355 2.7 airbag ecu in a 5.2

Does a 2.7 airbag ecu part 158123 also fit a 5.2 model. I have read on a couple of parts pages they do. And the 5.2 is just an updated part. However I would like to check before I blow my airbags.

 

Not necessarily! The airbag ECU wiring harness and connectors were also changed at some point. I had to retrofit the later harness into my 2.7 to replace the airbag ECU with the later model when my ECU went AWOL.

 

So I could fit an old model ecu and change the wiring harness? Did the new ecu harness you fitted have the same plugs as the old one (apart from the ecu end)

 

Yes. No connector changes at the air bag end just different connector on the ECU. Good luck sourcing an old wiring harness - I left the old harness in situ such that I can refit the old ECU now I have had it repaired. Apparently a common failure I'm told is for the rather large capacitor (which provides the oomph to the air bags) to fail and is a simple replacement jobbie - once you have tunnelled your way into the inner reaches of the ECU that is!

 

Hello Garvin,

Could I please ask you were you had your ecu repaired? Was it in England? I bought a 97 355 in April from Joe macaris and whilst waiting for the Tubis to by built and the full service to be completed, they discovered the airbag ecu was faulty! So the car is now in storage whilst they try to locate a replacement! Would be fantastic if mine could just be repaired!

Many thanks in advanced,
Steve

 

Steve,

Fortunately for me I work for an aerospace company in the UK with a world class electronics engineering dept. They are also skilled at disassembling complex electronics as well as testing/diagnostics and repair. They did it for me as a one off favour - not something that is available to the world at large! The repaired ECU now sits with my stock of spares if I ever need to use it.

I have already been asked by my Indie if I can get them repaired as it is a constant headache for him in sourcing parts - I had to refuse his requests.

From what they told me the fault was pretty obvious and easily fixed and the unit is not the first thing in complex electronics (it appears to just detect a violent deceleration by some form of pendulum - not even a solid state accelerometer although this was the earlier 2.7 version - which then fires the airbags via the errant capacitor which deteriorates with age). I would therefore assume that if you can find an electronics workshop somewhere they may well be able to fix it for you. This is possibly cheaper than fitting alternative wiring looms etc.