Well I'm thinking about changing out my ECM just to see if that's what's going on with this car or not (90 GXE)..

It almost seems like it's loading up after the engine gets warmed up a bit,.. then starts to miss until I kick it in the ****.. .. then sometimes it'll clear up,.. sometimes it won't,..

Another reason that points me to the ECM goes back to around 4 or 5 years ago when I replaced the heads due to a slipped timing belt going down the highway about 65mph ... but when I was hooking everthing up I some how reversed two dual wiring harness connectors that just happened to be the same color and size as the correct ones that were supposed to connect there (I think it was the front side Injector harness that got swapped with something esle,... after I finally figured out what had happened and swapped the connectors back around to their correct locations,... well the stupid thing wouldn't idle correctly at all ... like the IAC was bad,...after changing out 3 of them I realized it wasn't the IAC at all,.. and a Nissan mechanic confirmed that doing what I did causes damage to the ECM. So for the past 4 years I've used a small pair of vise grips to adjust my idle ..

Anyway,.. I know that a local salvage yard has a bunch of 3 gen max's there,.. and I know I can get the ECM's for super cheap,... but are they all the "same",.. or are they vehicle/model specific?

Also, I was wondering about the exact location of the ECM as I've had several Nissan mechanics tell me about a dozen locations where it could be,.. firewall, under passenger seat,.. inside the kick panel.. under the councel,..

Isn't it up on the hump under the dash?,.. what kind of time frame are we looking at to swap one out?

Sorry for the onslot of questions,..

Thanks in advance,
Rick

 

well... assuming fed-spec emissions, just match to your engine/trans type. the manual ECM's have a little different tune than the automatic ones, and of course the VE ECM and VG ECM are completely different, as the electronics on both engines are completely different.

swapping it out CAN be a pain just because you have about 1" on either side of the ECM tray to work with... plus you have the TCM in the way (tranny control module). but with some small hand tools (i forget now if you need a socket or a box-wrench) and a little bit of patience you can get it done in a half-hour depending how flexible/dextrous you are.

 

I am thinking about swapping out my ECU also. I did this before to my 2nd generation maxima GXE. It made a big difference! Before I changed them out(ECU-ECM) the original one made the engine miss badly! I got a spare from the junk yard from the same type of car and installed it. The miss was completely gone, and the car ran alot better, So I will probaly pick one up for my 93 max gxe to see if it changes anything. About how many screws are involved in removing the ECU? And what size and tool do I need to remove them??

 

Thanks for the info guys,.. that statement about "I swapped out the ECM and all the problems went away" really sparks some hope for me and my Maxima,.. . As much as I love the car,.. it's "heath" has really been spiraling downward to the point that I'd just a soon blow holes in it with a shotgun as to just look at it

When It's running great,.. I LOVE it,.. but that's been few and far between lately.. PLUS I just lost my Passenger side front window now ,.. so the only one that is functional (And not siliconed up into place) is the Drivers side front..

Back to the ECM unit.. does the center councel where the Heat/AC and radio controls are have to come out to gain access,.. or can you get to it from the little side covers that are back under the dash a bit further on the hump?

Thanks,
Rick

 

u dont need to open anything but side covers under the dash...

 

Excellent!... and Thanks!

Nice SC BTW!,.. I had a 90 XR7 till my wife wrapped it around a telephone pole

 

SC is getting replaced with 5.7L 93 6sp Camaro

 

its still an lt-1 get an ls1 way better...my bolt on 3.5 altima beat lt-1's