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Salvage yard ECU refurbish

T

thismachine13

New member
Joined
Sep 22, 2015
Location
Kansas City
Many of the savage yards in my hometown are near the Arkansas River which can get out of its banks, it seems, at least once a year. So traipsing through one of these yards yesterday I came across a '93 940T. It had been relieved of all the turbo bits save for the exhaust manifold and ECU. The turbo has the usual crack and can be sorted easily at most any welding shop worth its salt.

The ECU OTOH will probably require some tender loving care. Is it possible to rejuvenate the old board even though it may have been under murky muddy AR water a time or two? Deoxit and a gentle toothbrush? What can I use for the best chance at a working Turbo ECU?
 
thismachine13 said:
Many of the savage yards in my hometown are near the Arkansas River which can get out of its banks, it seems, at least once a year. So traipsing through one of these yards yesterday I came across a '93 940T. It had been relieved of all the turbo bits save for the exhaust manifold and ECU. The turbo has the usual crack and can be sorted easily at most any welding shop worth its salt.

The ECU OTOH will probably require some tender loving care. Is it possible to rejuvenate the old board even though it may have been under murky muddy AR water a time or two? Deoxit and a gentle toothbrush? What can I use for the best chance at a working Turbo ECU?
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You can wash the boards in the dish washer if you want (I'm serious)
Just make sure they're dry - bake them for a few hours at 125-150 degrees
That, or in the nice hot Sun for a day
Get out every bit of moisture
Deoxit wouldn't hurt on the connections when you put it back together
If it worked before the flood it'll work now
Big builders/rebuilders wash populated PC boards all the time
If you don't want to do that you can scrub flood victim boards good with just isopropyl or distilled water with a little Dawn and a good rinse and the same still applies as for drying
Drying is the key to the whole thing
 
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Is there any known source to rebuild / repair Volvo ECU's?

These things are critical to performance and good used ones are becoming tough to find.
 
Mr. V said:
Is there any known source to rebuild / repair Volvo ECU's?

These things are critical to performance and good used ones are becoming tough to find.
Click to expand...

I went through a search for a reputable rebuilder a long time ago - none of them inspired a whole lot of confidence after talking with them

There's plenty of them out there though - claiming to be anyway

http://www.ecudoctors.com/ (NO AFFILIATION OR ENDORSEMENT)

https://www.google.com/search?site=...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.14.970...0i131k1.bPcYm0h5POY

I did have to break down once and buy an EXPENSIVE reman ECU for a really oddball app (unobtainable anywhere else in a practical way, and no junk yard had one) and I've installed many in General Motors vehicles from the 1980s early '90s - all of the above were Standard Motor Products remans and I never had a dud for what that's worth - they have (or had) a deal where if they don't have one on their shelf you can send yours in to them (at any Standard dealer parts house) - what happens after that I don't know (as in who does the actual repairs)

I've only used them when I had no other choice or couldn't repair it myself and never had a dud - expensive though - wouldn't be too uptight about using their service again, IF I HAD NO OTHER CHOICE
 
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Years ago I needed a BCM for an older Chrysler I had. The only one I could find had been sitting in a car out in the junkyard exposed to the elements for a few years. I opened up the unit, brushed off the crud and corrosion that had accumulated on it with a paint brush, used a sponge and water to clean it, dried it off and plugged it in and amazingly it worked. Make sure it's dry before you plug anything in.
 
ditto on the washing machine, never done it at home however at work I've had to repair our board washing machine.Besides the different programming and waste water treatment we do it is just a nice overpriced stainless steel dishwasher.
 
I would hand wash rather than going into the washer - machine jets can be quite powerful and although 80s boards are a bit tougher than the SMT stuff I normally deal with, I still wouldn't want to knock any components off.
 
You can use warm tap water, soft brush and dish soap. Make sure you wash it all off and rinse in tub filled with distilled water. If you have compressed air- use that to blow off water and may be hair dryer afterwards. We assemble PCB's at my work and this method is OK for a quick alternative to using a multiboard washer.
 
Khrrck said:
I would hand wash rather than going into the washer - machine jets can be quite powerful and although 80s boards are a bit tougher than the SMT stuff I normally deal with, I still wouldn't want to knock any components off.
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If you're knocking parts off an SMD board in one of today's "energy star" rated POS domestic piss dribble dish washers then you probably don't want to use that board anyway

They'll barely clean the dirty dishes - at least my Samsung model doesn't

Aside from the fact that the Bosch and Jap boards are well coated with epoxy resins
 
Jimmy E. James said:
If you're knocking parts off an SMD board in one of today's "energy star" rated POS domestic piss dribble dish washers then you probably don't want to use that board anyway

They'll barely clean the dirty dishes - at least my Samsung model doesn't

Aside from the fact that the Bosch and Jap boards are well coated with epoxy resins
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Hey. Thanks for the tip. Didn't realize there were other people here in the tech sector. Which company do you work for?
 
CSB

Matt86 said:
Years ago I needed a BCM for an older Chrysler I had. The only one I could find had been sitting in a car out in the junkyard exposed to the elements for a few years. I opened up the unit, brushed off the crud and corrosion that had accumulated on it with a paint brush, used a sponge and water to clean it, dried it off and plugged it in and amazingly it worked. Make sure it's dry before you plug anything in.
Click to expand...

I had a BCM that was soaked in coolant from a heater core leak earlier this year. Lights were staying on, no crank, etc. Sprayed it down with electronics cleaner and set it in the sun and I was able to get it to come back to life for the most part. This was bossman's idea to save money vs a replacement. Car got shipped and came back an he ended up having to buy them a new one on his dime when they threatened legal action blaming my work and not the coolant bath.
 
ZVOLV said:
I had a BCM that was soaked in coolant from a heater core leak earlier this year. Lights were staying on, no crank, etc. Sprayed it down with electronics cleaner and set it in the sun and I was able to get it to come back to life for the most part. This was bossman's idea to save money vs a replacement. Car got shipped and came back an he ended up having to buy them a new one on his dime when they threatened legal action blaming my work and not the coolant bath.
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How could anyone blame your work?
 
PCH said:
You can use warm tap water, soft brush and dish soap. Make sure you wash it all off and rinse in tub filled with distilled water. If you have compressed air- use that to blow off water and may be hair dryer afterwards. We assemble PCB's at my work and this method is OK for a quick alternative to using a multiboard washer.
Click to expand...

This.

For stubbornness, use 90% isopropyl, scrub, wash, rinse, dry (repeat if necessary).
 
Jimmy E. James said:
How could anyone blame your work?
Click to expand...

You know how it can be... I touched it so it's my fault.

It was full of coolant and I when removed it and laid it on its side it shorted out. I didn't even notice it had coolant in it until later. Customers threw a **** fit and bossman, whom instructed me to try to bandaid it, eventually started blaming me too. I had told him we needed a new one and he had refused.

Anyways, on topic, on a personal car a band aid repair is ok, but on a customer car, I'm gonna strongly object to ever try to fix electronics again.

It's kinda like how some places won't do a MAF cleaning, but instead to cover their butt, and to make profit, only sell a replacement.

Good tips on reviving electronics in this thread!
 
I assume that the cover over the board needs to come off before the board can be cleaned.

The CIS module for my K-Jet is one piece molded plastic, so I'm guessing the easiest thing to do would be to cut it off with a Dremel, correct?

Then use Gorilla tape to reattach it?
 
Mr. V said:
I assume that the cover over the board needs to come off before the board can be cleaned.

The CIS module for my K-Jet is one piece molded plastic, so I'm guessing the easiest thing to do would be to cut it off with a Dremel, correct?

Then use Gorilla tape to reattach it?
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It's possible it's potted full of epoxy, which would make it quite difficult to disassemble.

Assuming it's hollow, I would at least start cutting with hand tools - less chance of slipping and slicing open a capacitor.
 
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