C5 Colour Screen problem

[CitroJim]

Repairing modern multilayer PCBs with surface-mount components on them is difficult, but sometimes the faults are simple.

And sometimes as simple as a duff electrolytic capacitor. A few years ago there was a duff batch of electrolytics that ended up in just about everything and caused huge problems. Those that are duff have usually popped their tops (vented).

An urban legend has it that there is one major factory only that makes the electrolyte. The legend goes that the only person that knew the recepie for the brew left under a cloud and took it with him. The recepie he left behind contained a subtle error and hence all the problems.

[myglaren]

Doesn't make much difference what you buy, almost all cars are jammed full of 'computers' and almost all have problems with them.

[KevMayer]

The German engineers didn't say what they had to do, but, they had the ECU for approx 6 weeks.

Early on they told me they'd got it working, but there was an error message which they couldn't clear.

The last few messages said they were having to order in some electronic components, so, on the face of it, it could have been more tricky than they expected. Who knows?

At least it's working now. I'll keep the C5 for at least another year now.

[dmitriykld]

KevMayer, you can see what elements of the ECU was replaced and photograph them