May have fried my ECU!! Need advice
-
electrician22
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2026 3:52 pm
May have fried my ECU!! Need advice
Ok hang with my story for a minute here because this has been quite the SAGA. I bought a 2009 1.8 with 220,000 miles about a month ago. When I test drove it the AC was cold and there were no CELs. Everything was clean and I was getting good *vibes* from the sellers. As I was literally driving it home after paying for it, the CEL came on along with the Trac control lights. The codes read by oreilly were p0354, p0420, c1201. I immediately ordered 4 denso ignition coils and also ordered an XTOOL code reader. Code reader came in first so I decided to try the new toy out and was having trouble getting it to communicate properly with the car. The next time we started the car it seemed to have a whole new slew of problems. The Power Steering wasn't working, AC wasn't working and a new set of dash lights came on...BRAKE, ABS, and POWER STEERING. Also the whole instrument cluster would not work...speedometer, tach, engine temp etc. I limped the car to oreilly to check codes and battery-alternator. They both passed oreilly's test and he COULD NOT get his code tester to communicate with the car. I checked and found no blown fuses in either fuse block....I checked a couple of grounding points and they seemed fine. I've now ordered an ECU from Flagship one for $231. I cannot imagine a reputable $300 code reader could have caused any problems??? I'm really stressed about this car and I hope there's still hope for it. Anybody have any other advice to give me? Thanks in advance.
Re: May have fried my ECU!! Need advice
been a bit, any update?
sucks to have that much trouble immediately after buying a car.
likely no way to get back to the seller for compensation
I once bought a pickup from a used car dealer, and before I did I hooked up a code reader, it said "not Ready", indicating that it hadn't been driven enough since the codes were reset, Dealer said it was because they put in a new battery, but I got it in writing that they'd cover any CELs that came up in the first 100 miles. Sure enough, up popped a P0420, and after having lots of P0420s on my 03 Vibe, I knew what it was. Took them both O2 sensors and a new cat to fix it, but they covered it. I wonder if you'd hooked up a reader before buying if it would have shown anything
But that doesn't help now.
Did you get the new ECU in, and did it help?
Other than that the only thing I can think of would be to check all the fuses with an ohmmeter. I don't have 09 wiring diagrams so I don't know if there's one fuse that affects all of those circuits.
sucks to have that much trouble immediately after buying a car.
likely no way to get back to the seller for compensation
I once bought a pickup from a used car dealer, and before I did I hooked up a code reader, it said "not Ready", indicating that it hadn't been driven enough since the codes were reset, Dealer said it was because they put in a new battery, but I got it in writing that they'd cover any CELs that came up in the first 100 miles. Sure enough, up popped a P0420, and after having lots of P0420s on my 03 Vibe, I knew what it was. Took them both O2 sensors and a new cat to fix it, but they covered it. I wonder if you'd hooked up a reader before buying if it would have shown anything
But that doesn't help now.
Did you get the new ECU in, and did it help?
Other than that the only thing I can think of would be to check all the fuses with an ohmmeter. I don't have 09 wiring diagrams so I don't know if there's one fuse that affects all of those circuits.