Andrew_H
New Member
- Joined
- May 29, 2021
- Messages
- 7
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- 3
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- Age
- 58
- Location
- Adelaide
- Members Ride
- VF SV6
I thought I'd also add some feedback to this post - as I've benefitted from this forum over time. My young son recently bought his first car - a WL V6 Caprice with help from the bank of mum and dad. The car had a few gremlins to be worked through and that was reflected in the price. When I first had a look at it I pulled the plastic engine covers off and noticed some poor wiring mods - that I knew would be something to investigate. The previous owner advised that occasionally he was getting a powertrain warning and that he had had it checked and was told it was an O2 sensor. Anyway I studied the wiring diagrams in the repair manual and chased the wiring and could tell that 5 and 6 fuel injector ground signals from the ECU had been bridged together. I could also see that someone had changed the 6 coil. The engine did not misfire and generally ran well. Every now and again the drivetrain warning would come up and when started next day was gone. I read the DTC codes with the warning on and off..when no warning there was fuel injector 6 pending and when warning on fuel injector 6 (P0206). So i concluded the driver from the ECU was not working. later I found that poor connections within the ECU are common on the VZs. The service history of the car showed that the ECU was replaced in 2016 for a cost of $800 - after I removed the ECU it has a sticker indicating repairs on the back. As mentioned before the car ran well with the following points - when very cold and first started - under no load in park/neutral the idle would surge and rev up and down - put in drive or reverse and it would settle down, when warmed up and at lower rpm there was always some idle fluctuation. Occasionally the power train warning would come on and it was always related to fuel injector 6, also the ECU was always in open loop mode - so it never went to closed loop. So these were the symptoms we were getting with the bridge injectors. Overall they were all manageable - but I like things to work as they should. So I bought a replacement ECU/PIM/BCM and key for a little over $200 (lucky as there isn't many WL versions out there which uses the Lux BCM) and replaced the lot. The ECU in the kit also has a repaired sticker on the back. I cut the bridged injector wire and started the car up, no fault codes , no pending faults, idle is rock solid no surging and ECU goes to closed loop mode after initial warm up and all O2 sensors working as intended. So in summary, this bridging of injectors is a good fix - but you may also have some unwanted side effects - no real big ones and better than a misfire or engine running rough. The real fix is another ECU, and they can be expensive. It also seems many have been repaired and in the case of the previous owner forked out $800 for it to last maybe 4 years. So we will keep the spare set as it maybe in future the replaced ECU may require repairs. The whole VZ/WL ECU thing is a saga for many and this fix which is free - is a good work around for those that can't justify several hundred to over a thousand for a car that isn't worth much these days. The cheapest option is to buy the complete kit used as long as you get the right engine/trans and BCM level combo - not guarantees of course re how long before any problems. Just as an aside re the BCM - the repair manual states that Statesman has Lux and Caprice has High - the only difference being that the Caprice doesn't have rear bulb failure warning because the lights are LED. I'm not sure the manual is correct - what came out of our Caprice was a Lux, what went in was a WL International which was a Lux and that also had LED tail lamps...anyway it all works.
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