gaaah, first car trouble with the mr2 :( suggestions welcome!

[Ryan S]

ok, so after selling my blitz ecu I was sent one on loan that turned out to be a dud, I did a couple of miles with this ecu and the car ran terrible, over fuelling really badly. tried the blitz back on it, no issue at all, anyway, get's another rev3 tubby ecu and car won't start and reeks of fuel, eventually it starts but won't rev properly or drive properly, took out the plugs and of course they are completely black, then I bent my plug key so only managed to change 2. the car still struggles to start then pops and bangs when revved etc....Also, 2 of the plug wells are filled with oil so new rocker cover gasket needed. So frustrating as the car has been faultless the whole time I've had it

Gonna get the plugs changed tomorrow and check for error codes at the same time.

Rant over

[taxman2014]

Eek. Must be gutted. Especially with the cold weather. Not the perfect weather to be standing outside tinkering with your motor.

Anyways, read the build of your 2' and felt a weird sense of pride and achievement when I saw the finished motor...

[Ryan S]

ach, i'm fairly sure the plugs are the problem, it cannot possibly be another dud ECU!! No engine management light though so that's good

Cheers man, doing the engine next anyway so hopefully this issue is something simple

[Ryan S]

Riiiiiight, So, No error codes, plugs changed, I have spark, I can smell fuel. car won't start.....


Anyone got any ideas?? The ECU is on loan from a member and is the 2nd one I've been loaned, The first was a dud, this one surely cannot be a dud as well. Help needed

[doogal44]

Remove efi fuse turn car over until all fuel is out of the chambers. It may run and then die from lack off fuel. Put fuse back in and try to start.

[Ryan S]

Remove efi fuse turn car over until all fuel is out of the chambers. It may run and then die from lack off fuel. Put fuse back in and try to start.

bu88er, I knew there was something along those lines I could try, I;m away from the car now too!! I'll give that a go tomorrow, I did think the car was severly flooded, It did manage to start yesterday and idled for ages but it wouldn't drive properly at all. It wouldn't start after idling or driving either

Not without a lot of cranking and persuation Just to add, I tried a working rev3 ECU off a friends car the other night too and it ran fine.

[Ryan S]

right, wondering got the better of me so I went back down to work and tried the EFI fuse, made no difference whatsoever, cranked the car for a good few minutes (on and off) then put the fuse back in, car immediately reeked of fuel again and wouldn't fire

[Ginjaninja92]

This sounds really similar to what I'm going through.
Last night my car wouldn't start, with no prior warnings. Eventually after 5 minutes of cranking it did fire and seemed to idle and rev, freely and normally. Left my street and within 100 metres it started spluttering and cutout, I flattened the battery trying to crank it, so towed it home a couple hours later, and it then started fine.

Had a couple of splutters this morning, then a couple of cutouts this evening, then on my way home I was getting more spluttering and hesitation, and a couple of bangs, then it cutout and I walked home.

Engine bay reeks of fuel when cranking, getting a spark. Totally clueless, so getting it checked over tomorrow.

[Ryan S]

that does sound pretty much the same thing man, my coil and plugs are new, I'm getting a decent spark too, the only thing different is the ECU, i'm gonna have to try another just to get the niggling feeling out my head. I've never had any running issues with the car until changing the ECU

[killerferret666]

just throwing it out because of what you've said;

If you can plug the Blitz ECU back in each time and then it runs fine could it be the wiring pins been changed the blitz ecu?
I cant believe you have had two dud ECU's that's why i sat that.

Do you know if anything else is done to the car? Cams, injector size? timing perhaps?
all a bit of guess work as i dont know what changes the Blitz ECV does

[Ryan S]

just throwing it out because of what you've said;

If you can plug the Blitz ECU back in each time and then it runs fine could it be the wiring pins been changed the blitz ecu?
I cant believe you have had two dud ECU's that's why i sat that.

Do you know if anything else is done to the car? Cams, injector size? timing perhaps?
all a bit of guess work as i dont know what changes the Blitz ECV does

I ran it fine with a rev3 ecu off a friends car, this is a known working rev3 ecu as he was in the car when we met up. the only thing that has been changed is the ecu and now the plugs Wiring is deffo the same

Just to add to this quickly, the first ECU was suspect anyway, Quibble on here who loaned me it was unsure if it was working, that ECU had wires coming out of it going into a box, it did run the car but made it overfuel terribly, then the car wouldn't start with that ecu at all. I put on the next ecu and it still wouldn't start. I also don't believe it's another dud ECU but I would like to rule it out by trying it on another car, or another ECU on my own car.

[alanmr2turbo]

Not without a lot of cranking and persuation Just to add, I tried a working rev3 ECU off a friends car the other night too and it ran fine.

You've answered your own question.

[Ryan S]

Not without a lot of cranking and persuation Just to add, I tried a working rev3 ECU off a friends car the other night too and it ran fine.

You've answered your own question.

I know I know, but 2 gubbed ECUs??

also, there's a bit more to it than that, as I said in the above post, the "known dud ecu" stopped running the car at all. the next ecu did start it and let it idle and even drive but it drove terribly, now it doesn't start at all. in fact, much the same symptoms as the first ecu except no EML.

[SonicSW20]

But you've had it working with a known good ECU from a friends car?

As alanmr2turbo said, you've solved the problem there. I know it seems unlikely that both ECU's were dead, but you have to bear in mind even the youngest MR2 ECU is now 15 years old at least.

[Ryan S]

But you've had it working with a known good ECU from a friends car?

As alanmr2turbo said, you've solved the problem there. I know it seems unlikely that both ECU's were dead, but you have to bear in mind even the youngest MR2 ECU is now 15 years old at least.

I have yeah, it worked with the Blitz and with the known to be working one, It was another member on here (Fozzy) who sent me his which was believed to be working, I'm going to try another ECU, frustratingly I'm going to have to buy it (from Gullzter) and see if it works.

[Ryan S]

right, another ECU on it's way. as far as anyone knows this ECU is in perfect working order. i'm gonna take the plugs out the car, pull the EFI fuse and crank it over to get any fuel out of the cylinders. then try the new ECU. If this doesn't work i may need a box of matches.

[Ginjaninja92]

It does seem all things point to the ECU for you Sheppy. Let us know how you get on with the next one. I went round to my car this morning and it started and ran fine, but now the rev counter is dead! Takin it to a garage me thinks.

[Ryan S]

It does seem all things point to the ECU for you Sheppy. Let us know how you get on with the next one. I went round to my car this morning and it started and ran fine, but now the rev counter is dead! Takin it to a garage me thinks.

Yeah, after reading back through this post it does appear to be blidndingly obvious that it's the ECU New one on it's way so I'll keep this updated

[SonicSW20]

It does seem all things point to the ECU for you Sheppy. Let us know how you get on with the next one. I went round to my car this morning and it started and ran fine, but now the rev counter is dead! Takin it to a garage me thinks.

Yeah, after reading back through this post it does appear to be blidndingly obvious that it's the ECU New one on it's way so I'll keep this updated

If you've still got the suspect ECU's, open them up and inspect the board, I wouldn't be surprised to see a burst capacitor or something.

[Ryan S]

It does seem all things point to the ECU for you Sheppy. Let us know how you get on with the next one. I went round to my car this morning and it started and ran fine, but now the rev counter is dead! Takin it to a garage me thinks.

Yeah, after reading back through this post it does appear to be blidndingly obvious that it's the ECU New one on it's way so I'll keep this updated

If you've still got the suspect ECU's, open them up and inspect the board, I wouldn't be surprised to see a burst capacitor or something.

i opened the first one (with owners permission) and couldn't see anything, it did have the chip attached though which I carefully removed, it made no difference to running at all. I'll inspect it a bit further. I'd love to be able to fix them both so I could return them as working,