Hot ECU

[gavinaitken]

My Pectel 2 ECU was getting quite hot. Only while running, not during warm-up or idle.

Does anyone know what might cause this? .

I checked all the ground connections and cleaned them up but it didn't make a difference.

My plan is to potentially take apart the wire looms and look for wire failures.

I have the P3 with a jumper harness (uses existing looms), but I'm reluctant to use it before I know why the P2 was overheating.

[DaveW]

I really don't know whether mine gets hot, but I was told by QS to provide some ventilation to it since it does need some cooling.

Mine is mounted on the RH side of the fuel cell enclosure with some air diverted to it from just in front of the radiator in the sidepod.

[mikey]

is it too hot as in shutting down or just seemed hot to the touch?
the ECU is working harder at higher rpms so it will get warmer.
most ECUs do not need direct airflow but whatever space they are in needs to have an exchange of air, not be completely enclosed with no air movement, otherwise it'll get progressively hotter like an oven.

[David Clubine]

I had a Pectel T2 problem a few years ago in a zetec. It would get hot and eventually shut the car off. Took a day and a half to find it, turned out it was an oil pressure sensor that would short out. Couldn't see it in the data, and cost us a race weekend at Watkins Glen in the pro-series. Found it by unplugging everything that wasn't required to run the engine, and driving the car around endlessly. Haven't seen or heard of one since. I can tell you approximately where the oil pressure sensor landed in the landfill......

[gavinaitken]

Thanks for the info.

I will start looking at the sensors.

The ECU is located next to my left shoulder attached the the side panel.

I noticed it get really hot on my shoulder. A lot hotter than normal, to the point I thought I had a water leak in the rad or something.

I used an inferred temperature probe on the board and it showed just within spec for temperature range but I wouldn't trust it to last. There was defiantly something wrong.