As general manager of Blue Streak's ECU testing and rebuilding facility, I repaired and tested all makes ECU's and spent plenty of time on EEC IV ecus as well as writing test routines for our car simulators.
If you ever bought or sent in an ECU for testing at Autozone, Bennet, BWP, Standard, Pep Boys and most every other auto parts dealer that wasn't an A1 cardone unit, then it's about 75% likely that my facility rebuilt/tested that ecu.
If there were difficulties that more attention with a customer's ecu, then there is a 100% probability that I personally tested that ecu and either affected repairs myself or instructed one of our technicians on what proceedure to follow in order to best satisfy the customer.
I stand by my comments on GM and chrysler ecus being the most advanced though toyota and nissan are getting close to surpassing them as well as having superior build quality.
NOW THE funny thing about that.......autozone, pep boys, etc.....they are the absolute worst to deal with for computers.
i've replaced more chrysler computers(friggin LOVE the " this computer is specific to this model/year bs from the chrysler dealers) and gm computers than anything.
i really loved the old replacing the chip.....dam....what the hell was it called again?....the chip on the gm computers, because it had been updated.
yet the ford computers have(at least since eec4) been able to "learn", whereas the gm computers only had what was on that chip.
THAT'S IT!! the PROM!!!
what a friggin POS setup.
do you not think there was a reason that they started using "piggyback" controllers on the fords way back in the 80's? or why you needed a reprogrammed ecu with that 70mm MAF, and 36# injectors? it was/is because if you did those with the stock ecu, it would learn, and readjust to what it was supposed to in the first place.
now.....i admit you may know a lot more than me about some of these systems.......but i speak from 27 or so years of diagnosing these things. and to be honest, i actually liked doing the fords, because they were a challenge. i actually had to
think to figure them out.
look at how the obd2 systems work. they work just like a ford computer, 'cept they have datastream and standardized connectors now. and THAT messes up a lot of folks, who see 3 or 5 codes, and lose their minds looking for them.....because they don't think to figure out which code caused the other 4.
in my time working on these things, i've lost to one car. it was a tempo, and i missed a bad ground(the orange wire). to this day, that is the only car i've ever lost to.
oh yea........i always either buy my ecu's from the dealer(i've know idea who makes em for the different manufacturers though) or through napa, who uses cardone(or at least they used to.)
one more "oh yea"
i didn't lose to that car either.....i learned from it, so technically speaking, it wasn't a loss.
people that i used to ask for help way back then now call me when they need/want help.
