08-26-2015, 01:10 PM
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2007 Camry Instrumentation ghost
#11
03-05-2014, 08:50 AM
It's the ABS computer
I ended up picking up an ABS computer from the local salvage and took it to a local garage for installation. The whole thing ended up costing less than $300. It was the fix. Good luck!
#12
10-25-2014, 06:48 PM
2007 Instrumentation ghost
I have a 2007 Toyota Camry that has intermittent instrument cluster problems. The Speedometer and Tachometer will cease to indicate proper readings and drop to zero. The tachometer will then bounce between zero and what I can only assume is a close approximation of the actual engine RPM. At the same time, the ABS and parking BRAKE warning lights illuminate and stay on for the duration of the "episode". These last anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 minutes. In the meantime, the car runs normally from what I can discern. I can be driving down the highway at 70 or sitting in the parking lot idling and these episodes occur. There are no other indications that something is amiss...no rough idling, no engine stalling, just the display. This is a 2007 Toyota Camry, 4 cyl, 5 spd automatic. I have inspected the transaxle input and output shaft sensors and they appear to be in good working order. There are no indications of oil buildup or broken/shorted wires. Connections all look good from what I can tell.
finally came out on a warranty
#14
05-17-2015, 01:14 PM
One way to `fix` it!
I have an 07 Camry LE with 136k miles 4cyl 5spd auto with same problem over the past year. Just recently the air started being an intermittent problem along with the abs and brake lights, speedo, odometer, and temp guage. Took car to local shop. Said they checked the connection pins where harness plugs into abs ecu. everything looked fine. Also checked grounds between battery and chassis and in dash. None of these had any apparent problems. They suggested to take to Toyota Dealer as they couldn't get any codes from the main computer and only dealer has the software to get all the info from the car's computer. Westminster , MD Toyota looked at it and couldn't get any codes either due to lack of communication with the computer as well. After 3 hrs of checking harnesses, connections, etc they concluded it must need a new abs ecu actuator at a cost of 2856.02. Gotta love the .02 at the end of the estimate. They said the part alone was 2100.00. I promptly took the car back and paid 120.00 for diagnostic time. I did some research and found abs ecus for nearly 1000k less than the dealer! I decided to start by unplugging and plugging harness. It seemed to help a little. Lights staying off longer but still coming on after a few miles down the road. NOW THE SOLUTION: I asked my wife to sit in the car while I pushed on the wire harness plug that goes into the abs ecu. I found that if I pushed the back of the plug towards the drivers side of the car, that the lights would go off and visa versa. I then wedged a perfect sized hard piece of plastic between the plug and the ecu to maintain that push on the plug. Car is all back to normal again with AC working great!
#16
05-18-2015, 02:12 PM
Thanks. A car buddy of mine said I could try dielectric grease at the connection too. But I'm not sure how that would help the connection. Thought that would just maybe seal it better and keep corrosion out. I've had 2 solid days now with no problems in the car, other than the oil consumption I've had for awhile, but I digress.
#18
06-15-2015, 05:39 PM
Update
Its been a about a month now since I found the problem. For the most part, the air continues to work, but I do have some intermittent issues with the speedo. It looks like as the plastic piece wedged between the ECU and Harness plug squishes over time, the problem slowly comes back. If I add another plastic piece (I have about a dozen of them) I'm good to go again.
#20
06-27-2015, 12:26 AM
1 question please
Are you available for some question? From what side of ecu did you open the cover? From the side that face car front?
Thank you
jazu
Thank you
jazu
I found a solution to this issue.
Problem:
Camry 2007 with ABS, no Traction Control or Skid Control. The instrument cluster goes haywire intermittently. Speed drops to 0, Tachometer jumps up and down. AC blows warm air. ABS and BRAKE warning lights on the Cluster always light up when this happens. Odometer does not increment miles traveled. Other than that the car is fully operational and can be driven no problem. The key word here is intermittently. The car does not seem to have any issues for say 10 minutes, and then for the next 10 minutes it has all the issues listed above. Additionally when scanning OBDII codes - no trouble codes can be found! However when the intermittent problem occurs the OBDII CAN protocol communication also seems to fail.
Solution:
I found the problem on my Camry was BOSCH ABS ECU. And thankfully I was able to fix the ECU problem without having to go to the Dealer or purchasing the new ECU unit... Which I am guessing would have cost me over $1000.
I bought Torx E5 socket at a local auto parts store for $20. This is needed to remove 4 "Female Star" bolts that attach the ABS ECU to the ABS block. Be very careful when removing the ECU. Pull the ECU from the block gently - no force required once the screws are removed. Also remember that this is a sensitive electronic device - you need to work static free. Also make sure the engine is off and perhaps remove the battery negative terminal for safety. I did not run the engine until I put everything back together.
Once the ECU is sitting on your table - you will need to pry the cover open to get to the main board and the microprocessor. The cover is glued to the plastic body using some sort of rubberized silicone glue. This is very difficult to do unless you have proper tools. I used box cutter blade to cut away as much rubber as I could. Then I tried to push the blade in and pry the cover open. The pieces of the blade broke until I finally succeeded - applying like 20 lbs on the blade...
Once I opened the cover I immediately saw where the problem was (although I could not believe in such an easy solution until the whole thing was over) Inside you will find the main board and the microprocessor sitting on top of a heatsink. There are about 8 hair thin 1/2 inch long bare jumper wires that connect the microprocessor to the main board. Well it turned out that two of those jumper wires were almost touching each other - curious I thought. I pulled apart the jumper wires and give them a good distance. I tried to look for other clues like a broken solder or the like - but could not find any other defects. Then I glued the cover back on with Crazy glue, and mounted the ABS ECU back where it belongs. Started the engine - and never saw the issue come back again - for more than a week already. Car runs like new.
I still need to put a good layer of Silicone caulk around the cover before the winter comes to weather proof the cover. But that's hopefully next week.
Final analysis:
I do not know how my Camry worked for 5 years without having any problems and then all of the sudden these jumper wires came together to cause intermittent shorting of the CAN bus. I believe at least one of the jumper wires was a CAN bus wire - since the Controller Area Network suffered and I believe was the cause of the fiasco when this intermittent problem happened. (Unfortunately no circuit prints are available and Haynes manual does not even show any ABS wiring in their repair manual electrical diagrams!?) I guess the jumpers were far enough to enable the CAN protocol to work error free part of the time and but close enough for the "spark" to jump and cause a short the other part of the time. Some how over 5 years these jumper wires moved closer to each other until this finally became a problem. My opinion is that this is a reliability flaw in a Bosch circuit board design - that may not present itself immediately but may show up later as the jumper wires may move under vibration/ thermal expansion over the years.
Hopefully someone finds this useful!
Ed
Problem:
Camry 2007 with ABS, no Traction Control or Skid Control. The instrument cluster goes haywire intermittently. Speed drops to 0, Tachometer jumps up and down. AC blows warm air. ABS and BRAKE warning lights on the Cluster always light up when this happens. Odometer does not increment miles traveled. Other than that the car is fully operational and can be driven no problem. The key word here is intermittently. The car does not seem to have any issues for say 10 minutes, and then for the next 10 minutes it has all the issues listed above. Additionally when scanning OBDII codes - no trouble codes can be found! However when the intermittent problem occurs the OBDII CAN protocol communication also seems to fail.
Solution:
I found the problem on my Camry was BOSCH ABS ECU. And thankfully I was able to fix the ECU problem without having to go to the Dealer or purchasing the new ECU unit... Which I am guessing would have cost me over $1000.
I bought Torx E5 socket at a local auto parts store for $20. This is needed to remove 4 "Female Star" bolts that attach the ABS ECU to the ABS block. Be very careful when removing the ECU. Pull the ECU from the block gently - no force required once the screws are removed. Also remember that this is a sensitive electronic device - you need to work static free. Also make sure the engine is off and perhaps remove the battery negative terminal for safety. I did not run the engine until I put everything back together.
Once the ECU is sitting on your table - you will need to pry the cover open to get to the main board and the microprocessor. The cover is glued to the plastic body using some sort of rubberized silicone glue. This is very difficult to do unless you have proper tools. I used box cutter blade to cut away as much rubber as I could. Then I tried to push the blade in and pry the cover open. The pieces of the blade broke until I finally succeeded - applying like 20 lbs on the blade...
Once I opened the cover I immediately saw where the problem was (although I could not believe in such an easy solution until the whole thing was over) Inside you will find the main board and the microprocessor sitting on top of a heatsink. There are about 8 hair thin 1/2 inch long bare jumper wires that connect the microprocessor to the main board. Well it turned out that two of those jumper wires were almost touching each other - curious I thought. I pulled apart the jumper wires and give them a good distance. I tried to look for other clues like a broken solder or the like - but could not find any other defects. Then I glued the cover back on with Crazy glue, and mounted the ABS ECU back where it belongs. Started the engine - and never saw the issue come back again - for more than a week already. Car runs like new.
I still need to put a good layer of Silicone caulk around the cover before the winter comes to weather proof the cover. But that's hopefully next week.
Final analysis:
I do not know how my Camry worked for 5 years without having any problems and then all of the sudden these jumper wires came together to cause intermittent shorting of the CAN bus. I believe at least one of the jumper wires was a CAN bus wire - since the Controller Area Network suffered and I believe was the cause of the fiasco when this intermittent problem happened. (Unfortunately no circuit prints are available and Haynes manual does not even show any ABS wiring in their repair manual electrical diagrams!?) I guess the jumpers were far enough to enable the CAN protocol to work error free part of the time and but close enough for the "spark" to jump and cause a short the other part of the time. Some how over 5 years these jumper wires moved closer to each other until this finally became a problem. My opinion is that this is a reliability flaw in a Bosch circuit board design - that may not present itself immediately but may show up later as the jumper wires may move under vibration/ thermal expansion over the years.
Hopefully someone finds this useful!
Ed