Four weeks ago I drove my 2009 base coupe to work, it was the first time I had it out in a month. After work I got in it, started it and drove about 100 yards when the engine shut off, the DIC displayed "Service ABS", "Service Traction Control", "Service Active Handling". I had a passenger in the car so I checked all the comb connectors under the floorboard. I got back in and it started right up, but had a CEL. From that point on it would randomly die and need around 60 seconds before it would power back up and start.

I put a OBDII scanner on it and got code P0601 Internal Control Module Memory Check Sum Malfunction.

When I googled P0601 I found next to nothing related to C6 corvettes. Based on some of the things I did read, I tried the following.

• Downloaded the wiring diagrams and tested for high resistance at 13ea ground points.
  
• Did a full charge on the battery, had it load tested and checked for bad cells.
  
• Checked every fuse under the passenger floorboard and at the under hood fuse block.
  
• Checked for damaged or melted wiring under hood, it has headers but they have been on the car for two years.
  
• Took it to my tuner (who hasn't touched it in two years) and he said he has never seen that problem before, but he believed the ECU was bad.

Last weekend I removed the ECU and sent it to a repair service that offered $150.00 repair, lifetime warranty, one day turn time. My logic was it would either be fixed or I would know there was nothing wrong with it.

Today I received an email from them:

The computer you sent here was unable to be repaired, and is on the way back to you. The damage is too extensive for repair, and as the fault was traced back to the main chip, which can not be repaired or replaced. Your 50% refund has been issued and takes a few business days to go through, just like any credit card transaction. Please let me know if you have questions.

I was not expecting that to be the outcome, so at this point I am not sure what to do next. I am nervous about just buying another ECU and towing it to be reprogrammed without knowing why this one failed or what caused it to fail.

I could take it to a dealer, but I would like to control the cost of this if at all possible, my fear is this could escalate quickly.

I have owned the car for 7 years/40k miles and never had a single problem with it. The only mods to the engine are a CAI, ported throttle body, headers and dyno tune. Before I sent out the computer the CEL would reset and I could drive the car for a couple days or a couple minutes before the engine would shut down again, the CEL would come back and the problem would continue until the battery was disconnected/reconnected. It has no other issues that I am aware of.

I'm open to any ideas or suggestions, the warm weather is here and I want to drive it.

 

Buy a used ECU for under $100.

Put your "bad" ecu into the car and get it to the dealer. Swap the "new" ecu in and pay for them to flash it with the VIN.

Get the car to your tuner to have him flash the tune on, which hopefully he still has saved.


I would think thats about the cheapest outcome. It seems you need a new ECU, its how you get there now that matters.

 

rjacobs,

Thanks for the feedback, I agree with all of this and it will be most likely what I do.

I was mostly looking for feedback on if there was something else I should look at, check, test etc. before I do what you suggested.

It just seems odd the "main chip" would fail without any external influence or related component failure.

 

More common than you would think I believe. Search around for failed ECU's.