2002 323 engine control unit.

[Hoodswain]

I have been having trouble with my 323 1.6L. I started out thinking it was an ignition coil problem and it still may be, but how often does a fault in the engine control unit that drives the coil occur, and where is this ECU located in the car?

 

[hornsfan10609]

ECU failure is not common but it is a possibility. The ECU on US cars is on the right side front footwell, pull back the carpet and there is a large metal plate the ECU bolts to.

 

[Hoodswain]

ECU failure is not common but it is a possibility. The ECU on US cars is on the right side front footwell, pull back the carpet and there is a large metal plate the ECU bolts to.

Thanks for the info. I am in Europe with right hand drive car, so I imagine the ECU will be on the left side here.

My car was running fine and then all of a sudden while slowly pulling out of my drive it started running very roughly and had no power.

I thought I isolated the problem to one of the coil packs(1-4) and replaced just that one coil pack. The car still runs rough and seems to be only running on 3 cylinders. I replaced the existing old coil (in 2-3 location) with the other one I removed with the same result. I moved the new coil to the 2-3 location and with both old coils(one at a time) in the 1-4 location the engine would not run at all. This is sorta suggesting to me that the ECU may not be sending the ignition control signal to the 2-3 coil. I would think if the other coil was also bad that the engine would still run the same with it in the other location, just that the misfiring cylinder would move with the bad coil. Perhaps I am missing something. Coils are difficult to come by over here and very expensive at over 100 euros each.

 

[tweety2300]

Or could just be a plug or wire ...

 

[Hoodswain]

Should have stated above, replaced all plugs and plug wires.

 

[Hoodswain]

Can you tell me if an ECU purchased from a salvage yard can be put into my car as is. I have a salvage yard that has an ecu with matching Part numbers, but he mentioned that I may need to have it reprogrammed. Just wondering? Same car, same PN ECU, why would the program be different?