ETM failure cause: Excessive oil from the oil trap?

[mrjacobrussell]

After sorting out my 2001 200k mile beast that was poorly maintained . I believe the ETM failed do to excessive oil from the oil trap needing serviced. The ETM was fouled bad within in a year of the last cleaning( when i had it and the engine apart for a new head gasket).

I think the ETM was sticking and twitching back and forth from all the oil and this caused the failure.

Opinions ?

[mikealder]

Most of the MM ETM units fail due to poor the very poor design, in both ends are potentiometers made out of mylar film on to which a layer of resistive substrate is deposited, the wipers arms of the potentiometer gradually wear through this resistive layer and go open circuit. A car used mainly around town will show worn out tracks at and around the portion of the pot tracts that are at idle and just above the idle position, a car used on the interstate at higher average speeds will exhibit wear to the pot tracks at a position away from idle.
Either way they do wear out and as the resistance from the potentiometers degrades it will cause the engine to drop in to limp mode, often with very erratic RPM control. Best option is to get the pots swapped out for digital non contact angle measurement sensors, xemodex is worth considering for the USA market, in the UK we are fortunate that we have access to a repair man who can modify the ETM with the digital units for just over £100
A carbon build up and oil can affect the operation of the ETM and cleaning often improves the situation but if it is the potentiometers are wearing out cleaning the inlet tract won't do anything other than waste your time - Mike

[mrjacobrussell]

Actually I found mine was so foul I was having issues with idle.
Cleaning it came to late.

We used Module master base in USA cost$ 250

[benmtho]

I've been talking to Xemodex about possibly ordering some of their parts. My idle has been erratic for the last year (15,000 miles). Yesterday car went in to limp mode (readout on the dash said "drive slow and get immediate service"). The engine sounded bad, like a vacuum hose or not firing on all cylinders.

I examined the throttle plate and cleaned around it even though it wasn't really that dirty. Also removed and cleaned the MAF sensor by spraying with MAF cleaner.

I towed it home 3 hrs on a car dolly and tried to pull a code from it. There is an exclamation mark in a circle that is sometimes red and sometimes orange. However, the 'limp message' has gone from the message center, and the OBD2 scanner is not reading any codes. The scanner is good because it reads codes for my truck just fine.

In summary, many signs are pointing to ETM trouble, but OBD is not throwing a code. Is there a code I should be looking for?

[mrjacobrussell]

I didn't see your post sorry , It sounds like ETM try disconnecting the batty? what have you done to resolve this