Electronics won’t let me start my Z and OBD port and ECU won’t connect. Need a mechan
 

So somehow through a series of events I’ve killed my Z and killed three ECU’s and my OBD port. Can anyone help me as the dealership will eat me up in new parts and some won’t touch it because it’s a Stillen supercharged vehicle with UpRev software. Please help me!

Thanks,

Rod


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Rod, we're going to need you to be more specific about the situation.

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:iagree:

What was the "series of events"? What has been done to try to fix the problem? Is the fuel pump turning on? Does the starter engage? ...

Long story. Went off track over the gators at 120mph. Bounced engine and belt grabbed the wires to the intake control module and ripped them out (it’s just two wire). Replaced the end and was still getting flagged with the code for no intake control module. Started unplugging confections to check continuity and found this to be ok. NATS came on and wouldn’t allow the car to start. Everything functioning with the keys still just won’t allow car to start. It’s UpRev tuned so I figuring would just flash the ECU and be done but can’t get OBD port to work. Buy used ECU and it does the same. 2 ecus down stabs self in eye and gets back on eBay to order more parts and freaking UpRev license as I can’t retrieve mine off of dead ECU. Take car to speed shop for them to fix it and it’s there for a month and they can’t start either. They call dealership who won’t touch it because of the Stillen s/c and tune and mods, etc. Get mad bring car home and put used bcm, ECU, and key switch in (matched set from 2014 a/t Nismo). Mine is 2015 with 2016 engine (look good blowing up on the front straightaway at TWS!). Install, OBD is alive and NATS light goes out but still shows no key. flash with new UpRev license and car still won’t start. Go to flash it back to stock and it kills the OBD port again and eats my license. 4th $300 license that UpRev has made me buy for this car. Thanks a lot uprev!!! So now it’s out here with 3 dead ECUs NATS on again and no start. So there you have it. Help!!!!!!


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This might be stupid to ask, but have you checked ALL of your fuses (there's like 3 fuse boxes)? I had something similar with car wouldn't start and obd2 port wouldn't connect, turned out I had a blown injector fuse.

Checked every one of them.


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Fuel pump runs, can hear throttle bodies engage, hit start button and everything shuts off.


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There is so much going on here. Frankly, if I hit a gator at 120 mph I'd just be glad that I'm alive.

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Funny but this is a different kind of gator.


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How the hell did you manage to run over WKGR, a classic rock format radio station in Florida, United States?!

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Well I couldn’t run over the Tiger here in Baton Rouge.


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At some point there was a weak or lost ground from the ECU to the engine. This can cause the ignition coil's built in driver to overheat and short in a way that causes the input of the driver to short to the output, which is the negative side of the coil's primary. At this point as the ECU's output tries to drive the coil's input low and it "sees" +12v through the coil's primary, which has a resistance of about 1 ohm. The ECU's coil output pin is now trying to switch over 10 amps to ground. The battery wins and smokes the ECU's driver which is only rated for 0.05 A. The driver is part of an IC that has about 30 other channels. That coil channel will be blown for sure but usually some other's are as well, but in a random pattern that is not always the same. Some of the other I/O channels; CAN, fuel pump, OBD2...etc. Even when the ECU's ground is restored the shorted coil(s) remain and if a new ECU is installed and powered on the same damage happens again. Unplug all of the coils from the harness and try another
ECU.

Wow! I’m really impressed and wish you lived near me. So I thought I was smart but this has humbled me greatly. So in my ignorant capacity, what coils are you referring to? The coil packs at the plugs or something else? There’s no doubt that the ECU has lost its ground because it’s hanging loose on the passenger side because it’s so hard to keep putting in and out. Probably too late to save the old ones but in my defense I did run jumper cables to ground the ECU in its unmounted state. Thanks in advance for the help and new used ECU is on the way.


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Yes, the ign. coil packs at the spark plugs. The lack of ECU case ground will not cause this problem, but is needed to shield the ECU from EMI noise. Nissan has moved away from their old practice of running the ECU's grounding pins straight to the engine block. There is now a longer "chain" of grounds, where the ECU is grounded to the body under the dash and then the engine block is grounded to the body and finally in this case the coil packs are grounded to the front cover.

Shouldn't have the fuse burnt before ground was lost?
Or is there a design issue? I haven't looked at these newer Nissan cars but the older ones with Hitachi electronics were very good.

No, the failure mode starts when the ground level at the coil is about 2.5 volts or more above the ground at the ECU. Then the coil's driver turns on and drives the coil's primary to saturation. This becomes a static condition(ECU no longer has dwell control) and slowly overheats the coil module. At this point some of the drivers fail with the input shorted to the output(neg. side of coil). At no point has the peak current through the coil gone higher than normal, its just that its "ON" 100% of the time, that causes the thermal runaway.

I need to look at what could have shorted out when belt grabbed throttle body cabling.

Electronics won’t let me start my Z and OBD port and ECU won’t connect. Need a mechan
 

It grabbed the two wires going to the passenger side manifold intake control valve. It would still run at that point but the cel would stay on and when I disconnected the wiring harnesses is where all of my troubles began. I was checking the wires for continuity the key light and security lights came on and disabled the car from starting. Keys open and turn everything on and go all the way to start and engage clutch. When you push start everything just turns off but that was 2 ecu’s ago.

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Those are the (CVTC) intake timing control valves. If the two wires that run to these were shorted together(one is +12v other goes to ECU) then when the engine is turning, the ECU's driver for them would get smoked as its trying to switch the battery to ground. As with the coil example the driver IC could get collateral damage. You said that the harness was repaired and the ECU was replaced after, if so then the next ECU should have been good to go...but if these two wires are still shorted together, each time the engine starts to turn you blow another ECU.

Correct on these. I don’t why I have trouble with the name. It’s not shorted and they function properly (you can hear them engage and I tested them before installing them) so like you, I thought fix and go and the car did. It wouldn’t let me clear the code and kept coming on and that’s when I started unplugging things and reconnecting to check for continuity and here I sit today with my own car that refuses to let me start it or steal it.


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You do know that these CTVC servos have there own control module?
Sits near battery behind IPDM. I think the power electronics for these are in this module.
Sorry originally thought you were referring to intake control module as the throttle body control modules. Was a bit confused.

No, they are not! The CVTC intake timing control solenoid valves that you have shown(mounted on the front of the front cover) are controlled from the (main) ECU, RHD(bank1) by pin 29 and LHD(bank2) by pin 18. The VVEL actuators(mounted on the rear of the cyl. heads) have servo motors that are run by the VVEL control module(mounted near battery). What exact DTC code were you getting after the damage?

Sorry didn't look closely. Solenoid valves and not motor.
SM shows 7 ohm coils. See EC.pdf P0075 and P0081.

Having same problem, I think: takes multiple presses of start button to start. Local dealer found clutch switches OK, then found a Nissan bulletin about the problem, which recommended reprogramming 'body control module.' That didn't work, so Nissan techs recommended replacing module. Quote is $1,200 (about half labor). Ouch!

Z-cars have a couple of known issues starting, if you get no cranking at all when you push the Start button, just lights on the instrument panel. (And then have to cycle through several times to get it to "catch.") One may be the actual starter motor, but there is also a starter position sensor that might fail, or another sensor that the name escapes me at the moment.

There are several threads on this. I believe your issue is much simpler than what the OP describes.

Mine has been at the stealership for a month now. They can’t figure it out either. It’s frying ECM’s still and I’ll post the solution if and when they find it.


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As I see it, every wire from the engine to ECU/IPDEM-ER needs to be checked for shorts and opens. Yes, it will take a while. It might be easier to get a new harness from a scrap yard.

lol paying $150 in diagnostic fees might be worth it just to watch the dealer fry a few ECUs :icon17:

Good luck with your repairs. I'm with 2013 and Sonic... a different engine harness or an excessively meticulous check of the existing harness (can't just be visual).

I had already changed the harness


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Well I have to say that 2013-Z33 was spot on here. Months and months of tears and hard work and about $7500 later, my baby is running again. Another 6 weeks at the dealer, 2 or 3 more ECM’s and 6 coil packs seems to have fixed her. I changed the wiring harness before it went to the dealer so I’m thinking it shorted and burned 5 out of six coils. These then feed high voltage back to the ECM’s and fried them. I had even installed new plugs while it was down and never noticed the burnt coils. Of course working around the Stillen SC doesn’t make it easy. It took Nissan 2 master techs and an engineer to find what Z-33 had already hit on. Had I stayed on that path, I probably wouldn’t have missed 9 months of driving and heartache. Salute to you Z-33 on the great call!!!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...7c5b859c74.jpg

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Thanks for the update!

Since you have the ECM open, could you post a picture of both sides of the ECM circuit board?

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Sure.


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Thanks osburnrs!