@360trev - Do you think it would be possible to emulate the OEM ECU with a modern microprocessor?
It is possible but its not easy or cheap. There are several approaches which I believe will be highly beneficial to 360 owners, the first is exercising prevention of failure in the first instance. Lets stop the ecu's failing by removing the root causes of failure... ECU Relocation Kit We all need to copy what Ferrari did on the F430 and relocate the ecu's out of the environment of the hot engine bay with all its heat soak, noise, vibration and harshness, and put them into the cabin behind the seats. This will without doubt prolong the lifespan of the ecu's delicate electronics. A wiring ecu relocation harness therefore would be a good place to start... I'm looking into the feasibility of getting a wiring harness adapter produced and brackets to allow them to fit into the same space as on the F430, just behind the seats.
trev, have you been able to figure out which elements are responsible for the clicking throttle? I have one Chinese superman here that claimed he got one repaired and charged US$1000 for the labor. And he said, I quote, "there's one capacitor and one transistor need to be replaced". Whatever that "transistor" means.
Of course... The vast majority of the "ticking throttle body" failures aren't actually due to the component failing but detaching! Indeed they used a Bosch rebranded 6A H-Bridge IC (CJ220 which as far as I can deduce was actually from Motorola originally and based off a 5A rated 33886) and it more than capable of dealing with power requirements and components are rated for the amps drawn so spec wise the ECU power supply circuitry was designed correctly. ...However... The issue actually comes from ECU engine bay environment heat soak reaching a "critical mass" and with vibration (from say a factory or aftermarket sports exhaust not helping a single bit). During manufacture, the tiny SMD component are machine placed onto "micro" spot solder points before solder is melted. These points imho are the actual design flaws. The amount and size of the solder points which is designed to hold the orange capacitors in place (see pictures) isn't doing its job well enough and they end up de-attaching from the PCB when the case gets toasty. Infact it's really the only thing you can "*easily" repair on the whole board... Thus is why you get 'intermittent' working on the ecu based on temperature...Never had to replace any transistors but I did see 2 of the 3 main ceramic smd capacitors on one ecu where loose just suspended in the jelly goop! See pictures.. enjoy ! Image Unavailable, Please Login * easy is a bit of a joke.. Its actually a pita of a job with no guarantee of success. If you have experience and necessary tools to do it you have a good chance but regular DIY is pretty much out of the question...
I have a cell phone repairer nearby who uses microscopes to fix cell phone pcbs all the time, so I guess he's got a good shot. so, let me confirm, the 3 blue circled components maybe detached from the PCB, correct? And they are 2x capacitors and 1x transistor, right?
Those tantalum capacitors are known to fail on the Alfa and Fiat versions of these ECUs too. Looks like vibration + thermal cycling + time causing the issue... Solve one of those inputs and the ECU life should extend somewhat. I would suggest some rubber mounting grommets on the ECU to reduce the vibration shock load and a nice earth lead to ground the ECU alloy case to chassis would do the trick. I have my car opened up right now in the process of fitting an EAG gated kit so I may drop some rubber mounts on my ECUs when I pull them out to program them.
I wonder why they didnt opt to use glue dots behind and suprised the conformal coating didnt provide further vibration resistance
well I send them mine, which couldn't be repaired, they dowloaded all the data from mine and reprogramed a new one for me. They send me back the new one along with the original I had sent. so far no problem, works perfect. just sharing my personal experience.
bad news during the opening of the black plastic I accidentally damaged the gell, inside of which lies the tiny wires , which I damaged too
Thought this was worth sharing (zero affiliation): https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325260142735?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=TUYPsSkYSLe&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=OGPFw29xSe2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat