smoking ecu. crap.

:flame: How bad is it?

A hwhile ago my battery drained down when I threw my serpentine belt and had to limp to a parking lot. I changed the siezed alternator and took it for a test drive, but I didn't drive it long enough to charge the battery back up. I let the car Jeep sit for a month.

Yesterday I put a brand new battery in it. When I tried to start it...SMOKE started rolling out of the engine bay! The ECU (?) behind the driver's side headlight was smoking really bad. I unhooked the battery before it caught on fire.

:helpme:

I think I fried the ECU and that sounds expensive.

WHat year?

1991 I6 automatic

You let out the magic smoke. This is bad. You will need a new ECU. Most likely you got the battery hooked up backwards. Other possible things that got damaged include the TCU, ignition module, and alternator. Hopefully your radio was not turned on.

Saw this happen on a 97 subaru legacy, all said and done the total was $2500 in parts ecu,igniter,airbag moduel,radio,etc. Ant the tow truck guy thought he was doing a favor by replacing the main fusible link with mechanics wire to linmp it home!

Dang Id install an inline fuse when you replace the ECU

I just went thru this. Not sure if the person b-4 me hooked up jumpers wrong or not, but they fried the ECU. When I installed a batt. it started smoking.

We tested everything ...twice...just to make sure there was not a short and after frying our brains testing for shorts we finally connected the ECU that a member was nice enought to let me have for $50.....moment of truth...key on...no smoke....turn to start....no smoke....crank..it starts after sitting in a barn for a year.....now I have a 91'(to add to the collection) with only a 100k on it, good body, great interior. only paid $200. In all fairness we did offer it back to the girl for the $200+$50 for the ECU, she declined, said it would have sat in the barn and rotted.
Be methodical, TAKE your time testing, ask questions, theres a ton of knowledge in here(5-90, Langer, Old Man and so on).You don't want to keep buying ECU's, they wont get cheaper.
If you need a 91' wiring diagram PM me.