Racecar help Options

[turbohcar]

What would fry an ECU repetitively? An overcharging alternator? A friend of mine and I drove to Michigan to pick up a Hornet race car this past weekend. It's a 91 FWD nonturbo Talon manual trans. Owner said it kept frying ECUs because of an overcharging alternator. We were told all it needs is a new ECU, alternator, and battery. What do you guys think would cause this problem?

BTW, he's looking for those parts

91 FWD N/A manual trans ECU
alternator

On a side note, the DSM bretheren up there are very........redneck to say the least. Two early forties gentlemen with about twelve DSMs scattered about the yard of all varying years, makes, and equipment. The weeds all grown up around them, the garage is so crammed full of crap you can't even get a car near it, the engine crane is out in the front yard holding a turbo 4g63 next to a white 92 auto AWD on jackstands awaiting for the transplant. When I made the comment, "there's a wasps nest in the air recirc. vent behind the drivers door" I was told "that's part of living in the country". Like I don't live in the country!?! Fifteen miles from any type of convenience store, corn and bean fields as far as the eye can see and I've never had a wasp nest in my car! Anyway, I was happy to scatter from that place as fast as I could.

[MidwestDSM]

sounds like Danville...ask drewgvr4 about his experience there.

[turbohcar]

lol been there too. Surprisingly, this place was worse than what I've seen out of Danville.

[xian 1g]

pretty sure we have altenators....

[turbohcar]

bump for some help

[turbohcar]

No one knows what would repetitively fry ECUs? I checked the fusible link and MPI relay, both of which look good. Any help at all would be worth a try.

[The Iron Goat]

I think "overcharging" might have not been the best phrase for him to use. If the voltage regulator is pumping out excessive voltage (above 14.4), that could easily damage the circuits of the ECU. I had a car crap a voltage reg on me once. You could tell because the headlights were friggin' BRIGHT.......for about three days, and then they burnt out. Something to look into anyways.

[turbohcar]

Where is the voltage regulator at? I've never had to replace one before so this'll be a first. My first guess would be that it's a working part inside the alternator casing. My next question is, if that is the case, is it easier just to replace the whole alternator?

[turbohcar]

I found this on DSMtalk and wondered if anyone has ever had this problem either. It sounds similar but since I've never even had this car running it's hard to say.

Fried ECU's Post #1 of 1

After owning this '94 Eagle Talon 2.0, non-turbo automatic for 2 days the engine went sour and I had 2 "mitsubishi techs" install a guaranteed junk yard engine with similar mileage (111,000). Ran fine for a few days then would not start but could hear the starter relay vibrating under the console. Tried a new relay and it was the same so I put the old one back in. Disconnected battery and then when reconnected it would start but the problem returned and the only way to start and run was to manually short this relay with a quarter. "Techs" said it was the ECU so I had it rebuilt. Put it in car started died a couple of times then ran great for about a 10 minute test drive. Tried it again and it ran for about 2 minutes and again will only start by manually grounding the relay. I'm thinking it is not the relay since it started and ran fine. I'm wondering if there is something that was done or not done when swiching the engine which is frying the ECU? The company that rebuilt the ecu said that what they found with it was they diagnosed age and heat, which they repaired and replaced and found noticeable voltage fluctuations, which they fixed. Since it ran and now is acting exactly the same as before the ECU was rebuilt, it seems like I fried this one as well. Does that make sense? Is it possible that these "techs" connected something incorrectly when swapping the enging and it is frying the ECU? Appreciate any thoughts. Thanks for your help.