NICO ECU is now dead

[mattd1979]

Well, it has been a pretty good long while since I have posted here so I just thought I'd post this. My NICO ECU died on me today after it had been in use for about 5 years now I think. It is number 28 of the batch that Robert Bowen did.....3 mode unit.
It was fine on the way home from work. When I went back out about 2 hours after I got home, I started it and it was immediately running rich and when I would give it gas to pull away it would bog unless I eased on the throttle. The check engine light was on also. I put my Consult adapter/laptop on it and it wouldn't even connect. I removed the ecu from the inner kick panel to manually try and pull codes but I got a steady red light no matter which position the screw was in. I swapped in my stock ecu and got a code 55 for all clear and the car runs fine now.

I wonder if the updated chip that is on a socket adapter is still good. I have another ECU that I am thinking of opening up and if it has a socketed board, then I wonder if I can swap this in to that one? If the chip is bad, would it damage the other ECU? I think Elwesso may know the answer as he had opted to pick up where Robert left off at one point with the NICO ECUs.

[elwesso]

Seems weird that this would happen.. Electronics don't normally "go bad" like this, and I've certainly not seen anything like this..

My first thing I would look at is open the ECU up and make sure that the circuit board is fully seated onto the socket... on the 4 way ECU I have in my car the switch actually went bad on me causing it to intermittently stall, and thats an easy fix..

If you want, you could send it to us and we'll take a look at it.. We would be able to determine if its the ECU itself thats messed up, or the upgraded chip thats the issue.. IF the ECU is bad, then you could easily install a new socket into your OEM ECU and you'd be back in business.. Shoot me an email off the board and we'll get you fixed up!

[mattd1979]

I sent you a message using your q45.org address. That's the only one I could find.
Thanks

[Q45man1]

It happened to me too on the way home stop and go traffic in LA freeway. The engine stalled but starts right back up after restart and the CEL came on. I continued driving for few more minutes and I have noticed it feels like it losing power, rpm stuck at 2000. At this time I was coasting at 30MPH and I have to pull over. I was thinking not the MAF because I had a brand new installed 3 years ago with new wires and pins. It's also idling at 1200 rpm. I shut off the engine and restart again. I rev the engine all the way up to 8000 rpm to give a little kick. I said OK let's go and moved on, this time I put it on 2nd gear and coasting at 25mph. I was able to get home and wasting no time pulled out my laptop consult but it would not even connect. I put back my stock ECU and also got 55 code. This time it's idling 650rpm (the way it should be). Made some quick runs and no problem at all. I'm taking it to my Infiniti tech this weekend to run full diagnostics.

Mine is also a 3 mode unit and have used it for over 4 years.

[mattd1979]

Yeah, it's gone. qsiguy has my original nico ECU and I had to send him a core to swap the daughter board over to it because there was nothing he could do for the other board. Basically the water created a bridge and shorted out various components. The back up one I am using now has also fried do to water damage. This time is because of the fault of a local body shop that left my car out in the rain with no windshield by mistake. It has done the same thing but this time has caused more problems because due to their ignorance, they have continually flooded my car every time that they tried to get it started and now the engine oil is like the consistency of water and they have let it run which basically has probably prematurely added on another 20,000 or more miles of wear to the engine that already has over 235k on it. This is all talked about on another post that I originally started titled "Windshield replacement on a '90 Q". It's towards the top of the list in the forums. Take a look.

Matt

[elwesso]

Q45man... If you want we can look at it and see if we can repair it. In the case of Matt's the ECU we had to transplant the daughterboard into a new ecu because it was beyond repair.

In the past I have also had issues with the switches wearing out on the 4 way ecu and that causes a lot of issues. A simple switch replacement and the ECU was back in business

[Q45man1]

Thanks Wes! Where do you want me to ship it to?