Year of Manufacture *: 1997 Engine Size and Code *: 2000 3S-GE
Hi All, This one is going to be a toughie I think. It occasionally blows the EFI main fuse. The customers usual mechanic has started having a look. He fitted a new fuel pump and when that was unsuccessful he opened the loom up in places (bit of a shame as a lot of "forensic" may have been lost). Looking at the diagram this feed is a permanent supply to the ECU and is also the EFI relay fed supply to loads of consumers (EGR sol, ISCV, fuel pump mainly). My intention is to split the circuit with several fuses and see which one goes next time. I was just wondering if anyone has knowledge of a common problem I am not aware of, possibly relating to known chafing points etc. Shaun
Hello Shaun, I did an MR2 a long time ago where the lambda wires weren't cliped in & had melted on the exhaust. This would pop a fuse when the engine moved. Might be worth a look.
I know this is a different car (Honda Accord) but I had the ECU fuse blowing due to a problem speedo sensor in the gearbox, fusing the different circuits if it's that intermittent might be the only choice for you.
Hi Mark, Had a Peugeot 306 blow up the ECU because of a short circuit VSS once! I fitted some extra fuses (managed to put them in the fusebox) and took it for a 20 mile test drive, no trouble at all. Will get customer to collect and try. The only problem with this sort of job is the time they eat up and you never feel right charging it all, over 9 hours so far!
I know how you're feeling Shaun, I've got two vehicles here at the moment that have severely tested my confidence in diagnostics, one you will see on the forum is a simple Agila 1.0cc with an EGR fault and another Vauxhall Astra 1.9cdti with a swirl motor fault that were both tested before replacement and (genuine) parts were fitted and they still have problems! We won't go into the hours that I've spent, but to say I'm not making any money out of them is an understatement!
Shaun and Mark bring up the issue of charging out for extended diagnostics. I can sympathise with that especially as I charge a fixed price no matter how long it takes to solve the problem. I reconcile myself with the fact that some jobs are simple and therefore easy money, and the harder ones gives me more job satisfaction and normally well appreciated by the customer who rewards me with future custom and recommendations. So I look upon it quite stoically as swings and roundabouts...as long as the balance is right
That’s a great philosophy Pete unfortunately it wouldn’t work for me anymore due to the fact that nearly every garage has a code reader and as such are filtering out the “easy” jobs. Mostly what I’m seeing is the cars that have already had this that and the other changed by other garages that are only going on the fault code readers description; and are not secondary testing to prove the fault. As such I charge out on an hourly rate, and try to explain the diagnostic procedure as the repair progresses. The problem with the Agila was that I had correctly diagnosed a faulty EGR valve not realising there was another underlying problem. Now trying to explain that to a non technical patron is a pretty (if not impossible) hard thing to do, he also had a major service and rear crankshaft oil seal replaced; so he spent a couple of pounds with me. I find as my experience grows I have to dictate the possible avenues of repair that I may have to go down with the customer and possible expenses that may be incurred, trying not to scare the customer away, which is quite a juggling act! And sometime as you say; to keep good customer relations, I just have to swallow the extra expense (unfortunately)!
on July 13, 2011, 8:16 pm, in reply to "