S4 916 2004 Immobiliser Problem Still Not Starting After 2 Years!!!

@chrisw

OK Peeps, here goes; about this time two years ago!! I rode my Ducati Monster S4 916 (2004) to the MOT in the rain. No problems there but a week later it wouldn’t start. It is the one with the immobiliser electronics box on the front of the Air Filter so the (not well waterproofed) connectors point down towards the front wheel. The Orange light indicated that the immobiliser was preventing the bike from starting. I decided that it would be easiest to have the ECU reprogrammed to ignore the immobiliser rather than to try and fix a recurrent problem. I have had the ECU re-programmed twice but the bike still won’t start. I have bought a Lonelec KL-1 USB interface and the ECU is still showing Immobiliser fault!! I have just returned from a 3 month trip round New Zealand on my BMW GSA which is now in transit back so I have no bike :<( (I must fix the Duke or turn it into a coffee table!!), any help appreciated.

 

It was Avantiraceparts

 

I should state that I am not jumping to any conclusions about the re-coding, it could still be down to some other fault, when I first connected the diagnostic for instance I got;
PO335 Crankshaft Position Sensor A Circuit malfunction
Status DTC:A4 Open Circuit
as well as;
U1600 Immobilasitorre Nessun Signal [Fiat]
Status DTC:E8 No or poor signal
I fitted a new Crankshaft position sensor and am now only getting the Immobiliser fault.
I also tried this in case I had a faulty ECU;
1 I bought from E-Bay a 2nd Hand ECU and used IAW5xReader_V0.28 to Upload the Avanti software from the original ECU, I then downloaded it using IAW5xWriter_V0.24 to the E-Bay ECU, still got immobiliser fault code
Incidentally when I run the Ignition test using JPDiag I only get a very weak spark

 

Hi Peeps,
Bike still not starting, after 2 years! this is what I have done;
ECU re programmed several time to ignore immobiliser, I now have two ECUs the bike doesnt start on either
Immobiliser and Key Coil are currently disconnected and off the Bike,
3x new relays,
new spark plugs,
new CPS, (was getting error on diagnostics not now)
new battery,
Interior of tank checked, new filter, new petrol, with throttle body off the injector can be seen to be fuelling,

Connectors cleaned, Corrosion was evident on the connector, lower one behind the headstock in; brown, yellow, red/yellow,red/white, out; white, yellow, red green/ white. Would like to know what this does but cant match colours to circuit diagram.

Ignition coils checked with multimeter

With Lower Cylinder plug out and grounded NO spark visible when trying to start.

Diagnostics this is what I get with one ECU, with the other TPS reads 2.3V;

 

Thanks Brendan, did you get an "U1600 - Invalid signal" in stored faults with re flashed ECUs?
Meanwhile I am investigating a brand new ECU as you recommend.

 

Hi all, finally got the Bike running almost exactly two years since it stopped. I am pretty sure the initial fault was water in the immobiliser electronics or connectors, after having have had the ECU reprogrammed to ignore the immobiliser at least 3 times without success, I was led to believe the source might lay elsewhere and replaced; plugs, fuel filter, Crankshaft Position Sensor all without success


Finally, I have just sourced a 2001 S4 Race ECU which is virgin (thanks to Brendan G for putting me on the right track here). It started right up with no modification required, no immobiliser attached.

After trawling many forums on the topic of disabling the immobiliser on 59M ECU’s my initial understanding that the 59M is interchangeable between models, with it just requiring a remap appears wrong.

The DP ECUs for the S4 are as follows:

96506100B 96506200B 96506300B (2001)

96508702B 96508802B 96508902B (2002)


Apart from the maps, these ECUs differ in that the 2002 has separate outputs for the two fans and sensing for a clutch switch. Significantly a few other people have had the same problem as myself where the disable doesn’t work, and what they seem to have in common is that they are using early (2001) ECU, later ECUs appear to disable OK.

I also came across a person who had a S4R and said a number of these shipped with a 2001 ECU – so it is possible that other models may be using the earlier ECU and these people may experience the same problem if they ever decide they need, or want to disable the immobiliser.

That said, I have also come across a couple of people who did get the immobiliser disabled after repeated trial and error attempts with different files. Unfortunately, there were no details as to which files worked, and I do not have a library of S4/ST4S/S4R bin files to try myself.

Finally, I saw on a website that repairs IAW 59F ECU’s that these are used in a number of different models and have a .xx suffix to differentiate them, and that this also applies to the IAW59M ECUs.

My ECU (and replacement) are labelled as 59M.A1 which I think designates it as an early one, its quite likely all the others are interchangeable as the 2001 ECU can be loaded with a 2002 map and run, its just the immobiliser seems to be an issue.


TLDR – Long story short, if you have problems disabling the immobiliser try to obtain a virgin ECU or get your ECU virginised (possible, but specialist).