ECUs - Electronic Control Units

From the late 1980s ECUs (Electronic Control Unit) were introduced to many vehicles. Today pretty much every petrol engined car has an ECU and in the last 5 years or so diesels now also have ECUs. Sometimes the ECU is referred to as the computer or brain. Other parts of the vehicle, like the braking system, may also have a dedicated ECU for it's operation but the following will only deal with the engine ECU which is the main control unit you'll come across with regards to the operation of a modern vehicle.

What does the ECU do?
The ECU monitors several parts of the engine system, especially the fuel injection elements and adjusts the control of the injection system to provide optimum performance. If any element should become faulty the ECU can alter settings so the engine can keep on running until the fault can be attended to.

The ECU also has a memory which records the faults. This makes fault diagnosis much easier for vehicle technicians.

The codes are read by your dealer through relatively expensive garage equipment but can also be read by the DIY users with either a cheap handheld device available from your local motor factors or with a home fabricated piece of wire - Read On!

DIY Code Reading

Under Construction! - Sorry, come back soon.

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