Zafira X18XE1 auto '99 - Central locking ECU

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
View Threaded
Tue 11 Oct 2011 14:01
Zafira X18XE1 auto '99 - Central locking ECU - TeeCee

To cut a long story short, my investigations into the sudden cessation of Central locking on this vehicle have ended up with me finding that the controlling ECU in the passenger footwell side panel is fried. Looks like a choke has expired, leaving just the central core remaining on the board(!)

Something of a not uncommon occurance it would seem.

Anyhow, GSH unit with matching part numbers (removed from an Astra G) on its way courtesy of FleaBay and I already have a copy of OP-COM squirreled away to reprogram with.

Now, I know I'll need to prise the security code out of my local Opel dealership but are there any other pitfalls in swapping the thing I should look out for? Is the keychip/immobiliser pairing also the province of the C/L ECU or is this held elsewhere?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 24 Oct 2011 13:14
Zafira X18XE1 auto '99 - Central locking ECU - TeeCee

Oh well, I went ahead anyway and here are my results for future reference.

Root cause turned out to be the wiring to the tail door. At some time in the past it had obviously become trapped. The wiring is unwrapped at this point in the loom to provide greater flexibility for the door operation, something of a mistake IMHO. Anyhow, the feed to the heated rear window and the earth were partially severed and had shorted across the rest of the loom, burning out the Central locking wires and toasting the lock ECU module. Oops.

Rewire, bridge duff bits, heatshrink tubing and wrap to sort this. Onto the lock ECU. Unit sourced from FleaBay and my local Opel dealer supplied the codes for the car for the princely sum of 30EUR.

Plugging in OP-COM (or rather a Chinese FleaBay knockoff) produced some odd results in that, while it all worked OK, I had no deadlocks or single-touch 'leccy windows. Going back for a second go I realised that the VIN recorded on the immobiliser side was different to the actual vehicle VIN as recorded in the main ECU. Setting this correctly resulted in some sort of electronic throat clearing. Everything working just fine now.

All in all a fairly simple DIY task, given the correct software to poke the thing after installation.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Looking for a garage you can trust? Honest John's Good Garage Guide has thousands of reader recommended garages, plus how-to guides and tips on servicing.

The Good Garage Guide