[emkay456]

Where is the ECM on the Swift located ?

[Swifty2008]

Originally Posted by emkay456

Where is the ECM on the Swift located ?

For Swift, it's located behind the instrument panel. The connectors are easily accessible and is located at the bottom leftside of the instrument cluster(Exactly on top of the clutch pedal).

[ajayr]

Does anyone know where it is located in Palio?

[vikram_d]

Originally Posted by emkay456

Where is the ECM on the Swift located ?

Originally Posted by Swifty2008

For Swift, it's located behind the instrument panel. The connectors are easily accessible and is located at the bottom leftside of the instrument cluster(Exactly on top of the clutch pedal).

The ECM itself is located behind the glovebox. THE OBD port is located in the place mentioned by swifty.

[Technocrat]

Crossposting from a Yahoo group that I am a member of

Yesterday night, went for a wedding to an outskirtish area of East Delhi. As it was one of those 'wedding days' + Akshay Tritya gold rush, we were caught in one of the craziest traffic jams that I have seen. For a distance that should not take more than 30 mins, it took well over 2 hrs to reach. As most time that was supposed to be spent in the wedding was eaten up by the traffic jam, we came out of the wedding in barely 1/2 hr or so.

Came back to the car, and the front passenger side door was in unlocked position. I was pretty sure I had locked it - and double checked it, as I do it always. Once inside the car, I saw connectors hanging and some of the plastic sheeting of the front 'under dashboard' area ripped. Immediately one remembered a TOI article last year of spurt in ECM thefts of cars. My fears of the worst came true, and I realised that the damn thing had just got stolen!

As my 1998 model M800 is grounded since the last over 3 months awaiting an engine overhaul job, I am using my sister's car, as she is out of the country for some time. This is an M800 5 Speed, MPFI. We were stuck in the middle of nowhere, and the time was 11:30 PM. Help materialised at some 1:00 AM and the vehicle was towed by a guest's Indica all the way to our place, driving at some 5-10 km/hr. Rope was provided by the tenthouse wala. We finally reached home, braving mad trucks at some 3:30 AM finally, after some 7 snappings of the tow line!

Coming to the ECM. This is the 'brain' of any MPFI car. The only way to get the car going anywhere after it is stolen is to tow it / crane it. The device costs about 15,000 Rupees. It takes 3 minutes to remove it, after access is made to the inside of the car. The device sits under the dashboard, on the passenger side, fastened by 2 easy to remove screws. It appears Maruti chaps have deliberately positioned the device to be stolen with ease, considering that even after 25 years of production of the vehicle, all that you need to open the lock of the door, is to slide a scale in the window beading and press the locking mechanism lever inside. This was the most probable way of gaining access to our car by the thief. ECM thefts I learnt (on google, at night - after returning home) are significantly on the rise in Delhi. They target M 800 as it is easy to open the car. Other favourite models are Swift, Alto and Wagon-R. ECM thefts being lucrative, there is a significant drop in tyre, stereo, etc. thefts in cars, as it takes more effort with less return for a thief to steal these other things.

The least Maruti could have done for its customers would have been to fasten the device with say 40 screws, if it was not possible to shield it altogether. This way, time taken to remove the device would have been at
least some deterrent to thieves.

Maruti service chaps say, there are 11 types of ECMs in use in different models of 800. To tell me which one mine uses, they want the engine + chassis number. That too they will tell me only if I buy the device from them. So if I go looking for the device in the chorbazaar (where it sells for anything between 2 - 6 K) looks to be out of question.

Has any one faced this issue earlier? If you have not faced it, it might be a good idea to do something to fortify the ECM in your vehicle, especially if it from the Maruti stable.

To think of it, when I had read the newspaper article last year, I thought that thankfully our car was an 'old one' with a good old carb and no MPFI and ECM. Did not realise that I would despite this, be badly hit not far away in the future!

Rajeev.

Anybody knows if the claims made by service guys is correct?

[GTO]

Maruti service chaps say, there are 11 types of ECMs in use in different models of 800. To tell me which one mine uses, they want the engine + chassis number.

Could be (though don't think it would be as high as 11). 800's meeting different pollution norms, 5 speed versus 4 speed etc.

[NetfreakBombay]

And calling / emailing Maruti might help here. They ought to give Part number or some other ID for this part after verifying credentials.

[Throttler]

Originally Posted by ImmortalZ

IIRC, the engine immobilizer code in many cars are built into the ECU. How would a stolen ECU work in another car with a different key in that case?

I too wonder what a theif can do with a ECU which is combined with Transponder based immobilizers which are common on a lot of high end vehicle these days. Such an ECU will never work on another vehicle.

But then again a theif is not smart enough to know what car has what and he will steal it anyways.

I hope the OEM's will look into securing the ECU's properly.

[Technocrat]

Thats only in the new cars the old one's dont have immobilizer built in the ECU.

[greenhorn]

do non CRDI diesel engines have an ECM ( like my TCIC indica ?)

[Technocrat]

I think they should, who else otherwise controls the sensors?

[ImmortalZ]

I think just about any car with MPFI has some kind of ECU in it. The most basic ones control sparking to modern car ECUs which control everything from the engine to the central locking.

I did some research about Honda ECUs and the immobilizer system. It appears that the only way one can reprogram the immobilizer system is with a very expensive dealer only tool that Honda provides. They require the VIN and engine serial numbers to reprogram either the ECU or the waveblade key. Funnily enough, none of the Type-R cars have the immobilizer (Civic/Integra) and thus their ECUs are a favorite of tuners to run in engine swapped cars without standalones/K-Pro.

[shineshine]

Originally Posted by ajayr

Does anyone know where it is located in Palio?

Here it is. For Palio its Right on the Engine bay and it seems to be the easiest to remove.

[ask77]

Originally Posted by shineshine

Here it is. For Palio its Right on the Engine bay and it seems to be the easiest to remove.

Optra too has the ECM situated inside the engine bay next to the firewall. although it is completely sealed I always watch out when I get my Car serviced to avoid direct spray of water on it. I wonder what is the logic behind putting the ECM in the hot and dusty engine bay instead of the cool and relatively dust free environment of the inside cabin ?

[ImmortalZ]

Less wiring length to the injectors, spark plugs and sensors. With all the electronics, variable valve timing and such wizardry, having the ECU right in the middle of it all for the least signal lag makes sense.