Bad mileage, smoke, blah blah, suggestions?

[MardyDelica]

Hi, gary, anytime no problem, well try to help you o.k.
to take it ou its easy but a ltttle bit work, easy to take out the panel then unscrew the 3 nots & the whole module will came out. but be very careful to take it out as you might broke the sucket which is plastic, very fragile.
Cheers;
Mardy

[JMK]

Hi Gary,

With regards to the removal, see the diagram above. The ECM is in the Pillar behind the driver's seat. It is a bit easier to access if you remove the seat but it is still do-able with the seat attached. Take the plastic cover off, then remove the black plastic insert, then unscrew the seat belt anchor. There are three bolts to remove, you have to get at the bottom one and then you're ready to jiggle it out of the pillar and disconnect the harness.

I talked to an electronics tech in Calgary yesterday who is going to rebuild mine. He said that it is very common for 15 year old boards to suffer blown capacitors because capacitors have a finite lifespan. He also said it is very uncommon for things like the EPROMs to be blown. Given the fact that those specific components on the EMC definetly blow in time there is no question that they should be serviced after 15 years in spite of the fact there may also be other issues affecting the system. I know that there have been differing opinions on this issue and I also respect everyone's right to express theirs, but in the end you have to act to get your ride functioning properly, and it is your responsibility to cut the wheat from the chaff. For now I think I'll tend to side with any opinion that is backed up with those little framed pieces of paper that are probably hanging on a wall called mechanic's license, business license, MV Authority, and proficiency certificates, just to err on the side of probabilities and caution.

[g_man1972]

Would I be able to tell if something was blown by a visual inspection or would I have to take it somewhere to get tested?

Awesome help guys, thanks a lot

[jessef]

Erm Mardy . please disconnect the two ECM connectors next time you are in a van . Does it still run ??? Maybe I`m missing something but isn`t the fuel shut off controlled by the ECM ??? If the computers not there how does it turn the fuel on ?? Or maybe you can mount several switches on your dash board . It would be like getting in a plane and turning on switch one for the fuel switch two for the glow plugs and then don`t forget switch three for the EGR that must only be operated at highway speeds when up to temp . Why not mount a forth switch for the starter but make it a push button and then you too can feel like a racing driver !!!!

My ECM fried.

Unplugged both connectors (bypassing the ECM glow plug control unit) completely from the system.

Put in a temp manual glow plug manual glow system with a two-way switch.

Drove like that for a few weeks.

Zero issues. No smoke. No fuel/AC problems. Nothing.

Once it was repaired, I put it back in.

As simple as it can get.

As for the ECM controlling the EGR. It does. By I blanked out my EGR long ago so it is not affected.

Jesse

[Green1]

Would I be able to tell if something was blown by a visual inspection or would I have to take it somewhere to get tested?

"testing" would be almost impossible without some help from Mitsubishi... (you can't test individual components while they are attached to a circuit board, you have to test the function of the entire board, or do a full dis-assembly, and I don't think anyone here has specs on exactly what readings one should get on every wire in and out of that thing)

Best bet is a visual inspection, the things to look for are scorch marks on or around components, blown capacitors (usually pretty obvious, the top breaks open) or cold solder joints (these can be harder to see, and are best looked for by someone with some form of electronics experience)

[JMK]

What can be tested:
The electronic components which fail most frequently are the diodes and capacitors. Diodes are best tested with a multimeter in ohmeter or diode testing mode.

Capacitors cannot be fully tested without proper test equipment. The non-technical approach would be to replace all electrolytic capacitors on the board, test the board for proper operation, then replace the remaining capacitors if it still doesn't work. You could use a Sencore LC102 Capacitor Analyzer if you had one, which tests capacitors in-circuit or out of circuit, and only replace those capacitors which test defective. That's probably what our tech is going to do.

What can't:
Integrated Circuits (ICs) are difficult to test in-circuit. You could use logic analyzers (those clip-on LED arrays that indicate the logic state of each pin on the IC), a logic probe, a digital pulser, and an oscilloscope to test ICs in-circuit (this is where you'd need that Mitsu data referred to above), but they probably aren't the cause of the problem on the ECM anyway.

Failed transistors are also difficult to test in-circuit. Again, unlikely you would find any bad ones on your ECM anyway.

Our tech tells me that testing the passive components is easy enough although sometimes they have to be removed from the board if other circuitry is masking ther values while in the board. As for resistors, they rarely fail spontaneously and if they do fail, it is usually because they over-heated. In such a case it is usually obvious that they are damaged. They turn black or brown!

PS: There are more details for Basic Capacitor testing at this site, for example, how to test capacitors with a multimeter, etc.:

For the record, my vehicle does start without the ECM as well. I haven't driven it without it but I suspect it will be pretty much the same. What I'm hopeful of is that once it is rebuilt, I will see an improvement on the specific problems we have been discussing.

[g_man1972]

Okay, i'll pull it today and see what I can find. I'll post a picture or two if I find anything interesting/ don't know what I'm looking at.

Snow on Apr 19?? Wacky stuff

[quadzilla]

If the capacitors on your ECM are blown there will be four burn marks on the board (one for each glow plug). If your board is blown and your glow system does not click when turning the key you can either start it hard (no glow) or you can bypass this system. pm for details. Your ECM can be repaired.

[g_man1972]

Right, so i was about to get started getting to the ECM when I noticed that there is a small puddle under the front where there wasn't one earlier. Took a whiff and it sure smelled like gas and not oil or anything else. Crawled under and saw that there was a drip coming from the bolt closest the drivers side tire that holds on the skid plate (think thats what it is) so I decided to take the thing off and see what was under it... nothing wrong that I could find, nothing wet, no streaks or lines of fluid or anything, but the under side of the skid plate has it all along it. So I pop the "hood" to try and figure out where the gas can be coming from then I see this:

DSC_1346.JPG (89.66 KiB) Viewed 4496 times

Little bit hard to see, but obviously the injector (again if thats what that is) furthest to the back of the engine is leaking a bunch. Everything else looks dry except for that place, could I have found the solution? I even saw it bubbling a little even with the engine not turned on.

[bae146]

Yup that is your injector leaking....

[g_man1972]

Would that be the solution to the smoking problems? Because I am pretty good at always checking for little puddles under my cars and this one is very new, maybe last few days or so. It is possible that it has recently got worse and was leaking only a little bit before, not enough to create a puddle. Mardy, if your still reading, wouldn't they have caught this during my service?

[MardyDelica]

hi, O.k. yes, or no, as we dont know when this thing going,
as you can see its probably the injector washer that cause the leak. not common problem but sometime it leak need to tighten or change new seal.
as per smoking bad like i say so many thing to do, well just have to have a look & check. its hard to have a look or diagnose a car when you cannot see. but so many things this problem could accur.
i cannot say anything but i have to do my own way of fixing it. i dont want to create any issues on it. people have different ipinion on it. as im very thankful of all the different suggestion any experience mechanic would share there knowledge. the main thing is we can fix it & are capable of fixing this type of problem. as we have equipment mechanic , tools & extensive knowledge to fix this delica & pajero. its a used car we just have to fix it.
just bring it in or call me anytime, i am glad to help you as much as i can. no problem. anytime
cheers;

[marsgal42]

When Gumdrop blew her glow plug controller last fall it was pretty obvious what the problem was just by looking at the board - two dead capacitors, plus damage to the traces by the glop that leaked out of them. It cost about $2 in parts to fix. Standing on my head behind the driver's seat to remove the controller from its hiding place in the B pillar was another matter...

...laura

[g_man1972]

Hi all,

For those that are following this tread because you are having similar problems, I took it back to CVI yesterday and they were very good at fixing the leaking injector for me. The smoke is less, but not totally gone. They are very confident that what is causing the excess smoking is the govenor sleeve, a easy way to check is that if you are in neutral and hit the gas if it takes a while for your revs to go back down to idle than this is the problem. Like if I put it up to 2500rpm and let off the gas right away it takes a good 3-4 seconds for the RPM to drop back to idle, it shouldn't do this and should drop much quicker. The reason for the smoke is that the govenor sleeve is sticking and therefor supplying to much diesel when the engine is under load. My explaination may be a little off, but thats the jyst of it. Does that make sense? Hopefully that helps some of you out, not a cheap fix unfortunatly but good info none the less.

Cheers
Gary

[JMK]

Gary,

helps out a lot for sure. I know a number of us with similar symptoms have been following the thread very closely. Thank's very much for taking the time to keep us up to speed on this.