AIRBAG ECUs DEFECTIVE!

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=270207&highlight=airbag+ecu+battery

 

This is not news. That airbag system is shared by many cars by the way and is made by TRW, possibly the biggest automotive supplier in the world.

Shopping for a class action suit possibly?

 

If it wasn't for low quality, there'd be none.

 

A. Quite a few times I suspect.

B. Meaning what? They also superceded the original air filter number.

C. They do. The car came with a warranty.

 

They do, but you would need the Hubble telescope to see them.

 

My airbag ECU failed at 40K miles, and my battery wasn't even low. The light just came on after a normal start. Replacing the ECU seemed to fix it. The car is still at the shop on other work, and I plan to get the ECU back and do my own failure analysis, if possible. I've heard of several others with the same problem.

'95 F355GTS

 

just replaced one last week for the same reason, car came in dead and there was a set of his jumper cables in the front seat, replaced battery, started car and bam...air bag light that would not clear...customer was pissed!!! tried to blame it on me :-( oh well, what can you do!?!?

 

Well since you know a ferrari can't be fixed to solve this problem the next logical question is what is the TRW part# of the ECU that works in some other car so we don't have to pay the ferrari tax?

 

Mine went dead at about 12k on my 1995 355 Spider. Cause-low battery as well.

 

348's don't have this problem.

 

I have a failed ECU from my 97 F355 Spider on my desk. I'll try to get to the hardware store this Saturday to buy the special bit so that I can open it and see what I can find inside.

 

Please, can you post some pictures Tom? I'll be glad to see them.
Probably the high voltage DC/DC converter is faulty and I am curious to see how it is designed and built.

 

I will try to get to it this weekend and post some pictures. Around watching the Colts win the Superbowl that is...

 

Well, I was in the area of the hardware store today, so I went ahead and bought the Torx T20 Security bit to open the ECU. There appears to be a custom Motorola microcontroller (It has both Motorola and TRW stamped on it). Also there is a large white component that appears to be a solenoid. Here are the pictures.
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Three caps to hold a charge to blow the bag, and a voltage regulator in the heatsink.

According to Rifledriver, its the caps or the charge controller that frys.

Pry off the heatsink on the regulator and lets see the part # on that.

Do you notice any burn marks near the caps or brownish goo on them anywhere?

 

After further examination, it seems that the white component is actually an impact sensor. The metal case that the circuit board was installed in has an arrow on it saying "Forward" indicating that it must be installed in a certain direction. If you hit the box on the forward side, the slider inside of the white component moves. It seems to be on a spring. It is normally contacting two double terminals towards the center of the circuit board creating 1K ohm between the terminals. The resistance to the terminal at the other end is >20MOhms. I'm not sure if the resistance at the other end changes as the slider slides, or maybe it should be something less than 20MOhms normally. I usually suspect mechanical components first when this type of circuit fails. Especially since it is subjected to the vibrations of driving. I might try to cut the top off of the box to see inside it at some point over the weekend.

 

There appear to be several voltage regulators on the board. I am assuming you mean the brown device that is mounted vertically and encased in a stainless steel heat sink/mounting bracket.

 

I will have to unsolder the heatsink first which is more than I have time for right now.

 

Yes, that is the primary power regulator since it dissipates the most heat. I don't have any experience with Airbag ECU's, but I would say that is the most suspicious part if the Caps don't look burned.

We might be able to find a simple fix for all these fried ECU's...

Of course, if it is one of the microcontrollers, that's probably the end of the line because of difficult parts availability.

 

The capacitors all seem to be fine as far as physical appearance.

 

We should all stand together against Ferrari about this problem.

The dealers say, it is not a problem, they get big dollars every time the ECU fails.

The independent service providers say they see it all the time.

If we get together we can get this problem resolved. We can also go to the BBB in New York and fill complaints against FNA.