truelove

well, i'd been having problems with the idle on my car for about a month. it liked to dip below idle and then rev back up to where it was supposed to be. very irratic idle basically, very annoying and very unpredictable. the only time it would be guaranteed to do it is on a cold start when i leave for work every morning.

anyway, yesterday my dealer installed the newest version of the ECU and the newest software (my car was one of the first in the country with the 1.8 L engine). it worked!! no more problem at all. in fact, my car runs better and smoother than when i bought it. it's smooth as silk sitting at idle. you can't even tell the car is on at a red light, no shutters or even the slightest vibration just like an MB should be. it's easier to shift and take off too because the RPMs don't drop as quickly when you get on the clutch as it did before, must be a new feature thrown in the new software.

anyway, if anything changes or the problem comes back i'll be sure to be pissed and let all you know about it. but for now, my car is running wonderfully. smoother than when i picked it up.

MarkL

Cool -- so do you think the idle problem after the harness replacement was just a coincidence?

truelove

it seems that way. i actually didn't notice it until about 3 days after the harness replacement and the dude checked every connection for me and everything was fine. maybe it did it before the harness replacement and i just didn't notice it. who knows.

tifosiv122

Not even close...if you got bixenons you could not have gotten the first batch. I picked mine up in October '02 and I wan't one of the first...if I am not mistaken, yours came in December '02...

Glad your problem was fixed, I know its been bothering you a while.

Erik

truelove

good memory. okay okay, so i assumed a little bit. anyway, my point was that they have improved on the hardware and software since my car was made. sorry.

i would sort of still consider my car one of the first ones considering the new engine will probably be around for years to come with many revisions of hardware and software. anyway, i'm just trying desperately to make myself not look like an idiot. is it working?

tifosiv122

LOL, I didn't mean to yell at you, just wanted to save you from looking dumb outside of the forum...I remember when you picked up your car because you had several (ok like 20) posts before and after delivery...about the car and the wait...I am not complaining, I am just telling you why I remembered it...

Erik

codex57

Cool! Good thing it appears to just be a minor problem and nothing major.

jpb5151

Great news, Truelove. You paid money, you should enjoy what you got. Glad it's fixed.

truelove

i don't know if i'd consider a hardware/software problem in the engine controller a minor problem but it is fixed nonetheless.

breastroker

truelove,
Did the dealer give you any papers that listed the parts replaced and the part numbers of the new ECU? Do they have any sort of recall or you just have to complain enough?

Also a list of symptoms that they accepted as needing the new ECU and software. I sometimes have the dipping below idle, my car was also built in Dec 02 so I may need the same parts.

Thanks for the updates.

truelove

yup, it's probably the same problem i had. there is no recall issued. all i did was complain about it and they couldn't find anything else wrong so the only thing left to do was replace the ECU. i have no part number. they just installed the most recent version of hardware and software.

all my car would do is dip below idle (800 RPM) to about 500 or 600 RPM and then rev back up to 800 again pretty quickly. somtimes it would just waver back and forth slowly and sometimes it would do it very quickly so much that it was hard to start in 1st gear smoothly. it was worse on a cold start but it would do it anytime i was sitting at idle.

if you have any more questions, just let me know.