DeLorean00

I am making this thread to hopefully help someone in the future when they are searching for the problem on their car.

Here is what happened when my ECU / ECM died. I was driving along and the car just shut off. Like someone had turned the key. The CEL (Check Engine Light) was on solid. I could not restart the car. When I turned the key the fuel pump did not prime and the injectors did not get pulse. Otherwise the car seemed totally normal.

How to tell if the ECU / ECM is dead.

Start with the fuses, after checking all of those, move onto the grounds, if they are all good, move onto the Main Relay. The Main Relay should click three times, mine did not. It only clicked once. However if I grounded it out, the fuel pump would run. I also was getting power to the relay. So that shows the main relay and fuel pump are good. Next after you check that move onto the ECU / ECM you should have power at the two yellow and black wires. If you do not, its a wiring problem, if you do its the ECU / ECM.

So signs the ECU / ECM is bad.

Fuel pump not priming.
No injector pulse.
Solid CEL, even when jumpered.

I spent hours going over my car. And read tons of stuff online. It appears this is pretty rare, but its something that is hard to figure out at first. So hopefully this helps someone.

TOO MUCH TORQUE

thats good insight..hopefully people will find this thread if they encounter an ECU issue

khmerJimmy

Damn.. the same problem happened with my db1 too.. Drove to school to drop off some papers, died at a stoplight and had to push it. Its been like 2 weeks just sittin on the driveway I gotta wait til my girls dad to fix it because I dont wanna get bitched at for doing the "wrong" thing!

moparbob498

my 93 integra did the same thing ... but it was the ic ignitor in the distributor.. just something to look into before replacing the ecu... just my experience... good luck though.

khmerJimmy

My ecu turned out to be fried. Did you ever find out why/how your ecu fried?

DeLorean00

No idea why my ECU died. All I can assume is that is was a 20 year old part that bit the dust. I replaced it and all is good. Hopefully I wont have to deal with that problem again.

krhodes

Wow...I have the very same problem you do now. I have done everything you just described except checked the wires to the ecm.

DeLorean00

Good luck! It took me a long time to figure out the problem on my car. But the repair only took minutes.

KILLAB17VTEC

Its really uncommon.From a previous 92 gsr dont have any problem and now im in a 93 gsr.thanks for the insight on the problem.

FerbsKcco

After years of this thread sitting. I bumped into it after wondering if ECU would cause my problem. After looking at schematics and using multimeter. I decided to try swapping my new/used ECU with the original one.

Fuel pump clicked on and car started Everytime.... All of this started over me getting tired of looking at the annoying check engine light. Had code 9 for the cylinder position sensor... replaced distributor. No more check engine light. Long story short, I'm guessing the no start no fuel pump prime was my ECU. Because I'm not having the problem anymore.

I probably should swap them again and see if it still has the problem. But..... I just put it all back together and am just now thinking about it.... I will update later when I try that. I'm also going to look at the pins on the wire harness to make sure that they aren't loose... 92 GSR.

87integra

87integra

So you check black to black or do you check yellow to black