ECU Location

Hi all,

Bit of a newbie question this one; go easy with me :wink:

Where is the 'ECU & ECU Main Plug' located in a standard Puma 1.7 please ?

I'm on the hunt for the white/blue wire that goes into PIN 58. but haven't got a clue where the ECU main plug (or the ECU itself) is on my kat

Thanks.

In the passenger footwell, behind the carpet on the left hand side is where the ECU sits. It may be behind a riveted on panel, or someone may have removed the panel in the past to access it.

Peter said:

In the passenger footwell, behind the carpet on the left hand side is where the ECU sits. It may be behind a riveted on panel, or someone may have removed the panel in the past to access it.

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Perfect, thank you :thumbs:

Would unplugging the main plug cause any issues with the ECU / car, eg transponder / alarm / radio codes wise ?

Cheers :grin:

Mmmm, have peeled back carpet in passenger footwell and not seeing anything like that described above (not doubting you Peter, just can't see panel, rivets or indeed anything!).... just beige 'padding' stuff.

Pic of left side of passenger footwell :-



and this is towards the right hand side of the pax footwell :-



....or are we saying that it's underneath that thick, beige, fibrey stuff? .....can't seem to see a way in there other than ripping it?

Cheers for the help.

i would have thought it would have been on the side where the diagnostic socket is,not actually in the footwell itself,as it would get damaged there....

martinthrapston said:

i would have thought it would have been on the side where the diagnostic socket is,not actually in the footwell itself,as it would get damaged there....

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Maybe you're right Martin, and I'm "too low down" here... just with Peter saying in the passenger footwell. It's too dark to check now even with a torch, so I'll take a squire in the morning, a bit higher up, behind the glovebox, to the left.

Side of the footwell, red button is on top of the diagnostic socket, black box just under the glovebox on that pic is the ECU box as described. Need to drill the rivets out with a 5mm drill and slide the metal cover downwards, the ECU will then follow.

You're a star Ian, cheers :thumbs:

One last question, is the diagnostic socket the same as the ECU main plug, or are they different things?

many thanks

ecu main plug is the big plug that plugs into the side of the ecu, the diag port is just that, for plugging diag stuff in, its actually called an OBD port

Cheers Steve.

You know above, where I said "one last question....." ?

well I lied! :crazy:

This is a pic of my ECU, still in position on the car, in the passenger footwell. Could anyone tell me if the wire loom that is circled in red, is coming off of the main ECU plug?



........basically I am wanting to run a switch off one of the wires off the ECU main plug, so I don't want to have to break the rivets and remove the ECU if I don't have to. The wire I am looking for is PIN 58, almost always blue/white, I am told, and guess what there is a single blue/white wire within the loom in that pic above. Is the concensus that this wire is coming off the ECU main plug? ....

For those interested, a switch off this PIN 58 wire will remove the Torque Limiter from the car, without deactivating the speedo, even in 1st gear, and even with digital speedos. :grin: ... so this is an alternative to the switch running off the speed sensor, but this way, the whole wiring stays in the car (nothing coming from engine bay to cockpit), and as above, the speedo is not lost at all.

Many thanks.

If it goes in to the ODB port then yeah, same loom. Best to remove it to have a look though, I can't be sure.

Do also bear in mind the torque limiter is there to protect your box from premature failure.

Thanks Ian, I'll look a little closer at this loom.

Re: Torque Limiter. Having tried the Puma with the Torque Limiter bypassed, I consider the limiter to be too much of a compromise for me. That's just my personal take though, based on my Puma being an occasional use, £900 quid 2nd car. I guess I could say I accept the risk of IB5 or driveshaft failures :grin:

Also limiter will rarely be switched off; just for occasional use. :grin:

Thanks again.

Also limiter will rarely be switched off; just for occasional use.

Hmmmmm, methinks you lie, but yes IB5s and driveshafts are quite cheap although painfull to replace.

JonB said:

Also limiter will rarely be switched off; just for occasional use.

Hmmmmm, methinks you lie, but yes IB5s and driveshafts are quite cheap although painfull to replace.

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Ha ha .... seriously, I'm no Boy Racer (I'm not a Boy anything anymore lol!... celebrating my 40th this year :-( )..... I don't drive fast either in normal use, but I do like to have the maximum potential of the car, for the odd 'squirt' where I want to enjoy it. Thus most of the last few cars I've had have been TDi's which I've had remapped; even though I certainly don't use the 'released' performance much at all.

Just awaiting my toggle on/off switch coming in the post tomorrow, then will be fitting my bypass. :grin: ..... still haven't decided whether to wire the switch in from the VSS or from this ECU wire.

Where did you find this info?

ScubaSteve said:

Where did you find this info?

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It's on another forum, with a thread where a number of people were doing the VSS bypass, and a guy came along and said that this wasn't necessary as running the switch off this ECU wire had the same effect on the Torque Limiter, but did not stop the speedo at all, because that wire is post-digi dash if you like.

So the wire from the VSS goes to the digi dash first, then to the ECU. Putting the switch in between the VSS and digidash (ie from the engine bay) will result in the signal to the speedo being cut when the TL is bypassed as we know ......... but wiring the switch between the digidash and ECU (via this PIN 58 wire) results in only the Torque Limiter signal being interrupted, with no loss of speedo.

A few people then tried it and reported back it had worked ........ but clearly I haven't tried it yet and seeing is believing as they say :wink:

But I have identified the wire, so will hopefully try it - if it does not work, the wire can easily be re-joined.

I can't find the thread to hand, but it may have been on 'Puma People'... I had googled either "Ford Puma torque limiter" or "Ford Puma Speed Sensor Switch" (done both) and I think the thread was on Page 2.

The poster was I think called Adrian XXXXXX.

Cheers.

So to tap into the blue/white wire to do the TL mod, I basically just have to cut the ONE blue/white wire, expose the copper and connect it back up via a switch?

Crude diagram below.

wire>>>------- cut --------<<<wire
................|...|.................

|...| = wires to switch?

also, what are the negatives to doing this? i seen someone mention the drive shaft?

negatives are you run the risk of premature gearbox failure, and the risk is actually quite high when you look at the ford failure rates of testing without the limiter

oh, well that's a no no for me then as my gearbox is already on its way out...bye :roll: