There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

TheTetrapod ,

My car got stolen this morning. I feel this in my soul.

GrammarPolice ,

feelsbadman

KellysNokia ,

That’s rough my dude 🫂

Badabinski , (edited )

Seriously. The ECU in my partner's truck decided that it was done with magic smoke and Marie Kondo'd that shit out, leaving her stranded. Her truck is an old 2002 Dodge Dakota that we've been nursing along while the used car market cools down (we want to get her something small and fuel efficient, but cars cost too damn much). Back in 2000 or 2001, some bean counter at Dodge decided that the company really had to cheap the fuck out with their ECUs for the 2002 model year. Because of this, any 2002 Dodge truck has either had its ECU replaced or is a ticking fucking time bomb.

What's even better is that nobody makes these shit-ass ECUs anymore. The only replacements you can get are remanufactured units, and it's highly likely that you'll get at least one dud before you can find anything decent. We've been a tiiiiiiny bit less lucky than that, meaning we're on our 13th ECU. Our mechanic has gone through everything else to make sure there's not something external that's exploding the ECUs, and he hasn't found anything. Over the course of like 9 weeks, we've completely deleted the stock of these stupid things in Utah and all of the surrounding states. We're now ordering one from Florida that's been remanufactured by a different company which hopefully won't grenade itself.

Fuck American car companies, and apologies to anyone who's currently having a hard time sourcing an ECU for a 2002 Dodge Dakota. We screened all the bad ones out for you. The only good part about all of this for us is that our mechanic isn't charging us for anything more than one ECU replacement. The damn truck has been in the shop for 9 weeks, and we're only going to pay like $1000.

fuckwit_mcbumcrumble ,

Are the ECUs actually remanufactered, or did they just pull them out of a dead truck, wipe them off, and call it a day?

I know the Ranger from that era has the classic leaky caps that kills it’s ECUs. You can easily buy a $20 soldering iron from harbor freight and $5 worth of caps and fix yours if it’s the same problem.

cm0002 , (edited )

This right here, there’s not a whole lot on a PCB that can “explode” on their own, and caps is at the top of that short list. And early 2000s, 90s caps are notorious for this issue

Next ECU you get @Badabinski, check the caps or just replace them anyways. Even high quality ones are not very expensive

Badabinski ,

I've got a mechanic doing the sourcing and work for me, but I might buy one and replace the caps on it, then ask him to try it. Thanks to both of you for the suggestion!

umbrella ,
@umbrella@lemmy.ml avatar

at this point your only reasonable choice is a programmable ecu.

you could maybe get a cheap one and a usable tune for that price? idk.

Badabinski ,

I need the truck to pass emissions, unfortunately :( Are there programmable ECUs that can pass emissions via OBDII tests? I was under the impression that there aren't, although I'd love to find out I was misinformed.

umbrella , (edited )
@umbrella@lemmy.ml avatar

they can pass emissions if properly configured. they can perform exactly like the original ECU if tuned well, if a tiny bit better.

they don’t do OBD2 tests in my country though, only the pipe emissions test, so im not sure about that. saving a working original just for these tests is an option.

Badabinski , (edited )

Hopefully we'll be able to find a working one soon :( our emissions here are exclusively OBD2 based for anything 1996 or newer. I'll probably do what some other folks have recommended and try to "remanufacture" one myself.

EDIT: no idea why my client decided to post my comment twice.

umbrella , (edited )
@umbrella@lemmy.ml avatar

i hope you find it. if its a common problem like “hey its a specific component or set of components that always blows out on these” you are probably in luck.

KellysNokia ,

Toyota

They’re boring, they’re behind in tech, they aren’t cool, they’re more expensive to buy

But seriously, if you want to just follow the maintenance schedule and get to where you need to go with minimal doubt - there’s nothing quite like them

chaosppe ,
@chaosppe@lemmy.world avatar

Agreed. Bought a used toyota yaris back in 2018. Still runs perfect, and even if something would go wrong. It’s cheap so I’m not worried. Good speakers, mpg is decent enough and road tax is like £35 per year. Doesn’t make me look super cool, but I’d rather be financially sound.

art ,
@art@lemmy.world avatar

No car, no problem.

Okokimup ,
@Okokimup@lemmy.world avatar

Just had to spend over $10k on a new air conditioner in the 90F degree heat.

frostycakes ,
@frostycakes@lemmy.ml avatar

Facts, my car, despite having the same issues it had when I bought it, will not pass emissions despite passing with flying colors two years ago when I bought it. Of course this is right as my state is cracking down on out of date registrations, and apparently I need to spend over $1k before I’m eligible for a temp emissions waiver. Tough when I spent $2k total on the car, lmao.

I’m barely clawed out of credit card debt and here comes this stupid bomb. Damn you, Toyota, for fucking up the 1zz engine to where it develops oil burning issues that require work that’s approaching a rebuild to fix, especially since the car drives perfectly fine so long as it’s topped off.

MentalEdge ,
@MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

I’ve yet to need one. I dread the day, tbh.

mynamesnotrick ,

Literally me. Also, freaking AGM batteries… so expensive. To support the auto idle off feature that I despise I have to buy a more expensive battery.

skulblaka ,
@skulblaka@sh.itjust.works avatar

AGMs are actually worth the squeeze even on a car that doesn’t necessarily require one, they’re genuinely good-ass batteries. Expensive, though. But they’ll blow the pants off a lead acid in a stress test.

Also lots of cars have an option to toggle the auto-off. Not all of them though. And some will reset it every time you turn the car on and off.

mynamesnotrick ,

That’s good to hear, this is my first one and had a bit of sticker shock replacing it yesterday. Yeah, my car does have the auto idle off switch but you have to toggle it every start-up to disable it. I dont mind it when I’m in the city stopped at lights but when its shutting off at each stop sign its super annoying.

foggy ,

My recently promoted boss just totaled his car.

He’s okay but YUP.

RandomStickman ,
@RandomStickman@fedia.io avatar

Been having teeth and car problems :)

mbp ,
@mbp@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Or vet bills 😩

Aremel ,

For me it’s more kicking me while I’m down. I do not need a new windshield right now, life!

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • random
  • lifeLocal
  • goranko
  • All magazines
    •