What happens if a cars ecu shuts down?

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asked Oct 9, 2020 in Other-Cars/Transportation by BannanaSoup (260 points)
What happens if a cars ecu shuts down?

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answered Oct 9, 2020 by Shelde (49,390 points)
If your cars ecu completely shuts down and fails then your entire car will also shut down and not start or run.

It's rare that a cars ECU will actually completely shut down and fail completely to where the car will shut off or not start.

However a cars ECU shutting down completely is possible and has happened before.

Usually you'll notice issues with your cars ECU by noticing engine performance issues such as timing being off, loss of engine performance, poor engine starting, hard engine starting, stalling engine, loss of power etc.

However those symptoms can also be a cause of bad fuel pump, low fuel pressure, bad ignition control module, bad ignition coils, bad ignition coil, bad fuel injector, clogged fuel injector, clogged fuel filter, bad gasoline, water in gasoline etc.

A good mechanic can use a tester to find out what is actually the cause of your engine performance issues and they can usually tell whether or not your ECU is failing or is about to fail.

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