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Date:         Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:47:58 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: Do U carry spare ECU?
Comments: To: mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>
In-Reply-To:  <4BC494D3.8010302@cox.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 11:59 AM 4/13/2010, mark drillock wrote: >Installed his spare ECU from his Westy under bench storage, fired right up!

I think carrying one would be a good idea for everyone nowadays, and here's why.

The last five 2.1l ECUs I've examined under the 'scope (all working, one with a half-second fail when the rear wheels passed a sharp bump, various mfg dates) have had between dozens and hundreds of instances of solder fatigue. The worst ones were of course on the devices secured to the heat sink, large or heavy or hot components, and on the flexible connectors between the two boards on the Bosch 022 models. The T/A units had decent-looking solder to begin with; the Bosch solder looked pretty nasty -- but all had lots of mostly microscopic fatigue problems. The one 022D model I have has a bunch of surface-mount components on the solder side of the big board and a big shield soldered over the smaller board. The overall solder quality didn't look bad but *IIRC* there were still lots of fatigue problems on the through-soldered components.

Judging from the couple 1.9l ECUs I looked inside years ago, they're likely in similar condition.

I personally doubt that the people who recondition these examine them as closely as I have, and I've never seen one fresh from reconditioning. So my *suspicion* is that even recently reconditioned ones will have a bunch of fatigue problems not visible to the naked eye.

Yours, David PS -- I'll add my usual note that it's quite amazing how much faulty electrical gear can be fixed by reflowing all the solder joints. Not least my gas boiler which for years would occasionally shut down (on the coldest nights, naturally). After ten years trying to chase it, finally opened up the main control box which had maybe twenty solder joints and every single one was visibly bad. Resoldered them and one of these days I'll look and see how they're faring. In the meantime, the heat works.


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