First off i've been having alot of problems with my car, alot of electrical issues and no boost and kicking codes for pretty much everything under the sun. haven't had any luck with a dealership. covered that in another post. I'v been thinking about buying a new ecm thinking maybe thats the problem. all my troubles started after it got hot out. So ive been looking at crate engine depot and they have an ecm for our cars, however they do not accept returns and says it is not configured. forgive me for sounding stupid, but what are they referring to needing to be configured, and what does that entail? I'd like to know before i go pawn some stuff and order this. because if it requires a dealer to configure it i'll be SOL as the local dealers around here don't seem to know a torque wrench from a screwdriver. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!! Oh and if there is a post about this just point me there, I've used the search and on this site it seems to be worthless.

 

I'm guessing that by configured means that tuned for your VIN# .. basically u will have to take it in to the dealer u can probably buy a used one, send it to zzp for tuning to ur vin number, and see if that works cuz dealerships are expensive

 

But sometimes a bad BCM can give similar issues.... Just throwing in info

If u can state all of the issues we'll be able to help a lil better

 

You can usually find used ECM's on this site. That's the best way to go. You can just do a security relearn and be done. With a blank ECM, you have to get it flashed at the dealer.

 

I bought a used ECM off here for E85 and had it VIN relearned/flashed at the dealer. cost me 135 bucks.

 

I bought one off this site, plugged it into my car, and did the security relearn, and it fired right up. Actually, I have 2 spare ECM's that I've done that with.

 

It started off running great. I put on a cai and it ran better . Put on an aftermarket intercooled and piping and seemed even better. The only problem I had was it would kick a p0101 code for the intake. Fast forward a couple months and it gets really hot out. My gauges start going crazy( bouncing all over and going dead) I start having missfires underboost. Kicking codes for missfires,underboost, some network code bus a or something. My account quits my power steering goes out. My car loses all of its acceleration and will not boost and when it does it spikes at 5 Psi. So I put back in the plastic airbox which has a broken oil breather spout thing on it and take it to the dealership. They charge me in the area of $270 and replace the airbox claiming its leaking in air causing all my problems except the underboost. Then they say they checked the wastegate actuator solenoid and it was fine. They tell me all issues were resolved and it runs like new. I drove down and picked it up and right away noticed it still isn't boosting so I bring it back. They tell me they will refund my money and start over. Well a day later they Call me up and tell me they don't know what's wrong and to just come get my car. Never refunded my money. On the way home the gauges died and all the same crap continued. Since then it has progressively gotten worse. Sometimes it will not even start and when it does run I give it gas and it growls through th:e intake and bogs down and almost dies. I'm lucky to see 20mph in a block. Sometimes I start it up and it runs good enough to maintain 40mph but that's about it. Last night I limped it all the way home at 15mph with my foot on the floor and it growling out the intake. Also it seems like barely anything comes out of my exhaust which I have a magnaflow muffler on. What does come out is scalding hot. Also onset the Hood everything is rediculously hot.

 

Glad it worked out! Check car-part.com, plenty of ecms, only prob is they are blank.

 

First off, I feel your pain. I've been having similar issues with my car and it really started when it got hot as well.

Secondly, I had a dealer lie to me about a refund, so I filed a complaint with the better business bureau and they were express mailing me a check the next day. You can file the report online, and it's very easy.

Finally, let me know if you find a fix and I'll do the same for you.

 

Yeah it was easy. It was supposed to be only 95 bucks but convientently it needed to be installed for 40 bucks...I asked them If i could do it and they were like. well its already back here...I would of installed it prior but then I wouldn't of been able to drive it haha. stupid dealerships

 

Well over the past couple days I figured out and fixed on my own the performance issues. The upstream cat in my downpipe was deteriorating and clogging my downstream cat giving the exhaust nowhere to go. Replaced it and wouldn't you know? Full boost and like a new car! No codes thrown as of yet. The electrical issue with the gauges and power steering and all that still exists.

 

How did you discover that problem?

 

My father used to be a mechanic during the 70's at a Chevrolet dealership and I told him the issues I was having and he gave it a once over and said back in the day they would run a vacuum test on the intake when cars acted like that and generally it was clogged exhaust. So I I crawled under there and went to work dropping my exhaust and took out my dowpipe. Wouldn't you know it sounded like a rattle. So I cupped my hand over the o2 sensor bung and rolled it around and out came pieces of ceramic honeycomb and what speared to be k wool. Nit sure if that's the technical term but its basically high temp resistant fiberglass packing they use in mufflers and resonatores as well as hot kilns they use for heating things for insulation. I replaced the downpipe and it ran like new. minus the electrical issue.

 

Sounds like it got too hot.

 

Any MAP sensor codes? I have read when the MAP fails or shorts out, it can take out the ECM.

 

There were. But since I fixed this problem with the cats in the downpipe it has not thrown a single code.knock on wood. Still having the issue with the gauges. Going out and warning lights but no cel

 

Go and run the car through 3-5 on/off key cycles. Drive it for at least 10 minutes each cycle. See what happens.

 

What is that supposed to do? I will say that even after I replaced the downpipe it didn't want to run toll I cleared the codes.

 

You are basically letting the ECM know that the faults its reading are not "intermittent flukes" since it will see the fault consistently throughout each key cycle. The ECM will see that the fault is actually a problem that needs attention. Then it will throw a code if there is a problem. Don't quote me on the # of key cycles or the amount of time running in each cycle. It is not exact.

 

Btw, just to be clear, when I say "run" the car, I mean drive it how you normally would.