ECU Grounding Problems?

Nissan 300ZX technical discussion forum: Maintenance, performance, installations, modifications, how-to's and troubleshooting.
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Retro-Cow
Posts: 76
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2012 10:48 am
Car: 1993 300zx TT
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

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Hey all,
Finally got around to working on the Z and here is what I've discovered.
The ECU (AshSpec ECU chipped with the built in boost controller) is having problems with grounding.
The first issue was that no power was reaching the Ignition Coil Relay and a new relay didn't help.
I ended up just shoving wires into were the relay would go to bypass it to get the car to start.

Next problem was with safety boost.
Had code 34, relocated det sensor, reset ECU, code 55.
Still safety boost.
So I went and wired up a safety boost indicator light and sure enough it was staying red the whole time.
Coolant temp sensor and connector is brand new.
This morning I took the sky blue wire coming out of Pin 25 of the ECU and manually grounded it to the chassis.
Sure enough getting about 13 psi now. I am unsure of the status of the timing or fuel maps.

I am stumped from here. Is there a missing ground somewhere?
It's worth noting that my car was an automatic with a stock ECU that I did a 5 speed swap on.
When I got the tuned ECU from Ash I ordered a manual ECU.
Also it is worth noting that the car would start fine with the Ignition Coil Relay on the stock ECU.

In both cases it doesn't look like the ECU is sending a ground signal through those wires...

I don't know if I'm headed in the right direction but I decided to check some ground on the harnesses.
The ground points on the harness that I have checked as per the FSM:
-Engine ground F11, F39 and body ground F28 on the EFI harness.
-Body ground E13 from the engine room harness (Couldn't locate where Body Ground E22 was supposed to be)


kloverin
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 12:36 am
Car: 300zx 2+2 na a/t

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Did you ever fix this problem? im having a similar issue, my 300zx will start when jumping the ignition coil relay but the relay wont close, it appears the only voltage i dont get when testing with my multimeter is from the black wire (i believe going to the coils) and i get about 11-12v+ coming from the orange wire which i thought was supposed to only be 0.8-1v+ and grounds the ecu or something and i get about 12v+ coming from the other two. Ive tried a working relay and still nothing

kloverin
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 12:36 am
Car: 300zx 2+2 na a/t

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Also I'd like to check my grounds but i cant seem to find any besides the 3 in the back of the bay right behind the plenum

User avatar
Retro-Cow
Posts: 76
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2012 10:48 am
Car: 1993 300zx TT
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

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I still haven't figured it out unfortunately.
The car seems okay so far except for running lean at idle, running rich at throttle and stumbling at 3-4k but I'm chalking that up to a boost leak for now.
I thought about contacting Ash about it but it's been so long and he's such a pain to get a hold of.

Once school gets out and I have some free time I plan to socket my stock ECU and throw the chip in there to see what happens.
As for the grounds the FSM located here has diagrams of engine and chassis grounds for each harness.

kloverin
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2014 12:36 am
Car: 300zx 2+2 na a/t

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i messed around with it today and if i ground pin 16 manually (with ecu disconnected) the relay closes, at this point im assuming my issues the ecu not grounding it, as i checked all the ground wires coming from the ecu for continuity and they all appear to be fine


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