Reseting an ECU.

Soldato
Joined
23 Mar 2003
Posts
2,651
Location
Scotland
My troublesome 307 is playing up again.

I was driving down the road in the rain and then all of a sudden my car goes into limp home mode with the message Anti pollution fault. My car was then stuck at 2000 RPM rev limit. After restarting the car a couple of times the rev limit has removed but my car is still in anti pollution mode.

My question is will it be possible for me to reset these error codes without takeing it to a garage or is it a garage job?

I want to try reseting it before any work gets done as i am almost certain its yet another faulty sensor or damp etc?
 
Usually disconnecting the battery for 5 mins resets the ECU...

However, some error codes will not go depending on car.
 
On the 306 just disconnecting the battery for 10mins or so does it. Guessing it's the same? Dunno though sorry :)
 
A lot of engine tools will be able to reset the ecu. My mate at a local garage has one and wouldnt charge for the reset.

Not sure what Pug would ask for a reset, but loads of private garages would be able to rest warning lights if thats what you wanted.
 
Can I step in here. There is no real such thing as 'resetting' an ECU. If you did that it would have to be reprogrammed to the car as if it was a brand new unit installed by the dealer. The term 'resetting the ECU' is pub talk from the 'ZOMGZZWALLHACK!!!!! relearn your style and gain 5bhp' crowd. Its not going to happen and is more pshycological than anything else.

As has been said, you can disconnect it from the battery, but they all have CMOS in and this retains the fundamental parameters of the cars data, such as, 'I'm a petrol, i'm a 2litre, etc, etc. This cant be reset.

However, on 'some' cars, disconnecting the battery does power down the ECUs memory and 'can' cause the car to enter a learn mode. This does not mean that you'll gain power unfortunately.

Anyway, on to your problem. You got a damp ECU, get it to a dealer ASAP to avoid a ££££££££ bill.
 
I dont think any of us thought reseting the ecu would gain power?


Nor did any of us think differently to what 'reseting the ecu' means? :confused:
 
Almeda said:
The term 'resetting the ECU' is pub talk from the 'ZOMGZZWALLHACK!!!!! relearn your style and gain 5bhp' crowd. Its not going to happen and is more pshycological than anything else.

Similar to the "Rebooting your PC" when talking about formatting the hard disk? ;)
 
I go to my mates garage to reset (yes reset Almeda :) ) the ecu back to normal. (a lot of the time aswell :()

***** mondeo lol

Amps, sounds as if a reset wont help as the error will come up again. Get it to a garage.
 
LOLZ, no I know it wasnt mentioned specifically here, but looking through some past posts it seems that some people think that disconnecting your battery and 'resetting' your ECU after some other mods will suddenly make them all work together in complete harmony and gain the best out of the mods undertaken.

Thought i'd clear it up before it went OT, errrr, yeah

/runz :o
 
ecu's with self learn WILL make tweaks to the running on the fly. Usually takes a couple of hundred miles to adjust though, if you have done some mods on the engine, resetting the self learn memory will make it relearn faster. Differences are hardly huge though.
 
Almeda said:
As has been said, you can disconnect it from the battery, but they all have CMOS in and this retains the fundamental parameters of the cars data, such as, 'I'm a petrol, i'm a 2litre, etc, etc. This cant be reset.

Nearly. They generaly don't have battery backed CMOS RAM like your PC's BIOS does. Firmware is simply stored in some kind of non-voltaile memory such as EPROM or Flash. What is being reset are the correction tables which are generated during normal running but which are stored in volatile RAM.
 
The light disapeared when i started my car the following day.

I blaim the fault on french electrics and this damp wheather.
 
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