Motor Blew Last Night

[John Rambo]

Originally Posted by SPCorBUST

I think you're onto something. Maybe look at remedies for that particular issue and see if it goes away, and then return the ECU if they'll take it back.

They won't take it back. The dealer says it's an electronic part so they offer no returns on it. Evasive doesn't want to pay for it either, I tried earlier when the dealer couldn't get it to work in the car. But, I suppose I wouldn't have bought one if I didn't think I needed one..

It's so surprising that a jumper wire in the obd2 and 30 minutes of waiting is all it took for the ECM to be installed without communication codes. I wonder what procedure the dealer was trying to follow where I would have to buy a new combination meter (instrument cluster).

Originally Posted by Kodename47

Could well be that on OCV is faulty. You can log that as well and log both banks to see whether it's happening on both L and R banks (#1 and #2).

It's only happening on bank #1. I believe that's the passenger side.

FRS Justin, who has been very helpful in recent weeks, referred me to a TSB on P000A and P0011 and it looks like I'm going to try swapping the intake OCVs over from side to side and see if the issue switches sides in ecutek. If it does, I can replace that, and if not, looks like I have to replace the cam sprocket.

I have a 6 month warranty on my used FA20 I bought so I'm going to give the junkyard a call today now that I know it's a mechanical issue.

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[FRS Justin]

Originally Posted by Sportsguy83

Definitely seems like a mechanical problem.

I haven't made it out there yet but was on the phone with Rambo when he was swapping ECM's and I can tell you 4 things.
1 The ECM diag. was completely wrong!!! the original worked fine
2 You don't have to reprogram the keys to swap ECM's
3 No dealer is needed at this level
4 ECUTEK SHOWED THE CAM SIGNAL WAS 0 AND THE ACTUAL CAM WAS 29degrees WHEN THE ENGINE WAS WARM BUT WHEN YOU RAISE THE RPM'S UP THE CAM CATCHES BACKUP TO 0 AND WORKS FINE!!!!!! DO YOU THINK THAT SCREAMS OIL RESTRICTION OR GEAR ISSUE!!!!!
We should have more on this tonight as we will try to isolate the true cause... This pig is almost fixed and we have a whole hour in it... And 30 minutes of that was waiting for the ECM to remarry to the system....smh


EDIT: Com issues? what com issues, haven't seen any of those...............

[John Rambo]

Today, I tried to switch the OCVs and see if the problem switched sides. It didn't.

Later, I tried the 2015 ECU in the car. Of course, this ECU gave me a U0155 DTC since a 2015 ECU/tune is not compatible with a 2013 car. However, the cam problem went away. The car warmed up and there was no issue like I was seeing before!

However, the car was in limp mode due to the U0155 DTC. In order to be sure the 2015 ECU is a fix, I want to disable the U0155 code so the car is out of limp mode, and see if the issue is still gone. The only way I can do this, since this 2015 ECU does not have an EcuTek license, is to use a tactrix openport 2.0 cable and romraider or something to disable the U0155.

I called Church Automotive and they'd be fine with me driving down there and borrowing their openport 2.0 cable (which they think they might have for tuning Evos apparently) since I don't know if buying one is a good option considering I just need it for diagnostics. If anyone in the Los Angeles area has one I could borrow, PM me haha I'll pay you if you want.

In the mean time, I switched back to my factory 2013 ECU with EcuTek on it, to see if a 2015 tune solved my issue. I thought I could flash a 2015 tune on it after disabling U0155 in the ROM file so the car is out of limp mode, but EcuTek gets upset and tells me that the D00C file is not compatible with my B01C ECU. That's kind of annoying. There doesn't seem to be a way around this. EcuTek simply won't let me flash it. In fact, just trying a tune in general doesn't work. It's giving me error 22:conditionsNotCorrectOrRequestSequenceError
I have no idea what this means. I followed the typical flash setup with the ignition on and engine off and have a battery charger hooked up to the car, and the AC and everything is off. I don't know why it's doing this.
EDIT: got it to work with a '13 tune
I think I'm going to wait until I get a chance next week to drive the car to Church Automotive and see if the car has the intake cam issue once out of limp mode with the 2015 ECU. I already tried switching over the OCVs and it didn't help, so if this is truly a mechanical issue a more costly fix might be involved even if I get the warranty involved, so I definitely want to rule out an ECU problem if possible.

Anyone can chime in here I'm looking for all the advice I can get.

[Sportsguy83]

Originally Posted by John Rambo

Today, I tried to switch the OCVs and see if the problem switched sides. It didn't.

Definitely try flashing with tactrix to disable the code. Would be a very easy fix!

Go over @steve99 post regarding Tactrix flashing to get all correct definitions and files for the flash.

Good luck man...

[John Rambo]

Does anyone know an easy way of putting the car into limp mode? I could check to see if limp mode on my 2013 ECU fixes the problem I'm having...

If I could unplug something not completely essential for the engine to run properly and put the car into limp mode that would be cool, but I don't know what to try!

[Icecreamtruk]

O2 sensor should put it to limp mode, shouldnt it? Altho since it messes with AFR, it might also mess with the cam timing that you want to verify

[Sportsguy83]

Originally Posted by John Rambo

Does anyone know an easy way of putting the car into limp mode? I could check to see if limp mode on my 2013 ECU fixes the problem I'm having...

If I could unplug something not completely essential for the engine to run properly and put the car into limp mode that would be cool, but I don't know what to try!

disconnecting wheel speed sensor would put it in limp mode

Originally Posted by Icecreamtruk

O2 sensor should put it to limp mode, shouldnt it? Altho since it messes with AFR, it might also mess with the cam timing that you want to verify

It wouldn't put it in limp mode, just thrown CEL and AFR all over the place.

[DannyQ86]

Won't the car go into limp mode if you unplug mass air flow sensor

[John Rambo]

Originally Posted by Sportsguy83

disconnecting wheel speed sensor would put it in limp mode

I'll check this out! Thanks!

[John Rambo]

I've been busy lately but I did some more testing tonight. To recap, with the 2015 ECU the car is in limp mode and it doesn't have the cam problem. I wasn't sure if this was because of the 2015 ECU/tune or because limp mode does some strange stuff to keep the problem from happening.

To test this, I put the car in limp mode with the 2013 ECU to see if the problem went away. I disconnected the rear wheel speed sensor with the 2013 ECU plugged in which put the brz in limp mode, and the cam problem went away. I even tried turning off the car, plugging it back in and restarting the car and immediately the problem came back. I was pretty amazed and did this a few times to make sure haha. This again suggests that the reason the 2015 ECU worked is limp mode, and I can confirm this soon by disabling the U0155 code with the 2015 ECU and putting the car out of limp mode and see if the cam
problem comes back. I'll do this just to cover all of my bases.

If the only reason the 2015 ECU didn't have the vvt intake degree retardation is limp mode, and both my factory 2013 ECU and brand new ECU the dealer ordered had the problem, I can pretty much conclude there was actually a mechanical issue with the motor all along... which would be a surprising result given the events that have brought me to this point.

[John Rambo]

Alright, so I'm actually here at Church Automotive right now. They were super chill and let me borrow the openport 2.0 cable no problem. Shout out to them!

Anyway, I flashed my 2015 ECU with a D00C Rom with the U0155 disabled. This means that the car was not in limp mode anymore. The cam problem happened immediately after I started the car up, audibly and in ecutek.

I flashed back to stock D00C, limp mode comes back, and the car had the cam problem for a bit but after some idling and light revs both vvt intake angles are at like -1 or -2 instead of one being at -29 and the second at 0 like out of limp mode.

This means limp mode fixed the problem. My original ecu was fine, and didn't need to be replaced.

It looks like I have a problem with the motor. Evasive maintains that with the motec, the car has no issues whatsoever. I might drop by if they let me plug the motec in so I can see for myself. I'm having trouble understanding why there wouldn't be a problem using a motec basemap.

Additionally, I will contact toyo-parts-only, the people I bought the motor from, and see about that warranty.

Also, in the mean time I might try a heavier weight oil to see if more oil pressure can help free any blockages that might be causing the issue. Although it would be really strange if there was a blockage while the issue resolves when the car is in limp mode.

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[FRS Justin]

Originally Posted by John Rambo

Alright, so I'm actually here at Church Automotive right now. They were super chill and let me borrow the openport 2.0 cable no problem. Shout out to them!

Anyway, I flashed my 2015 ECU with a D00C Rom with the U0155 disabled. This means that the car was not in limp mode anymore. The cam problem happened immediately after I started the car up, audibly and in ecutek.

I flashed back to stock D00C, limp mode comes back, and the car had the cam problem for a bit but after some idling and light revs both vvt intake angles are at like -1 or -2 instead of one being at -29 and the second at 0 like out of limp mode.

This means limp mode fixed the problem. My original ecu was fine, and didn't need to be replaced.

It looks like I have a problem with the motor. Evasive maintains that with the motec, the car has no issues whatsoever. I might drop by if they let me plug the motec in so I can see for myself. I'm having trouble understanding why there wouldn't be a problem using a motec basemap.

Additionally, I will contact toyo-parts-only, the people I bought the motor from, and see about that warranty.

Also, in the mean time I might try a heavier weight oil to see if more oil pressure can help free any blockages that might be causing the issue. Although it would be really strange if there was a blockage while the issue resolves when the car is in limp mode.

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It's my understanding that limp mode Tries to maintain a 0 status and not fluctuate to optimum settings to reduce engine damage as a fail safe. So with that being said it's probably not fixed but not responding if that makes sense. I have a spare 2014 motor if you get refunded let me know. Also my guys are waiting if you want to do a cam gear swap.

[John Rambo]

I drove down to Evasive Motorsports today to test out the Motec ECU, since I wanted to see what kind of magic made it work while none of my factory ECUs had the car running properly. It was really the last step in this whole ECU saga to determine if my motor had a mechanical issue or not.

They actually couldn't get it to work. It took a long time for them to get the car to idle with the Motec, which they said didn't happen when they tried it the first time a couple months ago. The cam issue manifested itself and the car idled really poorly after they pulled a bunch of fuel in the basemap to get it to actually start and not just crank and die. We found by unplugging the OCV it actually idles okay.

Just kinda sucks that their initial diagnosis of the ECU using the Motec turned out to be wrong since it costed me a lot of money in parts and dealer fees not to mention months of time I couldn't actually drive my DD.

I'm actually currently looking into building a motor for boost again. I think I want a supercharger (since I had lots of heat and other issues with the FBM kit) and around sub-300whp on pump gas and 400-425whp on E85, which definitely should be easy. A built motor for this might even be overkill, but that's the goal. I want total reliability. If I can build it in my budget and be able to sleep at night that I can drive my car whenever I want and still have AC, I might just go ahead and do it. I've already spent so much on this car that selling it would just be kinda sad and a huge loss. I'm still definitely not sure and I don't even know what I'd replace this car with, so it's a lot of thinking I have to do.

FRS Justin is helping me plan this out and I'll let everyone know how it goes!

[nos145]

keep us posted. That sounds like an awesome plan.