Even if you have a low mileage car, replace the caps on your ecu/tcu!

Example, 1991 mirage, 60K miles.

I had to replace the tcu and just yesterday I had to swap out the ecu. My mom was driving the car home and she got down near krogers on main in bloomington when the car died. What did she do? Coast it into the Risques parking lot. Mom subsequently goes into the porn shop and makes a phone call to me. Car just cranks over and doesn't fire so I pick her up, and on a whim decide to try the spare ecu I have, wich I'm going to replace the capacitors on as soon as I get my desoldering gun in. Pull the ecu, it smelt like burnt electronics when I opened the ecu up. When I went back to replace it the ecu, I could tell the whole car smelled like it too.

Just an fyi to you 1st gen owners.

This is good advice. This has happened to a lot of 1G owners.

I've got to say Joe, i kinda wish I would have kept that car. Probably one of the best $250 you ever spent eh?

there are a ton of ECU's dieing this year i dont' know what it is. mine died, nicks died, and a few other people i can't remember.

Yeah Mark, I feel bad knowing everything you've gone through last year with cars, maybe not bad enough to give the car back, but I do feel guilty for getting it so cheap. My mom is VERY happy to have it.

Thanks again and beware of the dreaded cap xploshen!

Does anybody specialize in replacing these bad caps? I bought some a year or two ago but have never gotten around to trying to have someone replace them. If I did it myself, I'd probably burn up the entire ECU.

The caps are soldered on both sides and all the way through the circuit board. So it is recommended that someone with experience do the work. Spyonu2007's SocketPROS may be able to help you out.