OK. I have a weird thing going on with my car that I posted about here:
http://www.preludeonline.com/showthr...792#post201792
But I thought this should probably be it's own thread...
So the Honda dealer calls me up today and says they swapped out my alternator for the new one, but the car still does exactly the same thing. So the original alternator was fine - (despite the dealer suggesting that the heat from my Mugen header killed it
)
So now the service rep says something to the effect of - "Now we think it's your ECU. It probably won't be covered by warranty because you have an aftermarket ECU."
Now keep in mind - I have *no* ECU swap or piggy-back V-AFC or anything like that installed on my car!!! (Actually, I have a V-AFC, but I have never installed it... It just sits on my dinning room table in the box.
)
The rest of the exchange between me and the dealer service rep went something like this...
Me: "Ummm... Mmmm hmmm... So if it's not the original ECU in the car, what kind of ECU is it?"
Honda Service Rep: "Well my tech says it doesn't look like all the other Prelude ECUs he's seen. He says it has a chip in it or something."
Me: "A chip, huh?"
Honda Service Rep: "Yeah. It looks like it's been modified. It's not giving any CEL codes, and a lot of the readings it is giving are way off the scale. For example, your heated O2 sensors should be reading around 1, and our diagnostic shows them reading a 3..."
Me: [interrupting] "Well, I can assure you that that is the original ECU that you sold me with the car. And it has not been tampered with in any way by me."
Honda Service Rep: "Yes, but we sold you this car new. And now it has an aftermarket ECU. Someone put it in there..."
Me: [getting frustrated] "OK. I'm sure you guys know a lot more about this than I do... But, honestly, I have *thought* about replacing the ECU. *And* I have actually done quite a bit of research into getting an aftermarket ECU for my car. I learned two things in the couse of that research: 1) You cannot buy an aftermarket ECU for this car. 2) You can not "chip" the ECU that came with this car. It has no "chip" to replace or modify. All of the maps are stored in static SRAM in the ECU's primary microcontroller. I have not replaced, modified, or otherwise tampered with that ECU... It's not possible to do what you are suggesting I did on this car. Do you think maybe the ECU may have just gone bad? That may be why it's giving strange readings..."
Honda Service Rep: "Oh. OK... I guess my tech just hasn't seen any of the 2000 model ECUs. I guess it looks different than the older ones. I'm just going on what my tech said... [trailing off]
Me: [Unnecessarily volunteering] "The only things on that car that I have changed are the header and the exhaust. And I removed the air intake resonator from the fender well and plugged up the vacuum hole to the resonator so that I would not have a vacuum leak..."
Honda Service Rep: "Well OK. I think we may have to try another ECU."
Me: "Do you have any in stock?"
Honda Service Rep: "No. ...Well, we may be able to pull one from a car on the lot to test with. But we will probably have to have the part overnighted from Ohio again. We'll keep looking at it this afternoon, but we may have to wait 'til tomorrow for the part."
Me:
"OK, well let me know as soon as you hear something..."
Andrew
Linear Mode
