TheAnalogKiddd

iTrader: (2)

GOD DAMNIT!! it's offical, that f$&*ing POS RB FCD killed my ecu AGAIN!
It's doing the exact same thing as before..

Ted.. I think I'm gonna need another one..

I can't believe this.. that thing has cost me $55 for it, $430 for Mazda's sh!&ty *** diagnostics, $160 for towing and $75 for a new ecu not to mention another one I'm gonna have to buy.. I really don't have money to spend on this right now.. and I just know the SOB who sold me this know it too..

I can't believe this, beware of these RB FCD's.. Ted, please get back to me asap, I hope you have another one..

kabooski

Get a HKS FCD
the RB are junk
It killed my engine

TheAnalogKiddd

iTrader: (2)

ok, i've cooled down a little bit, i apologize for the profanity..

clearing my mind I remembered reading about some aftermarket ecu's shortly after I replaced my first bad one.. I certainly can't afford haltech, but is there anything else that might have such features as no fuel cut, better fuel management, etc. and be affordable? perhaps a reprogrammed one?

Evil Aviator

The RB FCD worked just fine in my S4. What makes you think that the FCD killed your ECU?

BTW, for $280 more than you have already spent, you could have a Haltech E6K. You will gain about 15hp just by using a standalone EMS which allows you to ditch your stock AFM, not to mention that you can TRULY tune the car for the higher boost levels rather than using the FCD as a crutch. Are you sure that you can't afford one?

Boost Lee

iTrader: (3)

the money is already spent. he can't get refunded for broken parts... or can he?

Hey Analog.... did you get a warranty on any of that stuff?

Scott 89t2

I had no problems with mine....

Felix Wankel

How exactly did it do that?

kabooski

Ok very simple Felix

I had a 88 GXL put TII motor
ECU
Harness
RC cleaned 550cc's
AFM
Boost sensor
resistor pack
etc
I did not need a FCD cause
ECU could not read boost since
the driver side N/A harness has no imput for a OEM Dash
boost sensor

Ran the car HARD
to 8k everyday
did 13.5@10 PSI

Then I found a TII car with a blown motor
swaped everything
ECU
AFM
sensor
Harness
engine to the TII body

Bingo tried boosting Hit fuel cut
I go and buy a RB FCD
hmm ok no more fuel cut
but damm my turbo sure is glowing red
few days later
car is hard to start
sounds kinda funny when idling
but still pulls kinda good on high

Pull front plugs spin motor
woosh-woosh-woosh-woosh-woosh
pull back putting front plugs back on
woosh-hollow-woosh

Took engine to mech
sure enough
1 cracked apex seal on the far corner
another chipped seal on the same rear rotor
(rotor housing big deep groove by spark plug hole)

1 slight chip on the front-no damage

The insides of the exhuast port's where a light brown
showing signs of a lean condition

That I never HAD! when I had the same exact engine and setup on the GXL body with no FCD

There is my proof
Now I have EK6 that will be going with the new engine
with 850cc sec's
and RB can kiss my ***

Turbo Timmy

Who is doing your E6k? I want one!

Anderson

Tim, wasnt that guy goan charge you like $400 for the install and tunnign?

Or was he "Questionable"???

TheAnalogKiddd

iTrader: (2)

quote:
Evil Aviator
----------------------------------------------
The RB FCD worked just fine in my S4. What makes you think that the FCD killed your ECU?

BTW, for $280 more than you have already spent, you could have a Haltech E6K. You will gain about 15hp just by using a standalone EMS which allows you to ditch your stock AFM, not to mention that you can TRULY tune the car for the higher boost levels rather than using the FCD as a crutch. Are you sure that you can't afford one?
----------------------------------------------

well thanks for making me feel worse
No.. it's already spent and trust me, I'm kicking myself in the *** for spending all that money.. but there's no way I could have known and there's no way I can get it back..

The FCD was definately the problem! Sure it did it before but I wasn't sure because I was doing other stuff too at the time..
THIS TIME however, my car was running fine.. disconnected the battery.. put the FCD on.. reconnected the battery.. the car wouldn't start.. it was definately this POS.

wasn't quite the same problem as kabooski's, but it's obvious that the FCD caused some short as soon as I tried to start the car.. I don't know how or why though..


quote:
Arpus
-----------------------------------------------
Hey Analog.... did you get a warranty on any of that stuff?
-----------------------------------------------

warranty? lol

HAILERS

This statement by Kabooski is driving me nuts because it does not make sense to me. It is: I did not need a FCD cause
ECU could not read boost since
the driver side N/A harness has no imput for a OEM Dash
boost sensor
The output from the boost/pressure sensor is part of the emissions harness. Should have gone directly to the ECU. Why would you care if the non existant wire for the boost gauge existed or not???? Does nothing but drive a gauge. I must be misreading this, because the ECU needed a fuel cut defender b/t it and the pressure sensor, to my way of thinking if boosting above stock.

Chris Ng

You can't compare AnalogKidd's experience with the FCD with Kabooski's ..
Analog's problem could possibly stem from a bad FCD unit.. however Kabooski should not be blaming the FCD with blowing his motor.. The FCD did it's job.. it got rid of fuelcut .. that's all there is too it .. If the motor went because of a lean condition then you can blame poor tuning or improper fuel and timing setup .. with your frankenstien na/t2 conversion, the likeliness of something going wrong is even higher..
What about this scenario.. You were boosting to 10 psi using an N/A ECU which was never had the proper timing and fueling maps built in to compensate for boost.. During your hard runs with this set up, although you did not blow your motor, you were weakening it.. You swapped over to the proper ECU then decided to try and see if you could hit fuel cut .. Each time a car hits fuel cut you are weakening the seals even more..your rear rotor which was probably already weakend was now weakened more by cutting fuel on boost.. HOw many times were you "testing" to hit fuelcut?
Now you go buy an FCD.. It did as it was supposed to.. it eliminated the fuel cut.. unfortunately your motor decides to finally give out a few days after.. How can you blame the FCD?? If you went out and bought a gun, and one day accidently shot your dog.. are you going to blame the gun??
There are plenty of people using FCD's, and with the proper set up they are great.. The people who blame the FCD for blowing their motor are using it as a scapegoat rather then having to place the blame on themselves..

RETed

Holy crap - how is it killing the ECU's?&nbsp Are you using a used FCD, or did you buy it new from RB?&nbsp I think it's rather fishy that the RB FCD is burning the ECU's out like crazy...



-Ted

kabooski

No sorry Chris I'm no newbie to Mazda's

I used EVERYTHING TII (ecu etc) on My GXL
except the driver side Harness
and then put the same exact stuff on a TII


The boost sensor and the Boost guage
work together to determine manifold pressure and fuel cut

The GXL harness that attaches to the dash guages
does not HAVE a boost sensing connector
there for the ECU can not know to cut fuel

The factory boost guage is electrical and not mechanical
it is dependent on the boost sensor
this is where it gets it's reading


The TII motor on my GXL ran perfect for a year
ask Tim(Little Donny) and Andres
both of which have seen my car and how great it ran

Chris Ng

I must of misread your post, and thought you were running the n/a ECU with the turbo setup.. appologies .. However I don't belive the guage has anything to do with fuelcut.. The ECU is still recieveing pressure readings from the pressure sensor.. My old T2 had an n/a guage panel in it .. no boost sensor.. Car ran fine and would reach fuel cut.. I then replaced the cluster with a T2 cluster, however I removed the voltmeter from the n/a and replaced the boost guage with it.. again, everything worked without a hitch, fuelcut and all..

kabooski

yes but your dashboard Harness has the connector
for the boost guage
Only the N/A Harness lacks this

I put the same ECU
same boost sensor
same AFM
same injector harness
same fuel pump
same resistor pack
everything onto the TII body
from the GXL
Only then did I hit Fuel Cut
when on the GXL which had NO FCD at all
never hit fuel cut , not even when I would spike
(s4 turbo) to 13+PSI sometimes on a cool night
and car never ran lean
I checked the plugs right after a hard run

Anderson

You mean Anderson

NZConvertible

This is the second time you’ve said this, so I’ll point out your mistake again. If you read the wiring diagrams, you’ll see that the pressure sensor and the boost gauge share no common wiring. They are both wired into the ECU separately from each other. The pressure sensor signal is an input, the boost gauge signal is an output. So not having a boost gauge in the car is not going to have any effect of the manifold pressure signal sent to the ECU. I don’t know where you got that idea, but it’s wrong.
Considering the way the car was being run, I’d say there are many other reasons why your motor could have leaned out. Blaming the FCD is just the easy way out.

AnalogKidd, It sounds to me you have a faulty FCD, possibly some swapped wires. You should be taking this problem up with RB, not having a rant here and saying the FCD is a POS. There are so many of these things out there working fine, your one bad experience is obviously an exception, not the rule. No manufacturer gets it right 100% of the time, and it’s just your bad luck you got a dud one. Talk to RB and try to get them to replace the ECU. You will need to prove your case though.

Rpeck

Get a reprogramed ECU for $295 you can include your mods list when you send it, and it's programed to act as a FCD at the same time.

TonyTurboII

Hm, RB FCD worked fine for me too. Then I sold it. Standalone time

HAILERS

The schematic for a 87 turboii:

merlin

looking at the wirring diagram that u guys supplied
there is no way I can see that the FCD caused the ECU to fail

the wire which joins to 2a on the ecu is the 5v wire
I can tell this because it also goes to tps and so on

the wire which joins to 2c is the 0v wire as it is on the back/out side of most other sensors as well as the pressure/map sensor

the wire which joins to 2b is the signal wire
the ecu is looking to see where the signal is on the 0v to 5v scale so at a given voltage it will shut off the fuel

ALL other ecus that I have played with cannot be damaged by swapping these wire around it just means that u loose ur boost gauge and map sensor

Have u guys bothered to talk to RB ???

The Ace

I havent chimed in already, but I guess now is a good time...

you cannt fry your ECU (or any other electronic equipment) unless you exceed its voltage INPUT specs, or short-circuit it. I think all the inputs are protected by at least 12VA internal fuses, and you cannt short-circuit something ON THE OUTSIDE. Since the FCD is a closed "blackbox" and you didnt do anything to alter it, then its most likely something else

TheAnalogKiddd

iTrader: (2)

quote from merlin:
------------------
looking at the wirring diagram that u guys supplied
there is no way I can see that the FCD caused the ECU to fail
------------------
and
quote from The Ace:
------------------
you cannt fry your ECU (or any other electronic equipment) unless you exceed its voltage INPUT specs, or short-circuit it. I think all the inputs are protected by at least 12VA internal fuses, and you cannt short-circuit something ON THE OUTSIDE. Since the FCD is a closed "blackbox" and you didnt do anything to alter it, then its most likely something else
------------------


look.. fellas.. I don't know HOW it happened but it's as clear as day that the FCD is at fault..

Before I had upgraded my fuel pump, installed a boost gauge and popped the fcd in before the car wouldn't start.. I got Mazda's $430 "professional" opinion that the ecu was bad. Any of those things could have caused it, but not this time. Yesterday my car was running great and I decided to give the FCD a second chance b/c I had convinced myself that it couldn't have been the problem.. well I put it in and the car wouldn't start, just as before.. I don't suppose there's a way to reverse it?


quote from rpeck:
-----------------
Get a reprogramed ECU for $295 you can include your mods list when you send it, and it's programed to act as a FCD at the same time.
-----------------

I was kinda looking into this, where exactly do I go?


quote from NZConvertible:
-------------------------
AnalogKidd, It sounds to me you have a faulty FCD, possibly some swapped wires. You should be taking this problem up with RB, not having a rant here and saying the FCD is a POS. There are so many of these things out there working fine, your one bad experience is obviously an exception, not the rule. No manufacturer gets it right 100% of the time, and it’s just your bad luck you got a dud one. Talk to RB and try to get them to replace the ECU. You will need to prove your case though.
-------------------------

I'm entitled to an opinion aren't I?


quote from RETed:
-----------------
Holy crap - how is it killing the ECU's? Are you using a used FCD, or did you buy it new from RB? I think it's rather fishy that the RB FCD is burning the ECU's out like crazy...
-----------------

Hey Ted, not sure how.. it was new.. I agree..

do you have any more TII ecu's?