Resistance in a digital circuit does not make any difference because there is no current flow or I should say negligible current flow. The ECU input is only looking at voltages and if the sensor is switching the ECU will see it even with some resistance in the wiring.

 

Do you happen to know the correlation between voltage the sensor is sending and the degrees? For instance, IF this is a circuit issue, and I use a voltmeter and watch the signal wire would a high degrees like 150 be from the voltage going high, or would it be because the voltage cut out??

Now that I'm thinking of it....is it even possible for the degrees to go from 73 to 150, to be a wiring issue??? Am I wasting my time looking for a wiring issue?

​​​​​Did you get a brand new ECU or a used one? If used, how did you get it programmed? You get RR to program in your vin and such?

I'm tired, fixing to just buy a ECU to throw at it and hope for the best. lol

 

What is your actual issue with the actual car right now?

 

This timing issue I explained above. Which it's in restrictive mode because of this.....but the bank 1 intake cam in live data is fluctuating between 73 and 150. The bank 1 exhaust cam in live data reads correct but threw a circuit performance code p0366.

When your live data was going between 120 and 150 did the engine sound right? Nice and smooth? Was it in restrictive mode?

 

Mine still does it and runs good, 9,000 miles now. Forget the wiring. Signal is digital, not analog, detecting the passing of the vanes on the phaser and comparing to crank signal re degrees. I got a used ECU from Ebay and programmed it to the car then it stopped throwing the code.

 

I'm confused, when you said "mine still does it" are you saying after you swapped the ECU your timing still fluctuates between 120 and 150 but just no longer shows the code?

What did you use to program the ECU to your car?

 

You probably didn't see this much earlier post.
I used a device I bought on Ebay to program it. Google Jaguar Land Rover SDD or similar.

 

Your correct, I missed that the timing data was still showing the same.

In your scan tool do you have camshaft adaptation values which is represented as timing? It appears as the timing the ECU is trying to achieve and there is one for each cam. For my bank 1 intake cam (the one that flickers to 150) the adaptation value shows 180 degrees....the other intake cam shows 73. The adaptation values are usually around the actual timing and it's only this one cam that is all messed up.

Also, I reset the engine adaptation values and it didn't make a difference.

One last thing, I watched the actual timing values a lot before I did the phaser job and while previously the adaptation value was at 180, the actual timing NEVER flickered to 150 like I see it doing now, after the phaser job. I've been thinking maybe the harness getting moved around damaged the signal wire somewhere. But I know you scoped from the sensor all the way to ecm connector.

 

Are you sure the two things are connected? Are you getting error codes? Lots of other things can cause restricted performance.

 

Well no, I'm not positive. This is a auction vehicle I'm trying to fix, and it has various issues I'm tackling one at a time. But right now I'm focused on the engine....and what we have been discussing about timing is the only engine issues the scan tool is picking up. Wouldn't p0016 typically put it into restrictive mode?

 

Yes but you didn't mention you were still getting P0016. Mine was P0017 I think. Maybe you can get your ECU reprogrammed with latest code, see if that fixes it.

 

Okay, yeah it's throwing the correlation code, however live data shows all the actual cam timing as spot on. I went back through all the old comments and you had been wondering if it's only a output to scan tool issue, but I'd think if that was the case it wouldn't throw a correlation code.

When you say "updated code" did they update these specific ECUs with new code? I wasn't aware of anything like that. This is a 2011 model. So did that tool you got off eBay allow you to update the code? Where did you source thd updated code to upload into the ECU?
​​​​​​

 

Somehow the manufacturers get you a licence when you install their software to download ECU firmware.
All I can tell you is my old ECU threw p0017 codes and when I configured the replacement the output waveform (timing figures) is the same but the code doesn't appear. The ECU was my last resort because, like you, I couldn't see anything wrong. Would love to know if anyone else sees their timing figures jumping.

 

Wanted to give you a bit of an update. So I had tested the wire harness and everything seemed good...BUT yesterday I had the Rover running and was moving the wiring quite a bit and I noticed the engine started stumbling. I grabbed the scan tool to watch the timing and as I moved the harness around several inches the timing went NUTS. I pulled back all the tape and look to find the splices for power and ground and squeezed on them and that seems to be the problem. Either today or tomorrow I'll be cutting into those splices to see about resoldering them. I'll let you know how it goes.

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​​​​​​Thought I'd add one more comment....I just cut into the power wire splice and this is some factory garbage....just 3 wires next to each other with heat shrink around it! No solder, no connectors, not even twisting....just 3 wires side touching....no wonder this garbage failed!

 

I assume you mean uninsulated wires? Why does it matter? What did they feed? Why does that make it garbage? They must have had their reasons.

 

You may have missed my comment previous to that last one, I was just adding to it with that last comment. So even though the wires tested okay the factory splices for the power and ground leading to the cam position sensors are compromised. When I started moving the wires around the timing started going nuts. I opened the harness and can press on the splices and watch the timing go nuts.

Three wires just touching each other, not twisted or anything, with some shrink on them....that's a failure waiting to happen. Even in a cheap car like a Honda Civic, they use a high quality crimped connection for a splice like this....and at 300k miles it'll still be good.

You might want to untape some of your harness then move it around while watching the timing on the scan tool and see if it goes nuts.

Also, I'm thinking this is probably what damaged the phaser somehow since this bad wiring and messed up phaser are all on the same cam. I'm thinking maybe trying to control the phaser incorrectly based on poor timing data.

 

OK, interesting. So I am presuming you have managed to fix your problem now by fixing the wiring? You keep saying three wires running next to each other but didn't answer my question of whether they are insulated wires or uninsulated? Why is it a failure waiting to happen, I don't understand why. A photograph would help.

I have no idea how bad wiring could break a phaser..........

 

It's just 3 wires stuck together in heat shrink. This is regarding the power and the ground wires. As I moved the harness around and watched the timing go absolutely all over the place (wild swings)...with the ECU continually trying to compensate for these timing readings....which are not correct readings....by adjusting the phaser, which then actually creates incorrect timing, which is bad for the phaser and engine in general. For the record, I couldn't pick up anything with a multimeter as it probably happens too fast....but I could see it in the live data timing of the scan tool and in how the engine started stumbling when I'd shake the wires.

I unfortunately haven't had a chance to button it back up because my back got hurt. I should be testing this out in the next few days and reporting back if it corrected the erroneous 150 actual timing and 180 cam adaptation readings for this cam. My hope is that all will be well after fixing the harness. I've worked on a lot of harnesses, this is a junk splice, shade tree kind of work that will not last and causes a ton of resistance from vibration....yet appears to be 100% factory.



Pic above the the inside of the shrink so you can see there was nothing in it. I left a bit of wire insulation in it that I accidentally cut opening the splice up. A marine heatshrink with no crimp connector, solder, not even a twist....is totally inadequate IF your trying to build a vehicle that lasts.

 

Interesting, look forward to hearing good news. Not sure how you can be sure that is factory wiring, have you had the car from new?