20V ECU caps

[sergei]

Here I was getting my 20v (that I don't drive any more) ready for WOF, and when I started it ran really funny, I was WTF?
I had a hunch that was ECU related as the VVT light (yeah, I was young and stupid when I put it in) blinked very often and faint on idle, car refused to rev as well, when I disconected VVT solenoid it would run better but still not right.

So I pulled ECU out and opened it, and C103(? 100uF 10V) spilled its guts on the board. I replaced it with some random 100uF 16V cap that I found in my electronics parts stash.

Now car runs fine, goes very well, only thing is either I didn't clean up properly the electrolyte off the board, or some other cap is about to go, as the VVT is still intermittently at 1.5V to 3V on idle and it was coming on randomly as well.

My plan of actions is to get WOF tomorrow and buy brand new caps, and replace them in weekends (I plan to replace every electrolytic cap that is there).

Is it common for that 100uF cap to fail?
Is it worth replacing every single cap that is on that board, or only 100uF ones are the faulty batch?

P.S. to neo: man you lucky that you sold me that ECU otherwise you would have to be dealing with these caps on your drive car. How is that mines ecu going, are you happy with it, or you find it so-so?

[AceSniper]

there are 3main caps that go, but why not do them all while your there, they also died in my sard ecu moons ago

[neo]

dolp..

The mines ecu is going good.. I looovvves driving the racecar

Did you notice this when you put the ecu in? I never had problems with it . .

[sergei]

dolp..

The mines ecu is going good.. I looovvves driving the racecar

Did you notice this when you put the ecu in? I never had problems with it . .

Nah, it was fine, until it sat for month and I started it yesterday.

I had only 1 100uF cap at the time, I needed to make ecu run for WOF.
I just disconnected VVT and let it go through wof.

What I saw there were 3 smaller electrolytes and 1 bigger. I would probably just get them all.

[ChaosAD]

Replace all the brown nichicon (sp?) electrolytics

[MAGN1T]

Under normal working conditions electrolytic caps are good for about 7 years and that's it. To see so many EFId cars still running is a sign that stock auto electronics are top quality when compared with consumer electronics.

Steve

[sergei]

Under normal working conditions electrolytic caps are good for about 7 years and that's it. To see so many EFId cars still running is a sign that stock auto electronics are top quality when compared with consumer electronics.

Steve

From my experience I have seen 20-30yo stuff (amps/tvs/scopes/etc) still going strong, while stuff from about mid `90 and onwards is having major capacitor problem.
While back home in soviet union I never had 1 faulty electrolytic capacitor, only failures I have encountered were due to voltage spikes and blown semiconductors.

I believe it is because of lots of counterfeit caps are on the market, and shift from local manufacture to Chinese manufacture where workers are getting paid less, which equates to lower level of work ethics (and worse quality control).

[Mr Revhead]

It's true! Older stuff lasts longer!

[MAGN1T]

Plus making capacitors smaller so they fit in a smaller space and have less thermal mass and less surface area to get rid of heat. It's always heat that kills them in the end.

Steve