1.4 Meridian ECU Replacement

[wainwrightj]

So my brother recently passed his test and we're trying to get my old 1.4 Meridian back on the road.

Unfortunately it failed the MOT



During my ownership of the car I paid around £400 for the ECU to be reprogrammed (not that I ever got a receipt or any proof of it being done) to fix an issue (which it did) with the idle dropping completely and stalling the car. This was done after I had bought a new ICV and TPS but before the MOT in 2016 (see picture).

To get it through the MOT in 2016 I bought an 'NGK Oxygen Sensor' and a 'Type Approved BM Cat' (quoted from invoice) costing £269.96 including labour. So all in all spent over £600 getting the car that only cost £600 running. I stopped driving it February 2017 and it's been parked in the drive ever since.

Now as you can see from the photo it failed again due to the same emissions problems as before and the garage is saying its the ECU that's gone, I struggle to believe this but maybe he knows what he's talking about. We only kept the car around after I stopped driving it because of the money spent on it and don't really want to have to spend anything more on it.

So my question is could I buy an identical second hand ECU and stick it in the car? Or is there more too it than this? Does it need to be reprogrammed or anything?

If anyone thinks it's anything other than a faulty ECU I'd love to hear suggestions.

[P-Courty]

I had the same sort of problem with my 1.4 Meridian but didn't try the ecu route as that was never mentioned to me.

I changed air filter & throttle body (from after market back to standard), temp sensor, thermostat, lambda sensor, injectors, spark plugs, icv, list goes on...

It kept failing as way too high on the 2nd idle, i could have done more (like the cat) but the mechanic i left it with to look at more (used him for years so do trust him) said even that was very unlikely to solve the issue.

So I gave up, cut my loses, broke it and got another car. Although the emissions was the only failure it had

Good look, hope you resolve it, will be interesting to see the outcome.

[wainwrightj]

I had the same sort of problem with my 1.4 Meridian but didn't try the ecu route as that was never mentioned to me.

I changed air filter & throttle body (from after market back to standard), temp sensor, thermostat, lambda sensor, injectors, spark plugs, icv, list goes on...

It kept failing as way too high on the 2nd idle, i could have done more (like the cat) but the mechanic i left it with to look at more (used him for years so do trust him) said even that was very unlikely to solve the issue.

So I gave up, cut my loses, broke it and got another car. Although the emissions was the only failure it had

Good look, hope you resolve it, will be interesting to see the outcome.

Yeah I feel like we'll end up going down that route to be honest (breaking)

I could use some bits off it for my HDi so it'll be good for that if nothing else

[Toms306]

No, you can't just fit another ECU as a straight swap. It is linked to the immobiliser and key fob chips.

If you can get the ECU from someone breaking, along with the immobiliser box (also wrongly known as a BSI) and the key fob immob chips and swap all of those, it should work fine.

Exhausts don't like sitting though, have you checked it for corrosion? I had a type approved cat & DPF from BM cats which was terrible quality!

[Rippthrough]

I seriously doubt it was the ECU to start with.
You've got a leak from the valve stem seals it says therre which would be most of the issue.

[Mighty306]

Ideally, get it hooked up to Peugeot Planet. It should give you a better idea what's going on.

The ECU wouldn't be the first thing I'd suspect. I think garages sometimes tell you something like that because they don't think it's worth trying to chase down a fault in a car of that age.

[wainwrightj]

I seriously doubt it was the ECU to start with.
You've got a leak from the valve stem seals it says therre which would be most of the issue.

That was an advisory in 2016

I'm not sure if you're trying to take the piss or not

EDIT: Sorry I mis-understood, I know what you mean now the MOT tester meant the valves where you pump the tyres up not the Valve Stem Seals just the Valve Stem

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No, you can't just fit another ECU as a straight swap.  It is linked to the immobiliser and key fob chips.  

If you can get the ECU from someone breaking, along with the immobiliser box (also wrongly known as a BSI) and the key fob immob chips and swap all of those, it should work fine.

Exhausts don't like sitting though, have you checked it for corrosion?  I had a type approved cat & DPF from BM cats which was terrible quality!

Okay thanks bud not sure then that'll be a lot of hassle for something that may not even fix it

I'll have a look at the exhaust if it's gone that would be sh***y given that it's only a couple years old

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Ideally, get it hooked up to Peugeot Planet. It should give you a better idea what's going on.

The ECU wouldn't be the first thing I'd suspect. I think garages sometimes tell you something like that because they don't think it's worth trying to chase down a fault in a car of that age.

In my head it wouldn't make sense for the ECU to kill itself either

I'm thinking it's just because it's been sat for so long and hasn't really been run in a couple of years

[Rippthrough]

It wouldn't suddenly need reprograming for idle control either unless there was something wrong elsewhere, ECU's don't just randomly loose settings like that.
I'd be more worried about what they did alter in there as that could be the source of the emissions issues.

Although, that aside, it could well just be the Cat converter, those BM catalysts are the cheapest, nastiest pieces of shit they can get away with selling.

[wainwrightj]

It wouldn't suddenly need reprograming for idle control either unless there was something wrong elsewhere, ECU's don't just randomly loose settings like that.
I'd be more worried about what they did alter in there as that could be the source of the emissions issues.

Although, that aside, it could well just be the Cat converter, those BM catalysts are the cheapest, nastiest pieces of shit they can get away with selling.

That's what I was thinking

Maybe I shouldn't be saying this but but my parents first told me to get my MOT at the garage behind our house it's close so it's easy. But the guy charges the most he legally can and calls it a 'standard charge'. He got the ECU reprogrammed somewhere but didn't give me proof. He told me not to buy a cheap pattern part with the CAT so I let him source it.
All things considered I wish I hadn't gone to him and probably won't anymore as that car cost me loads only to break after 2000 miles and 2 years of sitting.

I realise it could just be bad luck but his recommendations to make it last obviously haven't which is frustrating.

[Mighty306]

My first thought would be that the original problem was never really fixed n that the car has been over-fuelling. That will ruin a cat reasonably quickly.

On my car it was a faulty manifold pressure sensor which oddly only ever caused the ECU light to occasionally flash on for a few moments. There are a number of other possible causes tho n it's difficult to diagnose a car you haven't seen, heard, or plugged some sort of diagnostic tool in to.

I don't really know a lot about the 1.4's but assume it's single point injection?

[Toms306]

I don't really know a lot about the 1.4's but assume it's single point injection?

The early ones were SPI but being phase 3 this will definitely be MPI. Should be able to keep emissions reasonably low through fuelling.


Another thing I thought of, did you replace the fuel or using 2 year old petrol?

[wainwrightj]

I don't really know a lot about the 1.4's but assume it's single point injection?

The early ones were SPI but being phase 3 this will definitely be MPI.  Should be able to keep emissions reasonably low through fuelling.


Another thing I thought of, did you replace the fuel or using 2 year old petrol?

We were using 2 y/o petrol which probably didn't help, the mechanic managed to get it through the MOT said it was an earthing fault or something along the lines. If it was an earth that would've probably been what was causing the erratic idle.

[Mighty306]

Glad to hear it gets to live another day. A bad earth could mess with the signal from any number of sensors.  None of us came up with that as a possible cause!