i have a p28 chipped with uberdata (i have used 1.6 and 1.7).
i am having a problem, everyonce and a while (seems totally random) the ecu will not read the chip. i get a solid CEL.
it goes into limp mode,
we try burning different chips and it wont work,
we tried a stock p72 and everything seems fine (wont start because of my 550's but the CEL goes away)
nothing seems to fix it, it just goes away.
it happened once on the dyno, a new chip fixed it (so we thought is was the chip). then on the way to the dyno a few weeks later it came back. i was driving and the CEL came on. pulled over, burned 3 new chips, didnt fix it, tried a buddy's ecu and it got rid of the CEL. so we went back to get a truck to tow it home. when we got back to the car, i tried to start it.
it started right up and drove home as strong as ever....
this has happened to 2 other of my friends too, although both were on Hondata.
Does anyone know what the problem is? or what it could be?
all the grounds and all the soder connections seem to be good.
any info on this would be great.
thanks
kelly

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by llewsirc &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
all the soder connections seem to be good. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Seem to be, or you reflowed them to make sure and still have problems?

 

Get another ecu, check your harness for shorts/damage.

 

What kind of eeprom socket are you using? Does it have round holes, or is it a 'wipe' socket? Reason I ask, is IMHO dual wipe sockets blow ***, and after repeated use will waste hours of trouble shooting random problems. If its a machine (round holes) socket, Id second the suggestion to go over the solder job and make sure the solder penetrated each hole to the other side.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by J. Davis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Seem to be, or you reflowed them to make sure and still have problems?</TD></TR></TABLE>

just by looking at it, all the soder connections look good. ie.. not over flowing with soder, seems to be a good connection etc etc. i am by not stretch a soder king, but they looked good to me.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mtber &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Get another ecu, check your harness for shorts/damage.</TD></TR></TABLE>
this would explain why mine isnt working, but i have had 2 buddies with the same problems,
i will check the harness but i doubt there any problems with it.
plus if there was a bad wire i think the problem would be constant? maybe not, ill check that.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by leed &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What kind of eeprom socket are you using? Does it have round holes, or is it a 'wipe' socket? Reason I ask, is IMHO dual wipe sockets blow ***, and after repeated use will waste hours of trouble shooting random problems. If its a machine (round holes) socket, Id second the suggestion to go over the solder job and make sure the solder penetrated each hole to the other side.
</TD></TR></TABLE>
i am not totally sure what you are talking about but i will do my best.
my ecu looks like this:

but the bottom piece isnt sodered into the ecu.
it wouls seem like a have a wipe connection then.

servion (here on HT) did all the sodering on my ecu, he might be a better person to ask.
so you think the wipe connectors suck, what other connector should i get?

thanks for everyones help so far.

 

definiley resolder. So the socket isn't soldered in? maybe I read something wrong.

 

yeah just resolder all the connections, this happened to me. Desoldered a few that looked a little ugly, like j1 and r54 and it fixed it.

 

for the bottom socket (black one), you'll want to avoid the wipe style contacts. instead, try to find the machined style. also, this socket must be soldered to the circuit board as the others above have said. make sure enough solder is applied to flow to both sides of the board (but don't glob it on).

 

i will get the ecu resoldered and see it that helps .
is there anything else it could be besides solder?

if it is solder, what explains the randomness of my problem.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by llewsirc &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just by looking at it, all the soder connections look good. ie.. not over flowing with soder, seems to be a good connection etc etc. i am by not stretch a soder king, but they looked good to me.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Connections don't "look" good. They are good, or they are not.

Heat those joints back up, see if that helps anything.

leed's also right about the solder tail (aka wipe) sockets versus machined pin sockets.

 

haha, man I have the exact same problems as you

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by J. Davis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Connections don't "look" good. They are good, or they are not.

Heat those joints back up, see if that helps anything.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

i will resolder all the connections and see if that helps.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by J. Davis &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
leed's also right about the solder tail (aka wipe) sockets versus machined pin sockets.</TD></TR></TABLE>

so i should not use the wipe connector? what should i be using?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2muchPSI &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">haha, man I have the exact same problems as you</TD></TR></TABLE>
who soldered your ecu?
is your problems random too?

have you found anything that "normally" fixes it?

 

yea don't use the (aka wipe) sockets. Get the machined pin sockets.

 

I had these same problems, the car would randomly cut out while driving and then start back up and drive perfectly again. I eventually traced the problem to be heat-related; whenever I had the heat on my feet the ECU would cut out. Once I found that out I ignored it until the summer, when it would start cutting out if I drove through a patch of sunlight for more than a minute. Eventually I took out the ECU and reflowed all the solder joints, and haven't had a problem since.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by raene &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I had these same problems, the car would randomly cut out while driving and then start back up and drive perfectly again. I eventually traced the problem to be heat-related; whenever I had the heat on my feet the ECU would cut out. Once I found that out I ignored it until the summer, when it would start cutting out if I drove through a patch of sunlight for more than a minute. Eventually I took out the ECU and reflowed all the solder joints, and haven't had a problem since. </TD></TR></TABLE>

thanks ill look into that.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by llewsirc &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">so i should not use the wipe connector? what should i be using? </TD></TR></TABLE>

The solder tail sockets aka "wipes" are fine if you plan on dropping a chip in and leaving the ECU alone. I do that for most all of the ECUs I chip for people who don't plan on playing with DIY ECU tuning, and for generic "performance" chip jobs. For anything that will see some wear + tear, I use the much more robust machine pin sockets... very easy to slide a ZIF down into one for the DIY crowd, and they don't **** up.

Most all my tuning is done on a personal ECU via ROM emulator, and then I burn the final .bin to chip for customer. The quantity of sockets I go through, I save few bucks per annum going with the solder tail sockets for people who don't need anything special - the difference is pennies per unit, FWIW. If you don't yank and pull chips frequently out of a solder tail socket, they are just fine.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by llewsirc &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i will get the ecu resoldered and see it that helps .
is there anything else it could be besides solder?

if it is solder, what explains the randomness of my problem.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

definitely unsolder our the socket, if too much solder was melted when originally soldering it can drip under the socket where you can't see and short out the pin/pins next to it and you can never until unless you check with continuity tester for each pin ... if its a random thing, chances are you wont find it ... more probably its the soldering job, so just undo and redo.

Greg