Repairs
Making a virtue driven by necessity!
We spoke on the phone with various workshops, which were supposed to be specialized in the repair of D-Jetronic ECUs. Somehow it was always the same statement: "Send us your ECU and we will forward it."
Forward it? Where? Through how many hands will my controller pass and who is going to fix it finally? Todays trend seems to be that repair jobs are gladly accepted, but then get redirected somewhere to a sub-specialist. This technician will facturize his work on his invoice and this will be billed with a proper additional charge to the end customer.
My inquiry's result was, that it almost always ran out on a costly replacement of the control unit. We're talking about approx. 1.400 euros net - plus shipping costs! There seems to be hardly nobody who is able to repair an analog controller.
Right here, at this point, I benefit from my training as an electronics technician in the 70s. We have learned in that time, how a bistable multivibrator, a pulse width modulator and an Astable multivibrator ar working and therefore I can test and repair such assemblies. This leads to the point that I will fix each control unit by myself. Therefore the unit gets completely disassembled, the circuit boards and components first get cleaned and all estimated 1.500 solder joints get re-soldered meticulously. After this process the complex circuit is analyzed for error patterns and gets connected to my self developed controller-tester. Faulty components and complete assemblies can be analyzed and replaced. The original transistors are often no longer available. So I generally use transistors of timely production, which are always more powerful and thus have an even longer life. The completely repaired and provisionally closed control unit is subjected to a 24 hour test and if it passes, it gets subsequently tested even in my own car while driving under realistic conditions.
If the control unit passed every test with no errors, it will now be closed properly, even cleaned from the outside and sent back to the customer. Of course, I guarantee the perfect function of my work. On each control device repaired by me, I give a performance guarantee of 3 Months.
If the control unit passed every test with no errors, it will now be closed properly, even cleaned from the outside and sent back to the customer. Of course, I guarantee the perfect function of my work. On each control device repaired by me, I give a performance guarantee of 3 Months.
Impressions
Peter Hemmersbach repairs defective D-Jetronik control units in his workshop.
The D-Jetronik injection was real "high-tech" in the late 60s and it took over the place of mechanically controlled injection systems in many top models.
A classic car can even today be a very reliable vehicle. It is important to take good care of the technique and to have a little interest in the topic.
