missing/rough running round 2

[8cam]

Originally Posted by 8cam

Very happy with the $27 fix, not so happy with the $10 shipping. But for all in less than 40 bucks not too bad.

Not so much. It's been 4 weeks since I wrote that, 4 weeks since I even opened this forum, 4 weeks of grumpy.

Not the forum's fault, been annoyed with my car. After I wrote that, I took the car out again and it drove fine. Enough I thought it was cured and headed out to dinner with the wife. Nope, didn't even get out of the neighborhood before it was coughing and wheezing, barely running. I felt lucky to get back to the house. I was so thoroughly irritated I just ignored the car for an entire week, driving the 308...until I noticed coolant on the ground under it, but that's another story.

After a week I had calmed down and decided to figure out once and for all, just what the hell was going on. I pulled out the WSM, test light, volt meter, and started tracing everything. Every single thing checked out, grounds excellent, wiring good, but still bad running and codes that just didn't make sense.

Finally in desperation I called up Russ McBride, what a godsend to have a fellow Z owner so close by. And a great guy too. He offered to let me try his ECM in my car, to eliminate that as a possible issue. So I headed out, and on the 1.5 mile drive to his house, it coughed and chugged the whole way. 10 minutes later I was driving a completely different car. Russ' ECM totally transformed it, beautifully smooth and powerful. The difference was stark, and a little shocking. No doubt about it, my ECM had serious issues. At least it was a relief to finally know what the problem was.

Next call was to Marc Haibeck, what a great guy. I've bought a few things from him, but definitely one of his smallest customers. Still he spent the time on the phone with me, helping me understand the issue. With his help, I was able to ship my ECM off to hopefully be repaired - in his words, it works about 75% of the time. I sure didn't want to try and source one if I could help it, so it was worth rolling the dice.

Got the ECM back a few days ago and holy hell, it ran just like with Russ' ECM. Smoother than I remembered...so much so I think it must have been gradually going bad, and I didn't notice until it got really bad. I haven't posted until now because I wanted to keep driving, just to be sure it's truly fixed. I've had the car out daily for the past several days and it's running like a champ, not a hint of problems any more. Even took the wife to dinner, to make up for that bad drive 4 weeks ago. I'm knocking on wood, crossing fingers, and other superstitious stuff....but I believe the gremlin has been banished.

I had actually considered selling it at one point, but not any more. Great driving car, love it. Again.