LScowboyLS

this is almost like me! - I am a very good and meticulous mechanic, but probably the world's slowest!!

LScowboyLS

the board is inside of your ECU box, a metallic aluminum box with four connectors containing a total of 100 wires between the four in total. only one box in this area has this many wires leading to it.

the ECU box is located behind the lower glove compartment, you have to remove the pretty bottom cover below the lower glove compartment, where the courtesy lighting is, and then the lower glove compartment, which can be tricky due to a bolt or two being in hidden locations that can be a bit frustrating to find the first time.

after opening the ECU box, be gentle with the four gray ribbon cables, they will not take rough handling, and be sure to wear all cotton clothing and bare feet when working or even poking around in the ECU box due to static electricy which can ruin an ECU

you all can private message me for my phone number if you need additional info about actually doing the repair yourself - I am awake from 11AM until 2AM Central time

freegard

That is one hell of a good thread

cobalt91

^^ what he said.

nthach

This looks interesting but I don't have the dexterity to solder on a PCB. I do live near Berkeley and there's a really good electronics shop that should carry the caps - I also know badcaps also sells capacitors too.

Yamae

Is there anyone who has experienced to fix PC motherboard replacing caps? He or she can do the job easily. I also think some PC repair shop can do that too.

freegard

ModuleMaster
2006 South Main
Moscow, ID 83843-8913

Local: 208-892-0764
Toll free: 888-892-0764

Hours: 8am-5pm M-F (PST)

I do not have anything to do with this company, other than I did research them thoroughly before
sending them an Audi instrument cluster. It was a very technical job way beyond my ability. Yeah, I did my lexus instrument cluster caps two years ago and my ECU caps a few days ago but this LCD involves soldering an entire wiring harness with less than 1 mm separating the contacts. NO WAY
was I gonna attempt that on a customer's car. So I sent it to them and they did a great job and it only
cost 150.00 plus 30.00 shipping.
And by the way, they are the least expensive of any company I have seen; and they are a full blown company, not some guy and his wife--not to put that down, but it indicates a tremendous amount of experience, and that inspires confidence to give them a shot in my book.

LScowboyLS

it has come to my attention that no authorized distributor stocks the 10uF Rubycon ZLH or Chemicon's type KZH in that size in USA, so yamae and I are going to research the other acceptable low ESR models and post up which ones are available in USA from authorized sources

authorized sources are important as there are a lot of counterfeit capacitors out there!

LScowboyLS

@freegard - what were the brand and model of the caps you used?

are you SURE they were low ESR type?

Dranom

iTrader: (7)

Interesting!

cobalt91

Is there a mark on the caps that tell if it's low esr?

cobalt91

How is esr measured?

LScowboyLS

the caps are marked with what series they are - some series are low ESR, most are not

Yamae

You need to use an impedance analyzer / meter to measure the ESR. The bottom point of the impedance curve is the ESR value. The URL below will help you to understand more.
http://my.execpc.com/~endlr/esr.html

LScowboyLS

You can post up which caps you are thinking of using (brand and series) and yamae or I will verify that they are low ESR type!

don't feel bad if you did the job once already with the wrong type of capacitor, I am guilty of that myself! - I consider the first time was practice - lol