get the moates adapter board or to make their own. Way easier and u use a low pro ZIF and your good till u have to swap out ZIF again lol

later
Jeremy

 

Yeah, well I have a binswitcher thing that I thought would be really cool, but honestly, its not. lol! Its just not so useful to me. I don't know if the memcal is the problem though since all my solder connections seem to work.

If I end up going to Bill's I'm not going to be able to stay very long. Supposed to hook up a few friends, but we all know how that usually goes