16 replies to this topic

[R1mini]

I've just spoken to Paul. It looks like the problem is a break in a wire somewhere. When he connected another ecu it strated up fine, all fine. Then they bolted the ecu on and it started to fry. So in the process of moving it a connection has been lost. Why was the diagnostic port cable-tied up behind the dash?

If paul was now to unbolt the ECU and make sure it's not touching any metal work would the car run again assuming that the ECU hasn't been damaged by the frying, has the ECU somehow become live to the outer case? Or as it's bolted down it's coming into contact with a damage live wire?

I don't know if your car is a mpi or spi but I have a complete late 96 mpi loom available, £60 as far as I can see appears to be unmolested anywhere and certainly work perfectly in the original car which was a one owner 32,000 mile jobbie

Cheers
David

Edited by R1mini, 29 July 2008 - 04:18 PM.

[Sprocket]

I have been asked to look at this topic.

I would have to agree, that if the car runs fine when the ecu is insulated from the car, and smokes it when its installed in the car, there is a ground fault on the loom or an incorrect polarity connector. If for instance a ground wire which is VERY important to the operation of the ECU has broken, would allow 12v into the ECU. The metal case of the ECU and the grounds are in certain instances common to each other, there may well be a scenario where the ECU case becomes live and if it itself was grounded would smoke it. There are three ground wires for the MPi ECU, all common up and connect to the body on the bulkhead cross member. Faults with the loom are becomoing more common, and its not usualy the fault of anyone other than Rover, but then you have to consider the age of the car. Rover would have only expected a 10 year life span, and that is pretty much where we are at with all of them.

On another note, I would be causious of the connector for the coil pack, as that is easy to invert the connector and push it home, it wont 'click' but it looks and feels correct. This will cause all sorts of issues.