2.2 liter legacy burns 2 Xistors HELP!

[OB99W]

Keep boring us OB99W. This is good info even if it is a refresher. Thanks!

Thanks, Cougar -- it's good to read your helpful posts, too.

[DTL]

I paid $52 including shipping for an ECU for my '90 Legacy Wagon Auto. I hope you used:

 

http://www.car-part.com

 

I just did a search and there are 9 pages, you just need to check and be sure the part number matches. My car needed the ECU that was only available for 6 months, had no trouble finding it on this website.

 

 

I ordered it from the remanufacturer fri, should be here in a day or 2

I need it now, i need it to work, so I spent the money, lets hope it is worth it.

[DTL]

I ordered it from the remanufacturer fri, should be here in a day or 2

I need it now, i need it to work, so I spent the money, lets hope it is worth it.

 

 

Ok,

this is starting to get ugly.

 

I sent $235.00 to http://www.ecmoutlet.com/ AKA safetyairbags et al and spoke to a mild mannered, smoothe talking SOB probably from Dallas.

Their phone # is

866-663-0801

 

I have not recieve my ECU that was to ship Fri., They do not answer phones.

They have not responded to requests from me or their credit card handling company 2co for a tracking #.

 

A yahoo search http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-msgr&p=866-663-0801

found a reference to them which google did not, Complaining that they cashed someones check, never sent the requested part, and did not answer phones.

Had I found this ref, i woud not have ordered anything from them.

 

(maybe they never answer calls from folks they already have taken advantage of maybe someone here could try their phone # and see if they pick up. Originally they wanted to do an over the phone bank draft/check, when I told then I don't do that they they can't take out of state credit cards????? anyone ever hear of that?)

 

 

I checked them out with the BBB and there were some issues, but not nearly as many as another company( see my above post)... anyway, I have not been able to reach them by phone and never received any tracking #. I called the creditcard processing service they used: 2Checkout.com, Inc. (2CO)

http://www.2checkout.com/community/

I am about to call these folks as well as Visa and see what our options are.

 

2CO says they will send another email to this company and if there is no response in 24 hours, I can begin the complaint process.

 

They had a different phone # for these guys (817-704-0148) which turns out to be a voice mailbox. I left a message ... but, I doubt I will hear from this guy.

 

Anyone else you folks know get screwed like this before purchasing online?

This is my first, and I have bought many things over the years.

 

Suggestions on what to do would be appreciated.

 

DTL

[hankosolder2]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience with the ECU remanufacturers. Don't be too hard on yourself; hindsight is 20/20...

I have one thought, and perhaps those more experienced with the failure modes of Subaru ignition systems can chime in... you had only one drive signal going to the ignitor module, right? Is it possible that a faulty cam sensor can cause this? I.e. the crank sensor tells the ECU the RPM of the engine and the cam sensor tells it which bank of plugs to fire? Easy enough to scope the sensor outputs & perhaps you don't need an ECU at all. I could be TOTALLY off base with this theory. It is just an uninformed thought, presented for what it is worth.

 

Nathan

[DTL]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience with the ECU remanufacturers. Don't be too hard on yourself; hindsight is 20/20...

I have one thought, and perhaps those more experienced with the failure modes of Subaru ignition systems can chime in... you had only one drive signal going to the ignitor module, right? Is it possible that a faulty cam sensor can cause this? I.e. the crank sensor tells the ECU the RPM of the engine and the cam sensor tells it which bank of plugs to fire? Easy enough to scope the sensor outputs & perhaps you don't need an ECU at all. I could be TOTALLY off base with this theory. It is just an uninformed thought, presented for what it is worth.

 

Nathan

 

 

That is a thought... the ECM signal that didn't fire stayed high and noisier than the other, like maybe it was floating. It did sag a tad as I cranked the motor. Somewhere I have the info on how to read the error codes. I would be surprised if a bad sensor condition would allow for the ignitor to fry.

 

I guess I will cruise on over to car-part.com and see if thy can help me.

 

Been a rough day: the replacement fwrought iron style fence we were getting from fencedepot.com finally got here from china after almost 9 months of waiting. The first one that arrived last fall was supposed to be coated with superduper high tech paint and be guaranteed for 10 years against corrosion. It was rusting thru when it arrived. We complained and they were to ship us a full replacement at no charge. unfortunately, they sent us the WRONG model....then this thing....and as if to add insult to injury, I slipped on a banana peel while walking the dog... caught myself though... maybe there IS hope.

[nipper]

That is a thought... the ECM signal that didn't fire stayed high and noisier than the other, like maybe it was floating. It did sag a tad as I cranked the motor. Somewhere I have the info on how to read the error codes. I would be surprised if a bad sensor condition would allow for the ignitor to fry.

 

I guess I will cruise on over to car-part.com and see if thy can help me.

 

Been a rough day: the replacement fwrought iron style fence we were getting from fencedepot.com finally got here from china after almost 9 months of waiting. The first one that arrived last fall was supposed to be coated with superduper high tech paint and be guaranteed for 10 years against corrosion. It was rusting thru when it arrived. We complained and they were to ship us a full replacement at no charge. unfortunately, they sent us the WRONG model....then this thing....and as if to add insult to injury, I slipped on a banana peel while walking the dog... caught myself though... maybe there IS hope.

 

Watch out for banana cream pies

 

nipper

[The Dude]

I don't think you've found the the problem anyway. Maybe part of the problem.

It don't see how a high ECU output would cause an ignitor transistor to fry. The fire "blip" is so short in duration there is no meaningfull change in duty cycle. In fact, the failed ignitor transistor may have caused the ECU to fail. It would suspect something on the load side of the ignitor transistor, not upstream to the ECU.

[DTL]

I don't think you've found the the problem anyway. Maybe part of the problem.

It don't see how a high ECU output would cause an ignitor transistor to fry.

 

Me neither

 

The fire "blip" is so short in duration there is no meaningfull change in duty cycle. In fact, the failed ignitor transistor may have caused the ECU to fail.

 

That is what I was thinking: there might be enough energy in the coil primary to breakdown the ignitor transistor and conduct through the base to the ECU. That .pdf on ignition waveforms points to a capacitor in the circut that should transimit that energy pulse to ground. if that cap opened up, maybe the Ignitor and the ECU go down together. I will have replaced all of it: ECU, ignitor and coil when I am finished. I hope the capacitor is integral to the ignitor assembly .... where else could it be?

 

It would suspect something on the load side of the ignitor transistor, not upstream to the ECU.

 

BTW the Ignitor gets ground through one wire in the ECU cable. It checked out... but i will recheck for intermittant problems.

 

it will be a while before i get my hands on another ECU, so, I have some to mull it all over.

[DTL]

I am continueing this saga over at thread:

Black comedy of errors:ECU/sensor problem

Would love to hear from experienced Subaru electronics people.

HAnk? OB?!

Bill

 

 

 

Hi All, I posted this somewhere else because I couldn't figure out how to start a new thread...

I think I got it now....

 

I Have a 91 Subaru Lagacy wagon w/ AWD, ABS, automatic transmission, 2.2 litre engine sitting in my driveway waiting for me to fix it.

It died 2 years ago the morning after a long trip. My wife said it was running

rough towards the end of the trip in local traffic. The next morning, it

started for a second, then stalled and has not started since. it has 180k of

mostly Highway miles and was running well. The timing chain was replaced a

few months before it's demise. I checked compression which seemed

good.

Turned out that the Ignition transistor was not firing one side of

the spark coil. For $50. I got a good used xistor, popped it in and cranked it.

 

No start.

The new trasistor got immediately toasted. I have been staring at this Subaru for the last 9 months wondering if it is worth trying to replace the coil and the Xistor (perhaps the computer too?) The Coil reads about an ohm from the center tap to each of the lead ends and infinity to the spark plug leads. I am GUESSING that HV spark is leaking back to the xistor somehow.

Any thoughts on this?

 

I live on long Island and would consider selling this vehicle for a few

hundred bucks to someone who wants to

fix it or use it for a parts car. The ABS system looked shiny as if it was replaced not long before we bought the car and put our 20k miles on it.

 

I have to clear the driveway within a couple of weeks, but, this was such a

great car, I hate to sell it for scrap.