Hi all,
Purchased a car in the auction last week (2003 Astra SRi 2.2), a non runner which has (at first glance) had some wiring under the bonnet messed with, along with 3 (yes 3!) transponder rings in the passenger footwell, as well as another coil pack on the back seat. Had the ignition barrel drilled and picked to get the steering lock off in order to get it home... Auto locksmith read the mechanical key number out the ECU but it wasn't the right one!
Bought it as a donor car as I need an engine for my Astra convertible, but wanted to test the engine in the SRi before going to the hassle of removing and refitting engine only to find it didn't work....
Anyway... looking under the bonnet, 2 wires on the coil pack had been cut, with new bits of wire fitted, one going to battery earth, and the other disappearing below the ECU. Fitted a new ignition barrel and hooked up a boost pack.
Turned the engine over with the old ECU connected in order to carry out a compression test... all good... so I decided to hook the ECU & transponder from the convertible up to the SRi to try and get the engine running. Disconnected the 2 added wires from the coil pack, and reconnected it to the original loom.
At this point, things went bad... after about 20 seconds one of the cables at the coil pack began to smoke and melt the insulation, and at the same time smoke came from the ECU
On removing the original ECU that was on the car, it is apparent that a hole had been drilled in the back of the ECU to allow a cable to be soldered to the back of pin 17 (which is what has melted on my convertible ECU)... clearly this car has a major wiring issue somewhere which has now claimed the lives of 2 ECUs and part of an engine loom.
I only noticed afterwards, that the dash lights all come straight on as if the key is at position 2 when you connect the boost pack... even if the key isn't in the ignition.
Any ideas what could cause this kind of major short?
I'm off to eBay now to hunt for another ECU for my convertible... good thing I have a TECH2 :/
Cheers,
Rob
PS Sorry for the essay...!
Purchased a car in the auction last week (2003 Astra SRi 2.2), a non runner which has (at first glance) had some wiring under the bonnet messed with, along with 3 (yes 3!) transponder rings in the passenger footwell, as well as another coil pack on the back seat. Had the ignition barrel drilled and picked to get the steering lock off in order to get it home... Auto locksmith read the mechanical key number out the ECU but it wasn't the right one!
Bought it as a donor car as I need an engine for my Astra convertible, but wanted to test the engine in the SRi before going to the hassle of removing and refitting engine only to find it didn't work....
Anyway... looking under the bonnet, 2 wires on the coil pack had been cut, with new bits of wire fitted, one going to battery earth, and the other disappearing below the ECU. Fitted a new ignition barrel and hooked up a boost pack.
Turned the engine over with the old ECU connected in order to carry out a compression test... all good... so I decided to hook the ECU & transponder from the convertible up to the SRi to try and get the engine running. Disconnected the 2 added wires from the coil pack, and reconnected it to the original loom.
At this point, things went bad... after about 20 seconds one of the cables at the coil pack began to smoke and melt the insulation, and at the same time smoke came from the ECU
On removing the original ECU that was on the car, it is apparent that a hole had been drilled in the back of the ECU to allow a cable to be soldered to the back of pin 17 (which is what has melted on my convertible ECU)... clearly this car has a major wiring issue somewhere which has now claimed the lives of 2 ECUs and part of an engine loom.
I only noticed afterwards, that the dash lights all come straight on as if the key is at position 2 when you connect the boost pack... even if the key isn't in the ignition.
Any ideas what could cause this kind of major short?
I'm off to eBay now to hunt for another ECU for my convertible... good thing I have a TECH2 :/
Cheers,
Rob
PS Sorry for the essay...!
