Need super custom auto electrician in Sydney

Hello forum, thanks for the join.
I have a 96 super custom 3ltd 1kz-te giving me grief!
Please, does anyone know of a super custom import, experienced auto electrician anywhere in Sydney?
I'll try explain the situation.
Initially it stalled in traffic, then it wouldn't go at all. Starts up, blows a big puff of white smoke then shuts down.
I towed it to my mechanic who went straight for the jugular and renewed the fuel pump @ $2500, that didn't work at all.
Checked compression, checked injectors, checked fuel line, all good but won't run.
After 3 weeks in the shop he gave up, so I towed it to another mechanic and explained the problem.
He turned the ignition key and the engine fired up straight away??? It blew tonnes of smoke for a while but then settled down.
He said the car is running so I can't help, just drive it around for a while and if the problem returns, bring it back.
Next day I replaced the battery and starter motor. The car drove better than ever for 3 weeks, then the problem returned.
The car just died on the highway same as before, blowing white smoke and shutting down.
This time I noticed check engine light come on with flashing O/D light.
Towed it back to 2nd mechanic. He reckons most likely an electrical / ECU problem but without any wiring diagrams he can't help.
I've already spent $4000 and the car is the same as the first day it broke down!!

Please, does anyone know an auto electrician in Sydney who could help?

TIA



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1996 is perhaps a little late for the leaking capacitors in the ECU, but I'd sure be looking at it to be sure. That would be my first suspicion as white smoke = unburnt fuel, I believe, so could imply a fault in the injector feeds causing over-fuelling. Take it apart and inspect the circuit board for any signs of corrosion around the capacitors, if you see any have an electronics techy-type person clean up the board and replace the caps. Otherwise some of the other more-clued-up folk here will surely offer other suggestions.
BTW nice clean looking van you have there. I'm only relatively new, but from me, welcome to the forum!

Hey, thanks for your help, and the nice welcome!
Yes it's nice clean van and I do love it. That's why I want to resolve this even after 4k already spent.
The thing that's got me stumped is why did it mysteriously start working again after the second tow?
I told the 1st mechanic, he said all he did was disconnect the battery to give it a charge before the tow. So the disconnect/reconnect battery seemed to fix something, for a while???

Everything is pointing to a broken ECU at this stage.

You can take your ECU to somebody who could check it for broken capacitors and replace them with soldering, so that means an electrician or somebody like that.

Or you could buy another ECU. See if any of these matches (part number on the label should match):
https://www.ebay.nl/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=hiace+1kz+ecu&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=2

However, there is no 100% garantuee that it is the issue.
You could also check locally, and perhaps swap out the ECU with somebody else that drives a Super Custom, to see if it makes your van drive better. If somebody is prepared to help you.

Thanks so much for helping.

Ok I have nothing to lose by stripping out the ECU and having it checked, so I will try that.

It's in the passenger door pillar, right?

skakus wrote:

Thanks so much for helping.

Ok I have nothing to lose by stripping out the ECU and having it checked, so I will try that.

It's in the passenger door pillar, right?

Yes, take the lower passenger pillar trim off and there it is. I cut a slot in my interior trim panel (right at the base, out of sight, to open up a hole into a slot) so I could remove and replace it a bit easier, couldn't really work out how to get it clear without doing that.

Thanks GPW,
I've taken out the ECU and I saw 2 leaky caps.
Have sent it away for inspection & repair...will take a week...fingers crossed!

Ah sounds like you've struck gold there, and if the fault is intermittent as you describe there is not yet any permanent damage to the ECU so any good electronics tech should be able to clean it up and replace the caps then all should be good. Just a note, it isn't the caps themselves that cause the symptoms, it is the acid which has leaked out of the caps which corrodes away circuit traces on the actual board that causes broken circuits so make sure your tech inspects the board very carefully once the caps have been removed and that he / she uses appropriate chemicals to neutralize that acid and wash it off to prevent future damage from remaining corrosives. Any damaged traces need to be bridged out with wire to restore the circuits and then new, good quality caps fitted as replacements. Just saw you're in OZ, don't use the junk quality caps from Jaycar, please!
BTW I'm a retired component-level electronics and radio communication tech so I do speak from extensive experience with such repairs.
BTW I hope you can recover some of your unnecessary expenditure from those that have charged you without fixing the problem (assuming the ECU repair fixes it)? The ECU should have been one of their first thoughts from the symptoms.

Glad you found the issue above. As Tony says above a decent repairer will use quality long life caps, I spent a while on Farnell comparing the lifetimes.
Also they should note the 1uF cap is bipolar - easier to upgrade to polypropylene.

The symptoms are from both internal breakdown in the caps causing them to a) drag the voltage down (while the cap heats up and fails faster!) and b) from direct corrosion. I think the one I repaired had a capacitor leg missing which was probably the last straw, if you are lucky the cap legs go first and the PCB is not too affected.

I suspect the really corroded ECUs are ones that have been left idle while they decay, if you were using the van and started to get an issue you caught it as early as you can.

The issue is caused by a generally poor quality capacitor industry in the 1990s, along even with stolen formulas that were incomplete. I still have 1970s radios and a 1986 car whose caps are still working without failure (and a 1940s radio in fact! ) but lots of 1990s stuff fail, including PCs.

I also had the rev counter fail - capacitors on there fail too (see youtube) - although in my case the failure was from a solder fracture on a dummy component (a link) so that was an easy fix - I just reflowed the joints.

Ours doesn't have a rev counter ... nor an ECU. The unit in the passenger side appears to be the glow-plug timer, that's probably all, and it is very clean.
Anyway OP, keep us informed of progress.

Hi folks,
Got the ECU back today, plugged it in and turned the key.....started up first time and seems to be all fixed now! Just blew a bit of smoke from residue in the exhaust but that settled down very quickly.

You beauty, I'm back on the road!

Thank you forum members for your help and suggesting I inspect the ECU. Wish I had done that to begin with as I would have saved a lot of money. Oh well, at least I now have a reconditioned fuel pump, a new starter motor, a new battery, and I've had the injectors checked, and a compression test, and the catalytic converter checked, and the ignition and fuses checked.

Hopefully plenty of trouble free driving ahead now.

Cheers.

Great news!
That capacitor issue has affected so many kinds of equipment for a considerable period of years, all I believe, due to some not-too-good industrial espionage. There's a lot of detail to be found with some internet searches and makes rather interesting reading.
Don't forget to ask the forum if you have any other kinds of troubles with the van; there's a lot of accumulated experience even amongst the few remaining active folks here!

Glad the ECU recon has fixed it. It's a great looking van you have there too.

I found out this morning that when my tyres were changed last week some idiot didn't use the jacking point and has bent the sill on the drivers side. Not looking forward to that conversation with the garage. The new LCV tyres are great though.