TCU & ECU Removal

[ensteele]

A SVX owner emailed me (not a member here yet) and asked how to remove the TCU and ECU. He has a parts car and wants to remove them from it and then put them into his daily driver because they seem to be starting to fail. I was wondering if anyone could give some simple directions on how to remove these from the car. The installation would be the reverse of course. I will write them up and post in the How-To Documents.

Thanks in advance.

[Gamesy]

did you give him the service manual? i find that helps the best to locating nuts and bolts

[SVXRide]

tiny hands and good vision along with the seat being placed as far back as it will go!
-Bill

[LetItSnow]

Original post isn't about me, but I'm after the same thing in order to install a new ECUTune chip. Sure enough, there's something that I'm missing from removing that big escaine panel from under the steering wheel; I think that would help quite a bit!

[icingdeath88]

I did this when I did the Ecutune stage 1 chip. Getting them out isn't that hard at all. But I could only get 1 or 2 of the 3 screws back in when putting it back together. I didn't remove the ecsaine panel.

For a how-to I'd start with the Ecutune installation directions.

[LetItSnow]

Originally Posted by icingdeath88

Getting them out isn't that hard at all. But I could only get 1 or 2 of the 3 screws back in when putting it back together. I didn't remove the ecsaine panel.

I'm kinda into the "no fasteners left behind" thing, really.

[michael]

The ECU bead crush how-to should have the info.

[b3lha]

I've done this job many times.

Just slide the drivers seat all the way back and lie down with your head by the pedals.
Use a 10mm spanner to remove the three fixing nuts. A head torch will help you see what you are doing.
Then remove the 4 yellow plugs from the ECU and 3 black plugs from the TCU. A stubby screwdriver can help because the plugs are very tight.

The most difficult bit is getting your hands in there.

[icingdeath88]

So how did you get the upper nuts back on? I couldn't get my hands in there to get them started at all.

[Lookin4SVX]

I too need to swap my ecu.
I have another used ECU with stage 1 chip installed it.
I went to go install it the other day, but looking up at with my head on the pedal I could not for figure out how I was going to get that top nut back on when I reinstalled the new ECU.

What kind of wrench you guys using to get up in that tight space?
My hand will not fit and neither does either one of my socket wrenches.
I can get a normal wrench up their, but what do I do to keep the nut in it so I can thread the bolt threw it without it falling out the wrench?

Also, there is a Brown plug, and a White plug that are in my way getting to that top bolt. What do these plugs do, and is it safe to unplug them?
Here is a pic of the plugs:


b3lha, I think you answered my question for me.
I searched for 10mm spanner wrench, and ended up coming across this.
Will this work for putting the nuts back on?

GearWrench 10mm Flex-Head Combination Wrench

http://www.lowes.com/pd_138110-87494...d=3099563.html

[ensteele]

Originally Posted by Lookin4SVX

I searched for 10mm spanner wrench, and ended up coming across this.
Will this work for putting the nuts back on?

GearWrench 9/16" Flex-Head Combination Wrench

http://www.lowes.com/pd_138110-87494...d=3099563.html

No, it is a 9/16" wrench and you need a 10 mm.

[Sean486]

Originally Posted by ensteele

No, it is a 9/16" wrench and you need a 10 mm.

Good one Earl!

[Lookin4SVX]

yup, good eye.
That is the stock photo from the 10mm link.
Looks like Lowes didn't want to spend the money to get unique shots of every size.
I didn't notice it, but you get my point, would that be the tool i should use??

[icingdeath88]

A flexing wrench might actually be difficult to control in the tight quarters. Just grab the shortest 10mm wrench you can find. The top one, I remember getting to from above it sort of.

[Lookin4SVX]

I ended up buying a set of non flex head 5º per click ratcheting wrenches, the Flex headed ones didn't have reverse on them.

What I thought was going to be a quick 20min job, turned into hour long back breaker. I had no problem getting the nut on the left side (looking up at the mounted ECU with head on brake pedal, as pictured below), and no problem getting the bottom nut on the right side, but there was a lot of "F***Ucar" going on with that right top nut. Even with the ratcheting strait wrench I could only got 2 or 3 clicks before hitting the bottom bolt or the plugs that are in the way. Lets just say that at 10º-15º per, I was going back and forth like 100 times, it felt like forever.

In this pic, you see the bolt on the right side and you see the white plug to the left of it (hidden behind that black bundled wire. That black bundle of wire gets pulled away and is not the way, but those white and brown plugs are..) My wrench is between that white plug and that bolt that was sticking down in my way.



I could not tell how the plugs are attached to the that metal that the ECU is bolted to, so I didn't want to just rip and pull them out of my way. So I worked around them, which sucked. So my wrench couldn't move very far. Once I had the nut about halfway off I was able to pull on the ecu and raise the bolt so the wrench would clear it. Then it went a lot faster.
(Can anyone tell me how the brown and white plugs are attached? So if I ever have to do this again, I can move them.)

When it came time to install the chipped ECU, I did the left nut first. I put the nut into the ratcheting wrench, and luckily it threaded it self on no issues.
Went to do that top right nut and I could not get it to thread. It hit me in the head a few times falling out of the wrench and I gave up on it.
I put the lower right nut back on, tightened the snot of of the 2 nuts, plugged the plugs back in.
I then shook the crap of it and the tcu/ecu seemed very stable with just the 2 bolts, so I called it done.