ECUs, all the same?

Posted By: jeff968

ECUs, all the same? - 08/10/14 03:23 PM

The Challenger had a few issues starting over the past couple of months. Turns out the problem was the ECU. I had the Orange one from the Mopar performance electronic ignition kit. Although the kit was 5 years old it only had about 2,500 miles on it. The ECU looked new. Any recommendations on a replacement model (I have a used ECU in the car now)? Are the orange ones garbage or is that about the life to be expected? Thanks

Posted By: stumpy

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/10/14 06:05 PM

Seems there is a lot of talk about the orange ones going out long before they should.

Posted By: NachoRT74

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/10/14 08:11 PM

Quote:

Seems there is a lot of talk about the orange ones going out long before they should.

MP units in general... this includes chromed

go aftermarket. Rev-N-Nator is a GREAT piece of art but not cheap( althought they are out of stock at this moment! ), Standard LX100 and 101 are stock replacement, but I have known LX101 shows better performance. Another GREAT and really affordable option is the one Rick Ehrenberg offers on ebay ( labeled as Hi-Rev units ). Way cheaper than MP units and has being told similar performance.

Posted By: stumpy

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/10/14 09:00 PM

I disagree. The MP units other than the orange box are fine and do last.

Posted By: NachoRT74

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/10/14 09:50 PM

I disagree. Got two chromed broken in a row, one of them just last long 24 hours of useage... fixed both replacing the power transistor ( temporally ):

fixing Chromed boxes

This has being also threated here in Moparts, but taking my initial topic in DC.com

Posted By: NachoRT74

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/10/14 09:59 PM

It's so true that it seems MP changed the Transistor manufacturer on units which seems to be the late ones!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mopar-Ignition-C...daf&vxp=mtr

note, not anymore the "ON" ( Motorola replacement manufacturer ) MJ10012 transistor on them

Posted By: 74RALLYE

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/10/14 10:03 PM

My orange box died with less than 1000 miles on it. I picked up a few chrome boxes at the junk yard 10 years ago and haven't had to replace any of them.

Posted By: RSNOMO

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/10/14 10:05 PM

In 20+ years of driving...

And rolling-up 20,000+ miles on the odo...

I've lost one orange box...

Posted By: NachoRT74

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/10/14 10:08 PM

Quote:

My orange box died with less than 1000 miles on it. I picked up a few chrome boxes at the junk yard 10 years ago and haven't had to replace any of them.

yes, maybe thats the old boxes when good transistors came up from manufacturers, as I said, but not newers ( dunno the LATERS ), where the chinesse electronic junks are all around.

Anyway, is just a theory, but I think I have "prooved" some on my experiment

Posted By: Sinitro

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/10/14 11:11 PM

Nacho..
In looking @ changing out the power transistor I find no mention of using the insulating thermal grease...
Thermal grease is absolutely required for bonding the power transistor properly to the insulator to its heat sink mounting. Without this the power transistor can heat up, burn out and fail. As it is not using the heat sink to help cool it down..

Here is a link to a YouTube video for the proper procedure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNRacVQRgBc

Just my $0.03...

Posted By: mikemee1331

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/10/14 11:34 PM

Quote:

Nacho..
In looking @ changing out the power transistor I find no mention of using the insulating thermal grease...
Thermal grease is absolutely required for bonding the power transistor properly to the insulator to its heat sink mounting. Without this the power transistor can heat up, burn out and fail. As it is not using the heat sink to help cool it down..

Here is a link to a YouTube video for the proper procedure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNRacVQRgBc

Just my $0.03...

HaHaHa!! that was my old Xbox 360's problem!

Posted By: JohnRR

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/11/14 02:35 AM

Quote:

Are the orange ones garbage or is that about the life to be expected? Thanks

Pretty much , switch to a pertronics , they make one that works in the electronic distributor , the plus is the ugly orange piece of garbage , the ECU not your car , will never leave you stranded or wanting for more ...

... que the orange box sword swallowers in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

Posted By: RapidRobert

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/11/14 02:55 AM

Groundbreaking stuff Nacho

, If I can find a dead one (of any color) & source that transistor I'm gonna give it a shot. I've never ran orange boxes enough to have one fail but from the multitude of neg comments I definitely would not purchase a new (orange) one

Posted By: RSNOMO

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/11/14 03:04 AM

I find it amusing that in your world, 8 3/4 rear axles(which lived in millions of Mopars)...

And electronic ignitions(which powered millions of Mopars)...

Do not live up to your exacting standards...

A cheap, imported POS component does not trash an entire concept...

And do you really think pertronix is some sort of gift of divine intervention???

Posted By: SattyNoCar

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/11/14 03:23 AM

Quote:

In 20+ years of driving...

And rolling-up 20,000+ miles on the odo...

I've lost one orange box...

It's been mentioned here (by my self also) that the orange boxes built within the last 10 yrs or so are garbage. The old(er) ones actually worked pretty good and held up well.

I had an orange box I bought way back in '90, and had it on three different daily drivers putting well over 150K miles on the unit before it began to die in '02 (developed an intermittent short).

Posted By: JohnRR

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/11/14 06:00 AM

Quote:

I find it amusing that in your world, 8 3/4 rear axles(which lived in millions of Mopars)...

And electronic ignitions(which powered millions of Mopars)...

Do not live up to your exacting standards...

A cheap, imported POS component does not trash an entire concept...

And do you really think pertronix is some sort of gift of divine intervention???

Posted By: NachoRT74

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/11/14 06:21 AM

Quote:

Nacho..
In looking @ changing out the power transistor I find no mention of using the insulating thermal grease...
Thermal grease is absolutely required for bonding the power transistor properly to the insulator to its heat sink mounting. Without this the power transistor can heat up, burn out and fail. As it is not using the heat sink to help cool it down..

Here is a link to a YouTube video for the proper procedure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNRacVQRgBc

Just my $0.03...

well Actually I didn't do it because originally didn't have anykind of thermal compound on it, aaaaand it was first a test with an incorrect transistor ( just close ) and cheap... I haven't tried yet to install the 1978 original Motorola Transistor I found from germany since my car has being parked for a REALLY DEEP body job by a year and couple of months now. Will take later about that.

I have the thermal compound handy because quite often I dissasembly my PC to clean up everything and apply a new thermal compund layer over the CPU to attach the heat sink and fan assembly

Posted By: 383man

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/11/14 10:50 AM

Quote:

Quote:

In 20+ years of driving...

And rolling-up 20,000+ miles on the odo...

I've lost one orange box...

It's been mentioned here (by my self also) that the orange boxes built within the last 10 yrs or so are garbage. The old(er) ones actually worked pretty good and held up well.

I had an orange box I bought way back in '90, and had it on three different daily drivers putting well over 150K miles on the unit before it began to die in '02 (developed an intermittent short).

That seems to be as it seems most of the orange boxes that are bad seem to have been bought after 2000 as many that say they are junk bought them after 2000 and maybe Mopar changed the vender around them as who knows how many venders they have used over the years ? I do know I bought my orange box about 1999 and its still on my 63 working good pushing it into the 10's. Also many have reported the newer orange boxes that did not die are taking timing out at higher rpms. Mine seems to not be doing that as we had my orange box on my boys Dart and when we swapped it to MSD it ran the same as it was no faster and started the same. That said if you want to use the MP I would use the chrtome box as less seem to complain about them having trouble. Ron

Posted By: willard

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/13/14 12:13 PM

I had one orange made in 2009 and although it worked, the car started hardly, idled roughly and lacked power. Switched to a blue napa $9.99 unit and kaboom! nice smooth idle and sudden power at 4000+ rpms that was never there before.

Posted By: Challenger 1

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/13/14 01:10 PM

I have used orange, chrome and many different stock boxes and IMO the stock black ones run the best, even better than my MP chrome box.

Posted By: RapidRobert

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/13/14 03:09 PM

I agree with Challenger & I'm in a minority here but I consider the ECU just a (coil) primary current on/off switch & as long as it ain't pulling timing like the newer orange boxes reportedly do (I never plotted a timing curve chart) that a good made in USA one is fine & the real power is in the coil/ballast (or no ballast) combo. The standard motor products LX101 was a good standby tho I bought one the other day & it is made in china now (ran OK & turned out the prob was my black FBO coil was what had died)

Posted By: feeeighteefee

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/14/14 07:10 AM

usually heat is the culprit,take your non working one and hog out the clear insulation in the back.usually its a bad capacitor.unsolder and take to radio shack or electronic parts place and get another capacitor.usually under a few bucks.solder it back and silicone the back side and problem fixed.do it yourself and save money.bad capacitors usually bloat up or leak so its easy to tell after you remove insulation goop.always have a good ground also..

Posted By: RSNOMO

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/14/14 08:16 AM

Quote:

always have a good ground also..

Yes...

On bare steel...

Posted By: mikemee1331

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/14/14 02:45 PM

Quote:

usually heat is the culprit

and why, in most cases, is that? has nothing to do with your 'expert' buddy who told you 'ya don't need that ballast resistor. it's just holding you back'......

Posted By: NachoRT74

Re: ECUs, all the same? - 08/14/14 03:29 PM

Quote:

Quote:

usually heat is the culprit

and why, in most cases, is that? has nothing to do with your 'expert' buddy who told you 'ya don't need that ballast resistor. it's just holding you back'......

I have had a theory ( just a theory )...bad charging issues is the most culprit. Low charge at iddle makes overheat circuit when requesting for load.

Posted By: Rick_Ehrenberg

Re: ECUs, NOT all the same? - 08/23/14 04:00 PM

Orange / Chrome / Gold ECU deal....

Up until approx. 10 years ago, Chrysler made these in-house in Huntsville, Al (Think: Guided missiles...Apollo Moon missions....).

Nowadays: All vendor-supplied from who-knows-where.

Rick