I was having a problem with my car where it was shutting down on me. I took it to the Nissan Dealer and they determined that the ECM is bad. However, they're charging me 1138 to fix it. A mechanic I know says he has two extra ECMs in stock and that he would be able to change it for a much cheaper price. I wanted to know if you can replace the ECM with any other 96 maxima ECM (automatic) and also if it is a job that i should let Nissan handle or not.

 

You can get a used one @ www.car-part.com and pay less than 100$ for it, install it in 15 minutes, and be back on the road.

But first, how did they come to the conclusion that the stock unit was bad?

 

i'm not sure how they came to that conclusion, however they told me that a new ECM needs to be reprogrammed so i don't think i would be able to do that myself

 

I bought a used one from that link posted for you and never needed reprogramming. They're trying to ream you.

 

oh ok so it just needs to be a 96 maxima auto ECM, it doesn't matter on model?

 

There is a number on your ECU, match it w/ one on the site provided.

It's emissions information(Fed/Cali) and transmission(AT/MT etc).

Here's a .PDF that may help as well.
http://jimwolftechnology.com/wolfpdf/ECU-ID.PDF

 

ok thanks for the help, also how did you figure it out that your ECM was bad?

 

It wasn't bad I just needed a substitute when I sent mine to get reprogrammed by JWT.

 

oh ok, i don't fully understand that list though, it only shows one ECU number for an automatic 96 nissan maxima, however the mechanic took an ECU out of a 96 nissan max auto and it didn't match the number from the list

 

My #'s didn't match either, but it still worked.

 

alright so i'm hoping the one this guy has works because it's from a 96 nissan maxima automatic as well