Recall faulty ECU's for years 91-95 3000GT and Stealth

[jandoaudio]

Originally Posted by ProwlerGT

Thats 1 side of the argument. The other side is "that you don't know". Plenty of people don't know what is causing their cars to do all this unnecessary bullshit because Mitsu decided to give an electronic parts contract to a cheap bidder. Nobody thinks about their toaster being bad because %99.999999% of the time it doesn't cause any trouble, nor is it thought that it would because its a simple device that just works. If the toaster didn't have exposed wires and wasn't falling apart and still caught the building on fire it isn't your fault. Plenty of 3S owners are in this situation and to tell you the truth while all the forum's are a big help to them in fixing their problems the forums are also a hurt because many people who don't know what they are doing attempt to fix the issue and thus cause themselves and their cars more damage. I don't care what I'm told or what I hear I have had many vehicles of different makes and models and this is the first time I've heard of ECU's going bad so frequently in any particular vehicle. It is flawed design combined with flawed cheap ass parts. I suppose those that I've posted in this thread with ECU's that caught on fire should be blamed for that right? LOL - Because the main part that is supposed to never fail and keep the car going all the time died..... they are supposed to know this? Give me a break. Companies do not have the customer's best interest in mind no matter how much they pump it up. They just have their stockholder's interest in mind and how green they can line their pockets.

Please ..... someone dare tell me that having to replace an ECU 3 times in a couple years is NORMAL? Its bad engineered design combined with cheap ass parts. I'd even be willing to bet someone at Mitsu R&D brought this to the mgmt's attention and nothing was done about it before the cars were produced because "at the moment" it would've meant lower profits.

You should go sit in the corner and think about what you have said No shit people buy the best VALUE, not the cheapest shittiest part, do you really think that rubicon, the company who produced all these caps thought they designed an inferior product? I doubt it, they have liability issues too.

You have no grasp of the situation at hand and are a drama queen, come back with an education and don't just blindly blame the large companies because they are large companies. No ones pockets are bottomless, everything comes at a cost, there are real people that run those companies with families and lives of their own, not some faceless emotionless asshole who only wants your money. The cars have to be produced cheap enough people will buy them (they are a mitsubishi product, not a ferrari) and this comes with certain compromises.

These cars are getting old, I imagine many of the ecu problems are not ecu related but a side effect of something else going out taking the ecu with it.

Grow up

[de_vr4]

stop kicking the guy in the jimmies; if he wants to spearhead an effort to replace one of our many shitty components with one marginally less shitty, then hats off to him and go for it. there's no need for our many e-litigators to expound on the numerous reasons why they wouldn't 'take the case' at their respective 'law firms' of solid repute; you know if it worked you'd have your asses camped out at the nearest mitsu dealership to get shitECU v2.0.

[TooFast4Radar]

Originally Posted by ProwlerGT

I find it really hard to believe that Mitsu didn't know what kind of shitty parts they bought. They are a multimillion dollar coporation with tons of R&D going on. For all we know they knew this would happen and hoped it would profit them in the long run either with people buying new cars, tvs, whatever .... and/or repairing said electronics with replacement boards from their stock which will eventually do the same thing. Sorry, I don't buy that they didn't know. Company's (especially the US government) give winning contracts to the lowest bidder all the time and yes it does mean shittier parts sometimes.

I for one am not insenuating for a moment that we all get NEW cars. Give me a break. I'd be happy if Mitsu would agree to replacing the caps with new ones, checking the resistors and replacing those, and/or running diagnostics on the board before returning it to the customer. Running an assembly line to produce all new ECU's would be a stretch I think and having them repair the mess they caused to begin with would probably save them more money in the long run depending on the number of recalls that would actually hit them back.

It's hard to tell the future. There's plenty things that look and work well, but after time show their age. Manufacturers have a set of tollerances that they list as acceptable for use in their products. If the part is acceptable then it can be used. We're talking about an item that doesn't just go out in our ECUs. A capacitor can go out in ANY electronic device, in any ECU, in ANY car. And guess what? THEY DO! It's the nature of the technology. But on the flip side there's people who have had ZERO troubles with their ECU.

I myself have NEVER had a problem with a bad ECU and I've owned a few 3/Ss including 1Gs. Perhaps I've just been very lucky. I have a spare hybrid ECU for my car just in case and I take responsibility for my car's condition after the warranty. Sure I would love to get a free/rebuilt ECU from Mitusibishi, but I would NEVER expect Mitsubishi to replace an item that is prone to failure in any electronic device.

And the physics of electricity and computers isn't as cut and dry as the mechanics of a transfer case and where it fails. Things like spikes in amperage (both high or low) can weaken or damange electronics. These aren't visible so it's very simple to place the blame. Could it be the caps and the caps alone? Sure it could. Could it be something external to the ECU causing reoccuring problems in some cars by weakening the components of the ECU to the point of eventual failure? Sure it could. What's to say that people with ECU problems don't have an alternator that is hitting the ECU with an extra amp or two of current even for a split second? Or it's hitting a couple amps less? Brownouts in your home are just as dangerous to electronics as a spike with too much current.

I could come up with a list of logical possibilities for what could cause the ECU to fail and I'm not an automotive engineer. Just think of the things Mitsubishi could come up with. And to boot it's NOT under warranty of ANY sort from the factory.

And the comment about the manual not telling you to check the ECU for capacitors: Of course not. If they put a list of things to check for possible failures a decade after the warranty expired your glovebox wouldn't be able to close with the manual in it. I don't check my main and rod bearings every few months, yet see people with bearing issues all the time. Is this also Mitsubishi's fault? Should they give everyone with a 2-bolt that had a non-forged crank and looser tollerances a new motor after 100k miles because it's a possible cause of 2-bolts spinning bearings? Would you expect that? I don't see how this is ANY different as power loss from a rod and piston blowing out of the side of the block. You would have a sudden loss of power just like a dead ECU. How are the results of this failure any different from that of the ECU?

As much as it sucks and my car is a possible candidate for an ECU failing based off your information, I do not and would not expect handouts if it did fail. Those of us with 3000GTs and Stealths aren't driving new cars with warranties where things will be fixed all the time, free of charge, on a whim. Please, give ME a break, if this is what you really expect then you need to consider a new car with a full warranty.

[ProwlerGT]

Originally Posted by jandoaudio

You should go sit in the corner and think about what you have said No shit people buy the best VALUE, not the cheapest shittiest part, do you really think that rubicon, the company who produced all these caps thought they designed an inferior product? I doubt it, they have liability issues too.

You have no grasp of the situation at hand and are a drama queen, come back with an education and don't just blindly blame the large companies because they are large companies. No ones pockets are bottomless, everything comes at a cost, there are real people that run those companies with families and lives of their own, not some faceless emotionless asshole who only wants your money. The cars have to be produced cheap enough people will buy them (they are a mitsubishi product, not a ferrari) and this comes with certain compromises.

These cars are getting old, I imagine many of the ecu problems are not ecu related but a side effect of something else going out taking the ecu with it.

Grow up

Yes, I'll go sit in a corner just for you. OMG ROFL and then ...

So what if these cars are getting old. I have owned 3 other 10 year or more older vehicles all of which had an array of problems and not 1 of them had ECU's burning out all the time. You've made your point so feel free to just ignore this thread. Notice I won't bow to your level and tell you that you need an education. No matter who worked for Mitsu or Rubicon I have no doubt there were good people there below the line of mgmt and senior mgmt. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend the world exists as you've said because I've worked for money grubbing corporations and I know what they are. This isn't about getting back at them. This is about a faulty part that shouldn't be faulty. A fucking TV is one thing, but the motherboard - brain of a car that is supposed to get a human life from A to B without consequence ON MOST DAYS is another thing. Too often people sit and do nothing and take it in the ass because they don't have the power to fight these GREEN POCKET EMOTIONLESS assholes and I do not blame those working at the bottom of the org charts. Its Mgmt and those watching the corporate bottom line while pretending to try and uplift spirits by having Hawaiian t-shirt Fridays. If you have nothing productive to contribute to this thread that will help facilitate a recall then just stop posting.

When does BEST VALUE and CHEAPIST SHITTIEST part differ? Where's the line? Sure I always try to go 1 notch up from the cheapest for this reason, but how do you know what they had to chose from? I don't and I admit that, but maybe in the pursuit of this we'll find that sort of thing out. If NOTHING comes of this at all SO WHAT. At least I will have tried along with whoever gets behind me and for the betterment of the platform. What if this results in a stronger ECU, one which will not buckle to other parts going bad? STILL you cannot prove to me that it isn't the ECU making the other parts go bad to begin with - which is likely the case since we know for a FACT that substandard parts were used to make these ECUs.

[AudibleSilence]

Originally Posted by DBLerman

ECU doesn't pose a direct safety concern, that is why there was no recall on them and will never be a recall on them.

Basically yes. The company weighs in the number of possible lawsuits and the amount it would cost to settle those lawsuits vs. the cost of the recall. They frankly won't spend a dime if it's not an issue that can lead to accidents or accidental death.

[ProwlerGT]

Originally Posted by Mumbo_Jumbo

You are neglecting the fact that there could be something else electrically overloading the ECU and damaging it. In fact, if I had to replace the ECU 2 or 3 times in 2 years, I would instantly rule it out as the problem. I would start looking for other gremlins.

I don't neglect this at all. A part in the vehicle should not be designed to allow to break the ECU. IAC's go bad in many other vehicles of different makes and models all the time and you don't see people replacing ECU's every damn time. You have a good point though and I acknowledge it is possible, but more likely so for the ECU's made without substandard electronics.

[TooFast4Radar]

Originally Posted by de_vr4

stop kicking the guy in the jimmies; if he wants to spearhead an effort to replace one of our many shitty components with one marginally less shitty, then hats off to him and go for it. there's no need for our many e-litigators to expound on the numerous reasons why they wouldn't 'take the case' at their respective 'law firms' of solid repute; you know if it worked you'd have your asses camped out at the nearest mitsu dealership to get shitECU v2.0.

I would say of all things in our cars that the ECU is far from a shitty component considering many more people have problems with their transmissions, ECS, and lash adjusters. But if you would like something NEW, with a warranty, perhaps you should talk to AEM, Haltech, Auctronic, MoTec, or your friendly neighborhood Trek or Schwin dealer to avoid further problems with the ECU failing out of warranty.

Yes, even those $2000+ ECU setups once out of warranty will not be fixed for free.

Oh, believe me this is far from a beating and the responses are intended as anything but. However, if you consider this friendly, logical debate a kick in the jimmies perhaps you should consider waiting with a camera to capture the timeless image when he finds out it won't be legally pursued in any way. I'm sure the resultant look of pure shock in his face (not to mention punishment to his checkbook from the accrued legal fees now due) will be a testiment to "OWNED" pictures for years to come!

[ProwlerGT]

Originally Posted by TooFast4Radar

But on the flip side there's people who have had ZERO troubles with their ECU.

..... Sure I would love to get a free/rebuilt ECU from Mitusibishi, but I would NEVER expect Mitsubishi to replace an item that is prone to failure in any electronic device.......

Very good post. Very good information.

So if there were handouts you wouldn't take them?

All of your speculation is very reasonable, but I cannot and will not standdown for speculation when there is a very obvious pattern going on. I'm going to make the web page that collects the necessary data and show the pattern even further. The pattern is the title of this thread. Soon enough there won't be enough 1st gen or 2nd gen hybrid ECU's to go around from all the ones that are lost to this bs. If someone wants to spearhead the WHY the ECU's eventually fail by doing all kinds of testing..... GREAT ! DO IT ! Is it really going to help us though when there are countless threads with people showing their knowledge that the capacitors are bad? ..that there are resistors that are bad? How many more cars need to have failing ECU's amongst the known years before we call it a manufacturers error?

How is it different from failing rods and bearings? For 1 the ECU is electronic and IMHO should be the most reliable piece of electronics in the car. It should be just as reliable as the RIMS or the subframe and shouldn't need to be looked at just like in all the other cars I've ever driven that were 10+ years old. Another reason: Because the ECU's fail more often. Prove me wrong. I welcome it. Plus, rods and bearings are easier to diagnose whereas a faulty ECU yields unpredictable unstable results during troubleshooting costing people mucho $$$$ and time.

I certainly didn't start this thread to cause a fight or to be attacked. I started this thread because the occurrence of people getting ECU's repaired and replaced is very high. Furthermore it represents an interior fire hazard. I don't really give a rats ass about when the warranty expired because thats irrelevant. The relevance is that they made it the way they made it and the warranty is only there to sell cars. You really think its there for US? Give me a break again. If they'd have it their way there would be no warranties, but the nature of competition brings warranties into the picture.

This is far from coffee thats too hot at McDonalds.

If anyone wants to help they could make suggestions on what type of information I should be collecting on the web page I will build. Results will be stored into a database. Will collect VIN, Name, car model, year, ECU failure info: How many times replaced, replaced with what from where, how many times repaired, what was repaired or replaced on the board, etc.., build dates. I need to know how to obtain these to be able to tell others.

[ProwlerGT]

Originally Posted by AudibleSilence

Basically yes. The company weighs in the number of possible lawsuits and the amount it would cost to settle those lawsuits vs. the cost of the recall. They frankly won't spend a dime if it's not an issue that can lead to accidents or accidental death.

Then maybe from the list of data I collect I will add a box that asks if the person would be part of a class action lawsuit if it were to arise.

[StealthCRF]

Originally Posted by ProwlerGT

I don't neglect this at all. A part in the vehicle should not be designed to allow to break the ECU. IAC's go bad in many other vehicles of different makes and models all the time and you don't see people replacing ECU's every damn time. You have a good point though and I acknowledge it is possible, but more likely so for the ECU's made without substandard electronics.

do you know anything about electrical engineering? if the IAC shorts... or any "powered" sensor shorts internally then it will frag the specific cicuit in the ecu... no matter who made it... its called the "1500 dollar fuse." Please explain to me how you would get around this.