ECU possibly damaged?

[devnull 0]

The other day I had the misfortune of shorting out my speedometer wire as the wire was rubbing against heat shielding and melted through the plastic. It then shorted when i drove through a (very small) puddle (very slowly ;)). I fixed that up, and moved it away from the heat shielding to prevent it from happening again, but now the overheating light in the cluster comes on intermittently, like 3 out of every 5 times I drive the car.

 

The light will flash for a bit, then turn off for a bit then begin to flash again until I kill the engine. Then, during some driving sessions, the light doesn't even come on at all. I know it's not overheating, and I figure that the short might have done a little damage to the ECU, but I was wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them, and if so, what it's trying to tell me. I may just have to find a mechanic with the proper software to diagnose my ECU if no one knows, but I thought I'd ask here first ;)

 

Thanks!

[Henny 0]

The light on the dash has nothing to do with the ECU at all. 8)

 

The odds are that there's another damaged wire in the bundle that was rubbing on the heat shield which is causing your problem. Do the oil temp (in the MFA) and the water temp gauges work properly and give reasonable readings?

 

It's also possible that the water level sensor in the expansion tank has become faulty, or your water level is slightly low, as both of these would also put this light on. :?

 

Good luck! 8)

[devnull 0]

The only wires which were damaged were two of the three going to the differential. I cleaned the wires, soldered & insulated them and covered the wiring. The MFA properly reports the oil temp, and the water temp is right where it's always been. I'll check the tank and the sensor, hopefully I'll find something amiss there.

 

Thanks for the heads up, though, I appreciate it.

[Henny 0]

Cool, if you're sure the loom is OK, I'd say you've either got a low water level, a dodgy water level sensor, or a dead gauge... :)

 

Check your water level (when cold!) then take the multi plug off the expansion tank and see what that does to the light... :)

[devnull 0]

It's okay, since it started just after the short I was in the "aww crap what did that short manage to blow up?" mode of thought, and didn't even stop to think about checking my coolant level. :oops:

 

Turns out, that's the problem, my coolant level is waaaay low ;) Seems random that it just started at the same time as me shorting something though, since it's quite cool at the moment. Oh well. Thanks!

[Henny 0]

:roll: :lol:

 

Glad that you've sorted it out now... 8)