_Chris_

When these ecu's were designed, 10uF ceramics were unhears of. I think 0.47 was about the limit.The surface mount era has brought about minaturisation of all components. You can now get 10uF in 0402 size (1mm x 1/2mm) although not up to 16V. This has also impacted on through hole versions. ESR is part and parcel of why electrolytics don't like ripple, particularly high freqency ripple. Where the larger capacity of an electrolytic is needed, it is normal to put a ceramic capacitor in paralell to handle the high frequency / sharp edges of any ripple. This wasn't done on the capacitors I've looked at in the ECU. Electrolytics are much less common in modern designs, mainly because they don't apply well to surface mount for 2 reasons. Firstly the larger sizes would just break off the board with any vibration or shock. Secondly, surface mount soldering is done in an oven which heats the component as well as the board up to soldering temperature. Although through hole electrolytics can be used, it's very difficult to automate the through hole assembly so it;s not ecconomic for mass market.

http://www.gt4dc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5617 A good few years on now and while it's been mostly gt4's it's also affected other models and the gen 6's as well. I suspect it's more apparent in the rarest models where spares aren't readily available so people ask fot help. My opinion is that it isn't poor quality capacitors although that is a possibility. We're also starting to get some of the other values failing now. I suspect it's probably a combination of age, temperature and use. Heat is one of the primary causes of ageing, and the ECU is mounted under the heater outlet on top of the exhaust tunnel !! The other ageing factor is high frequency / high ripple current, and the first capacitors to fail were on the power rail feeding the idle solenoid. I did switch to ceramic capacitors for replacement of the 10uF as these don't suffer the above problems and are more suited to 'decoupling' on supply rails, however someone reported having a problem with the ecu, changed back to electrolytics and it was fine.

Ezzy's still going ok. (gen 4 GT4)

The rm380 in one go is very poor quality and virtually unreadable in places but useful to have as a single document. All my collection has come from the net, when I see something I don't have I add it so always useful to add links. I'll try to keep my external links maiintained, the problem is that so many free hosting places close down public links sooner or later. Already been through photobucket, dropbox and google drive. As I said, hopefully we can host the files within this site eventually.

I've now posted all my stuff in stickies for each gen section.

Looks like pcloud may do the job. I've uploaded an ST205 manual to try if someone can try downloading it. I think it pops up an advert to the service with the download. https://e1.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZWpVLZ2HLAABFqblHujw7SNKE7K0xPbTs7 If it's successful I'll upload all my stuff and put it in stickies in each section.

Maybe we'll look at putting storage within the site as & when we move to a new server and we have more control over it. Meanwhile I'll look at one of the free file hosts mentioned and see if I can upload my stuff there.

I'm sure that once upon a time each gen. section had stickies or a sub section at the top with download links for all the useful documentation such as BGB and other handbooks. I've just tried to find this for a gen 6 to point someone in the right direction and not found anything. Even the old bgbonline site seems to have gone. Any ideas ? I have most stored on my computer but dropbox, google drive etc. no longer allow external linking so I can't just post a link any more.

MK Autos in Blackburn isn't a million miles away for a Celica specialist.

I'll personally never go through a carwash again - ever since the Esso Shaftesbury one on the way up to a Rallyday a few years back. The horizontal roller was running backwards and ripped the spoiler off my Gen6 GT4 and dragged it backwards and forwards along the roof while I was inside the car powerless to do anything other than beep my horn. Yes you've guessed it - they pointed to a small sign saying cars with spoilers shouldn't use it so no liability.

£230 for 10 hours work isn't a bad price, especially considering he has running costs to come out of it too.

Someone getting old ?

Worth a chat with Bek. Not sure whether he would take on an accident repair of that magnitude but he could possibly reccomend someone and have the parts available.

Any story behind this ? Anyone we know ?

Sounds about right. Petrol engines seems to chew a lot more idling than Diesel.

Forecast sunny tomorrow so I may take Ezzy for a run over the new forest and try to get the sunset from castle hill. Meanwhile, here's an old picture of the pit crew getting the car ready for a Wales do a few years back.

Tried that too in the past with no success. Anything like that will only work if the exhaust is solid but with a small hole, a very rare occurence. Normally a hole forms at the thinnest part with the remainder not far behind.

More to the point, joints create turbulence in the gas flow reducing the efficiency of flow. Stainless doesn't rust like mild steel so this is less of an issue.

Gun gum and others tend to last for an mot, not much longer. If it's a tiny hole with solid metal round it, I'd try a suitable size self tapper, maybe with some jointing paste.

It usually happens after using a normal puller tool which pulls on the outside. Should use a flywheel puller which bolts to the inside section

You've shown the back of the new one so I can't compare, but I'm guessing you have a misalignment (probably what shredded the belt) and it's down to the rubber for the dual mass pulley coming unstuck. If you've tried checking timing like this, it's probably miles out. Don't go for a solid pulley, as some do, or crank failure may well follow.

I'd be surprised if anything changed in 1998. If it became law in 1998, manufacturers would have known years in advance and switched earlier so they weren't left with stock they couldn't sell.