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ECUMaster DET3 Review – Mystery Misfire, Part 1

ECUMaster DET3 Piggyback ECU

I have just bought an ECUMaster DET3. So far I have unboxed it, wired in the crankshaft sensor and connected the in-built MAP sensor. This is my ECUMaster DET3 review so far……


DET3 Review – First Impressions.

It is a much smaller unit than I imagined.

The box in came in was plain.

It uses Molex connectors. Not my first choice, a nightmare to unpin and not very sturdy. But you can pick up spare connectors cheaply if you mess up the one supplied

ECUMaster don’t supply any spare crimp connectors

Resistors and a diode are supplied if you need them which is a nice touch.

Zero manual in the box. No problem, you can download it from their website here along with the Windows software

For the money, its about what I expected but again, I would have liked a better quality connector.

The software. Not the greatest looking interface but it does the job.

Wiring

ECUMaster have a number of wiring examples on their website. But it’s worth double checking it is correct for your car. Check an independent source for pinouts, you don’t want to get the wiring wrong.

All in all the DET3 met expectations.


ECUMaster DET3 Review – Installation

And this is where I have run into problems.

There is a very helpful “scope” function in the software. With this mode the DET3 passes the signals it is receiving from the crank sensor onto the car’s ECU. This means if you are not sure what signal/trigger pattern your engine uses you can look at the scope pattern to find out.

It also means that the engine should run normally.

Okay, I had no problem here and it confirmed that the trigger wheel on the engine (Ford Focus MK1 Zetec 1.6 Petrol) was 36-1.

So far so good….

So setting the trigger signal as 36-1 into the software, the ignition map confirms the signal from the crankshaft sensor is “Synched” but the engine will not rev at all. It will idle okay but revving the engine even slightly leads to big stumbles and it won’t go pass 1000rpm. And it also makes the engine backfire.

RPM reading is correct.

At this point I don’t know what the issue is. I’m thinking the wiring and the signals (from sensor and to car’s ECU) are okay because the engine works normally when the DET3 is in “scope” mode.

The DET3 seems to be happy with the “sync” of the crankshaft sensor. But the engine only idles.

ECUMaster DET3 Review – Tech Support

At this point I have contacted the seller describing the issue and they have told me to look on Google. Personally, I don’t think this is an acceptable level of “tech support”

Nevertheless I have “Googled” my problem and I find nothing. Many instances of people not able to get their DET3 to sync but I couldn’t find any examples of people having their unit sync and having an issue.

After this I have emailed ECUMaster directly. Today (3.6.21) at around 3pm.

I am now waiting patiently for a reply which will hopefully have some suggestions as to what I need to do.

I will let you know what happens. (Subscribe to the newsletter to get updates)

If you are using an ECUMaster DET3, feel free to leave a comment below. What do you think of it? Good? No problems? Teething issues? Did you have the same problem as me? Did you find a solution!? Would you recommend the ECUMaster DET3 to others?

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This page was last modified Jul 17, 2023 @ 7:07 pm

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