Hi there, Just a post for those out there with a similar problem. Here was a short analysis from my local CAT dealer regarding the lack of Hydraulic flow from Auxiliary. Can anybody help to interpret : Does it mean both ECM's are gone, or just Auxiliary? We tested the Joystick itself with multimeter and it tested fine. Does dealer imply fault with joystick itself, or joystick wiring circuitry in ECM? Andrew, W/O No: LT23116 Date Open/Est: 18/02/15 Date Closed: 27/02/15 Cust(+): 0015160 Cust P/O: PAID IN FULL CC Ter CLEAN SL8 DEMOLITION AND ASB 88B EDELINE STREET WA 6163 Job Control: SY Cust Agent: [email protected] Phone: Make(+): AA Model(+): 287B Div(+): G Product Serial No(+): 0ZSA03475 COMPLAINT;AUXILARY HYDRALICS NOT WORKING AND INTERLOCK NOT WORKING - QUOTE ONLY CAUSE;AUXILARY-THE ECM AND THE JOYSTICK WERE FAULTY. AS WELL AS THE INTERLOCK ECM FAULT TESTING- FOUND BOTH ECM’S AND WIRING OVERRIDEN, MACHINE HAD AFTER MARKET WIRING BETWEEN THE FUSE BOX AND SOLENOIDS. RETURNED WIRING BACK TO STANDARD SPEC FOR TESTING. TESTED POWER FEED BOTH INPUT AND OUTPUT ALL OK. POINTING AT THE ECM’S AND JOYSTICK AS THE FAULT. FITTED TEST ECM’S AND JOYSTICK EVERYTHING WORKED FINE. AS CUSTOMER DID’T WISH TO CARRY OUT REPAIRS REMOVED EVERYTHING AND RETURNED MACHINE BACK TO BYPASS WIRING SYSTEM. CORRECTION;QUOTE ONLY REQUIRED AT THIS STAGE NO REPAIRS CARRIED OUT COMPLICATIONS-BROKEN FLOOR BOLTS,UNDER FRONT FLOOR PANEL WAS FULL OF DIRT COVERING ECMS.MOST BOLTS SEIZED. Hope that helps anything else feel free to call me Are ECM 's repairable by an electronics technician? Thanks and regards Andy
Ok , tired of waiting for response so I found problem myself. Took out left ECM opened the back of it and staring straight at me was a blown circuit wire. Will attempt to solder new one and fix problem. Appears to have been caused by a surge of power.
Give us a few more hours. We will help. It looks like your ecm and joystick, and your bypass wiring are at fault. You might fix the ecm but you still have multiple problems to repair yet.
That ECM fault is probably the result of something external. Reading the dealer report they found unspecified faults with both ECMs and also with the joystick, obviously they didn't disassemble the ECMs or the joystick. From their service report - RETURNED WIRING BACK TO STANDARD SPEC FOR TESTING. TESTED POWER FEED BOTH INPUT AND OUTPUT ALL OK. POINTING AT THE ECM’S AND JOYSTICK AS THE FAULT. FITTED TEST ECM’S AND JOYSTICK EVERYTHING WORKED FINE. So with test ECMs and a joystick and the wiring in standard spec the machine worked fine. I think I would be looking at the aftermarket wiring as a first step, but worst case scenario is that it will need 2 replacement ECMs plus a joystick after doing that. Apart from the internal wiring defect that you can see there may well be other electronic components that are also fried, thus rendering the ECM still unserviceable even if you can repair the obvious fault. Back to the external wiring - "FOUND BOTH ECM’S AND WIRING OVERRIDEN, MACHINE HAD AFTER MARKET WIRING BETWEEN THE FUSE BOX AND SOLENOIDS". Did you install it, or was it done when you bought the machine..? The onnly reason I ask is that if you did it then it ought to be easier to troubleshoot than if it had been installed by someone else.
I hope your wrong Nige, but I fear you ar right. We will attempt repair of obvious wire tomorrow. There was initial fault, the seatbelt flashing and park brake light on, we could not fix thus bypassed. Worked fine, but we suspect bypass has upset the auxiliary ECM and we ultimately lost auxiliary flow 5 months later. I could not abide the $5500 cat bill to repair so I took out ECM today and found the most obvious fault. Could it be so easy to fix this problem? I certainly hope so.
And there is most likely your problem ............... fix that and all the consequent damage it's caused and you'll be quids in. If you don't have the Electrical Schematic for the machine send me a PM with your Serial Number & email address. I don't want to sound like a smartarse but wouldn't it have been better to fix the original fault properly right from the start instead of bodging it and landing yourself so deep in the **** that you can't touch bottom..?
Yes well hindsight is always 20/20 as the saying goes, and clearly I am not as wise as you ...yet, besides, it was the auto electricians idea. As it seemed to work fine I thought, why waste money fixing the original problem? Well now I know. And this is what we call learning from mistakes.
If that's the case I suggest you change your auto sparky PDQ to one who actually wants to fix stuff instead of just bodge it. Sweeping problems under the carpet only results eventually in a big lump that someone eventually trips over and breaks their neck........I'm all for temporary fixes to get a job done so long as the fix is made permanent at the earliest opportunity.
Outfit I worked for back in the late eighties, when a machine went down on a hot job, the owner would show up, with the puppy dog look on his face: "Don" he would say, "we just need to finish this job then we can pull her into the shop and do it right" How long do you need, sez I? "Three days, if you can do it, three days and we'll be out of the crunch!". So I would work all night, or whatever it took, and pull of a tinker's miracle with spit and scrap iron and welding rod, and I was a hero, until lunch time. Two or three months later when the patch on the patch came off and the machine went down again, I got the screamage. "We just rebuilt that, why did it fail????!!!!!!!!!!" LMAO.... human nature is funny to watch... from far away.
Especially when their judgement is impaired by thoughts of monetary gain/loss.
So I pulled apart main ECM yesterday and opened it up. See below. Price for new ECMs $1027 for main $911 for Auxiliary , or refurbished Auxiliary $680 AUD, trade in $250 for old Auxiliary ECM if they can repair , otherwise $0 I took to an electronics repairer and he said unfortunately even if he did replace parts it would likely not work as CAT have the software for the chips and do not allow this into the hands of others. He says they, like many other Corporations have cornered the market in this respect and we just have to give them their 'ransom' for new or refurbished part.
Yep, proprietary software and in some cases even proprietary chips makes it near impossible to repair/replace. There are a variety of reasons for it, liability, serviceability, engineering, not just greed and control, though I am sure that enters into it.
A how did you get it fixed? I think I have the same exact problem you have. Machine wouldn’t move so my uncles mechanic bypassed everything. Machine moves and works but I have no auxiliary hydraulics. I was thinking it had something to do with the bypass. Or maybe a faulty switch