Suzuki Sidekick ECM fried due to Bad Caps!

[g8r]

Well my 91 Sidekick is history. After 320,000 klicks a fried ECU was its downfall. Its in pretty good shape otherwise. I was able to temporarily bypass the an affected circuit but the corrosion eventually was terminal. I took the ECU out and inspected it. There were 2 Rubycon caps. One looks like it exploded or at the very least shorted as there was black sooty stuff around it. I cleaned it up and replaced the caps but the car still wont start. A replacement board costs $450. That pisses me off. A PC board costs a $100 or even less. I cant see any other visible sign of damage. If I knew for sure it was the ECU I would buy a replacement but with the mileage I cant justify it. I am sad to see it go tho. Well thats my story. Thanks.


following is a picture of it. The bad cap (removed) was on the lower left.
http://home.primus.ca/~g8r/ecmfront.jpg

[kc8adu]

you give up too easy.
that ecm is probably still an easy fix.
and a working one from a junkyard is 50.00 around here.
i fix lots of the mitsubishi boards and often the ecm fuse blows when that cap shorts.

[g8r]

Well I am willing to try ... If you hold my hand a bit. Where is the ECM fuse? Pardon my ignorance but I cant find it. Is there one built into the board? My haynes schematic doesnt match my car. I will try to find a year specific one.

$50 is quite the deal. I will try some more wreckers but so far the cheapest I found was $350 :o

What else do I look for on the board?
Thanks

[kc8adu]

look in the fuse panel.
iirc there are 2 picofuses on the ecm and also look for traces eaten by the electrolyte.

[kc8adu]

any news?
btw i have fixed those ecm's and the customer could not get the car to run.
they had a compound problem.
a bad fuel pump along with the bad caps.
so if it cranks,has spark,and the injectors are being driven(check with scope or noidlight)look to the pump.

[Mechtaz]

Re: Suzuki Sidekick ECM fried due to Bad Caps!

Hi all does anyone have the pic??? Thanks for your time

[kick-fix]

Re: Suzuki Sidekick ECM fried due to Bad Caps!

this is an old post but beat my page by 1 hit. so. i make it 100 times better.

my page on this TOPIC , is 3 years old and is 3rd hit with google
Suzuki sidekick is my ECU bad. 10 years coverage too.

shows how to do it all ,even fix bad drivers.
no better page. best of all ,its 100% free.

http://www.kick-fix.com/ECU/ECU.html

[kenmacsep]

Re: Suzuki Sidekick ECM fried due to Bad Caps!

Was about to create a new thread, but found this. Your story also applies to TCU's (Transmission Control Unit) of the same era. Mine is a Mitsubishi Lancer CB '91 model with black Rubicon cap, which simply leaked from the bottom - no distortion of case. The 2SB1335B transistor which was vivid green is now also black, complemented by a burnt section of metal casing above the transistor and cap. My lancer had dropped into limp mode, but as the local auto electrician said it would do no harm to continue using it, I continued to do so. This did the cooking job, as I had visually inspected the TCU innards when it first happened and it looked ok - I have since found the vehicle runs fine with the TCU unplugged - still in limp mode of course - so I would recommend unplugging the TCU module ( wouldn't think you could do so with an ECU) when problem first occurs - then you likely only need to replace the capacitor - but I agree with you that it would be a good idea to replace any of these caps before you have problems. My cap is a Rubycon 47uf 50v G2A (could not find any record of this model anywhere).

[cadillacman]

Re: Suzuki Sidekick ECM fried due to Bad Caps!

**NEW GM CARS ***

the new style small pcm they use has krappy caps, they start stalling, setting 5 volt reference codes, throttle acuation codes fuel tank pressure sensor codes, etc anything that depends on the 5 volt system. The caps they use for the 5 volt supply are krap, caps leak and bieng its all weather sealed the acid works its way to the connector header pins. It ruins the pcm and also ruins the connector. according to the dealer The only way to repair the connector is to buy A NEW enginr harness, nobody will sell just the pigtail connector not even junkyars.

I ended up replacing the pcm and pulled the connectors out of the plug, matched them up with terminals in stock at the local gm dealer, replaced about 10 corroded ones and used deoxit on the rest to clean them up.


I have a bad feeling you are going to see this issue more and more as time goes on.