Does anyone know a place that offers ECU virginizing services? The ECU on my 2020 A35 got fried so I bought a used one from the junk yard and took the car to a local mechanic that specializes in Benzes, and he said that it's encrypted so he can't virginize it in order to program it to work with my car.

I'm now looking for a place where I could mail the ECU to have it wiped/programmed (or at the very least virginized) and sent back. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Sellers on eBay offer that service

 

Yeah I imagine I can find someone on eBay or Google. Just looking for someone who has experience with a place and can vouch for the reliability.

 

You will have a hard time getting this done. This ECU has the newest DAS4 encryption from Mercedes Benz. Send me a PM with your VIN number and I will see what I can do. Even if you get it virginized, you will not be able to personalize it to the vehicle because of the encryption.

 

I have a 2014 ml550, and my mechanic informs me that the ECU has been permeated with oil and needs to be replaced and reprogrammed. He doesn't have the necessary computers and equipment to do so and informs me that if he buys this new unit he will have the ability to do so. This is been going on way too long. Does the ml550 ECU have the burdensome restrictions from Mercedes-Benz as the newer models? If not, how do I go about getting a refurbished, or used, ECU reprogrammed to match my vehicle?
Please advise,
Michael L

 

From what I heard they started encrypting the ECUs in 2018, so your older model should be OK. Just get a used one with the same part number from a junk yard or eBay, and get it reprogrammed by someone with the equipment to do so.

 

Mbnl550, have you tried cleaning the ecu?
If it does work, or can get it working after a cleaning, you can clone a junkyard ecu for ~$60. I paid ~$200 for my junkyard ecu, + the $60, and good to go.
If you had oil then you also have to deal with that or it'll simply do it to the replacement ecu.
I can explain how to clean yours, make the junkyard one work, and fix your oil issue. Few are interested in any of that and would rather pay to have it done. After you get the quote, which could exceed $10k, people become more open minded.

 

How do I clean my ecu? I'm not a mechanic but I am curious as all get out. Explain it to me, and I will do it.

 

Just as an update to this, I sent my donor ECU, starter module and key off to a place in California that said they could program it. Despite initially saying it should take about a week, they had the unit for 2 months. They said the system was newer than what they had experience with and would keep trying, and then eventually they said that they'd need to order a new module for it to work, and had me fill out a bunch of paperwork to do so. Then they came back and said that I had to pay for the module, and it would be around $1500 USD, which was too much. I ended up buying a remanufactured ECU for cheaper than that and had the dealer program it to work with my car.

That is the end of my ECU journey. Lesson learned.

 

Where did you send your ECU? And where did you buy the reman? I'm currently dealing with a dead one as well.

 

I don't remember the name of the place but they're listed in eBay for that service and are located in California. Depends on your model though since they weren't able to fix mine in the end.
I got the remanufactured one from on online OEM Mercedes parts web site. Just Google Mercedes OEM parts online and it'll be in the top 3. The one I purchased from was in Canada so you might want to try the American version. Then you gotta get it programmed, which I did at the dealer but apparently other places can do too.

 

Google returns too many sites. Could you provide the actual site you used? Thanx

 

There aren't that have that sell all OEM parts. I only see 3, and they're the top 3 results in Google.
I used mbparts.ca. The American versions have the same site layout.
Also the place I sent the ECU was diagspeed.com I believe.

 

Mbnl550 Sorry, it seems I didn't see your re: until now. You can use electric contact cleaner, which I believe is "Trich" as people call it. 1.1.1 Trich something. Unless they banned it, because they like to ban stuff that works really well.
Otherwise I suppose I would use carb cleaner. Or dish soap and hot water, then rinse with pure DI, distilled or whatever clean water to get all the nasty water and soap off. Dry completely and it should be fine. I wouldn't soak the thing in water, or solvent, you just want to get the gist of it off the surface of the board. Not so easy to get off the back side, but the back (top where the cooling fins are) should be clean unless you/someone turned it upside down. If a mechanic opened it up, he turned it upside down... You can still clean it, it would just be more of a pita.
You can also put something in the ECU, like paper towels or whatever to absorb oil. And/or you can also make a little drain hole if you want so it just drips out.
I'd copy the ECU before I do anything, just in case. No just for the cleaning, but if the ECU dies at any point after you have that data to put on a junkyard ECU. Without that data you're looking thousand$ to fix it. To copy the data I used a KESS from aliexpress, which is like $60. Easy peezy. If you want to go that route, PM me (so I get the msg) and I can tell you more, like the Tricore option you should buy with it, and one part of the instructions you do NOT want to follow. There are other ways to copy the ECU, but the KESS is powerful and super cheap.

For your oil issue, I wrote a spiel on how to stop it here. Seems nobody else has tried it, and I can't understand why because I think it's awesome:
https://mbworld.org/forums/gl-class-...ml#post8771425
I rekon it's been well over two years since I did that mod and zero oil at the ECU plug, which I checked again a couple weeks ago. The only change I made was I added a third line at some point because a third sensor was wet. The oil collects in a small bottle and last time I emptied it it had maybe 20 drops of oil in it. Not sure how long since I emptied it before that, but if I had to guess I'd go with 6 months?