Hi all Ducati fans! I am writing this update to my old thread which was "749 wont start" I initially had the problem where the Bike was running on one cylinder and broke down on me and had to get the RAC to recover me as it would not start at the side of the road. I would like to say a big thank you to all who helped me in the first thread and by trial and elimination have determnined the fault to be in the ECU. To recap: Both coils were fine and tested okay, fuel pump was working okay and even tried cleaning the tank and put fresh petrol in. I used two new plugs and found the rear vertical cylinder is not sparking or gives an occassional spark. Checked wiring and all was fine, so have finally tracked down the issue to the ECU. Note I did not receive any fault codes and battery is new and on a trickle charger. The bike is a mono posto and came with a Termi exhaust and when i got the ECU out found the chip belonged to a 999 but there were a couple of stickers over the original details and I believe one of these numbers refer to a 749 R ECU map (pics below) Can anyone point me in the right direction for getting this ECU reflashed and can you shed any light on this type of ECU failure. I can buy leads on Ebay to connect to the ECU and theer are some maps out there, but would really like to know how this might affect my imobiliser and any general advice would be welcome. Thanks Keith
Your ECU is for a 749. The white label that says 979000166 indicates that this is a Ducati Performance ECU for the 749 (around 2003). The fault you are describing could be a failure of the coil driver in the ECU. The Magneti Marelli label stating 999 can be found on a whole host of ECU's fitted across the Ducati range. There is a solution with a second hand ECU but the immo would have to be disabled or a second hand DP ECU which would likely be virgin. I've not come across a solution to virginise the IAW59M series of ECU's, just to disable the immo. If you want to test if it is an ECU fault then I can create an ECU with the correct map and immo disabled. This would be a loan as the IAW59M's do not crop up often of eBay. All you would have to do is pick up return postage
Chris and Keith, I cross referenced IAW59 in google and happened upon this Fiat Punto ECU 1.2 litre IAW 59F year 2000 onwards Being clueless regarding such matters my question may seem naive and simplistic ... but .... Can an old Fiat 1.2 ecu be re-mapped fueled/dynoed to suit a 749/999 and if not why not? Physically it appears very similar/identical. If you put a ducati sticker on it ....
Thanks Chis and Greyman, I would not know about the Fiat Punto ECU, but you may be on to something! Chris, I would be more than happy if you could help me out, Would it be worthwhile you trying to reflash my ECU, or if not can you lend me one for testing and promise to send it back to as sson as possible. I have saved an ECU on Ebay but not sure about the immobiliser and did not want to spend lots of money without getting results. My Mobile is 07760210690 and am live near Aberdeen. Cheers Keith
If it's any help I know Antony at Avanti repairs ECU's. Avanti Race Parts - Ducati Parts and Accessories for Road and Race Motorcycles. Services for Ducati Motorcycles. Race prep, Paintwork, ECU Repairs, Anodising and more!
Startline Al sent my ECU off to these guys for repair and it worked a treat, been about a year of daily use since and no problems (touch carbon fibre)
Did the same with mine a few weeks back and been riding since I got it back this week with no probs. Although I think I have an unrelated ECU problem rearing its head now...
Just for info. We had an issue last year with my sons 749 that was running on one cylinder and occassionally the other. The ECU gave conflicting fault codes that indicated among other things a failed coil driver chip within.It seemed reasonable to go with this diagnosis as its a known issue with the ECU. It turned out to be a very poorly shimmed rear head with resultant incomplete combustion. Conclusion: Fault codes are not conclusive. Conclusion #2 : Ducati coventry know what they are doing, much gratitude to them.
If you cant rely on them totally when they are present i would suggest that you would not want to discount the ECU when there are no codes showing. That's all.
Sounds like the coil driver has gone to me - the symptoms you describe are typical and they very rarely (if ever) register a fault code when they go; they sometimes fail intermittently and then go all together so you'll get no spark. We (Avanti) can repair them - thanks to Blufoot for his kind words! - as we like to keep Ducatis on the road. If you want to know more, have a look on the website or just drop me a PM or email through the site to discuss as there are a couple of options - reflash a second-hand unit, repair you current unit or supply a refurb unit. Oh, and make sure you're sitting down if you phone Ducati and ask for a price!! :wink:
