Wanted: CA18DE ecu

charlcater · Post by **charlcater** » Mon May 17, 2010 11:00 am

hi guys,
I own a box shape sentra 1.8 16 valve twin cam with CA18DE engine. It started misfiring on one cylinder recently and the fault was traced to the ECU.

Any idea of where I could track down a replacement one / have it fixed around cape town?

It's reasonably urgent, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

300sx · Post by **300sx** » Mon May 17, 2010 1:59 pm

not to be clever or anything, but are you SURE its the ecu? those engines have a well known issue with their ignitors , which often gives the symtom you describe.. ??

reason i ask, i have NEVER heard of the ignition transistors inside the ecu going..

charlcater · Post by **charlcater** » Mon May 17, 2010 2:14 pm

yep, unfortunately so. I've had a misfire before, which turned out to be a shot coil, but apparently not in this case.

I hear what you're saying though. It might be worth just getting a second opinion.

300sx · Post by **300sx** » Mon May 17, 2010 11:23 pm

yeah i really would get a second opinion, i think it might be worth it..

i dont know if you know how the ca18 ignition system works, but the coils gets fired by the ignitor, which gets trigered by the ecu.. so the ecu is not the part that has a lot of current flowing through it, the ignitor flows the current neccesary to fire the coils.. and its the ignitor that fails 99% of the time.. good luck

charlcater · Post by **charlcater** » Tue May 18, 2010 9:49 am

Thanks for the info! Spoke to the mechanic again and the fault actually does lie with the ignitor, as you predicted.

So it seems I'm now looking for an ignitor...