You may also experience a rough idle due to not having enough fuel for the conditions. It may even shake and vibrate some, especially when trying to go up hills, when there’s a lot of extra weight in the car, or when you’re towing something. This means that when you step on the gas, your car simply won’t accelerate like it used to. #4 – Poor Engine PerformanceĪlternatively, a faulty ECM may also cause not enough fuel to be delivered to the combustion chamber. Not only will you have to budget more for gasoline each month, you won’t be doing the atmosphere any favors. The result is that your vehicle will then be running rich and using more fuel than necessary. This means too much fuel is often sent to burn in the combustion process. Since a proper air-fuel ratio is needed for a vehicle to function optimally, a bad ECM won’t understand how much fuel should be sent to the combustion chamber. If the problem gets worse, the performance of the engine will deteriorate while it’s running. Often times, this is because the engine control module is failing and it’s feeding the engine some false information. The pattern of engine misfires and stalls will be random, making it hard to pinpoint the specific engine problem. There won’t really be any consistency with these issues either. Related: P2509 Code (ECM/PCM Issue) #2 – Engine Misfires or StallsĪnother symptom that may follow a warning light illumination is an engine that misfires or maybe even stalls. Check with your manufacturer, owner’s manual, our site, or various online resources to learn more about trouble codes. These codes will identify the root of the problem.

To figure out if the engine control unit is truly having problems, you need to search for the specific trouble codes on your vehicle’s computer. Sometimes the engine control unit will do this by mistake too. Of course, there are many possible reasons for why this warning light would illuminate.īut in cases where the engine control unit detects issues with its electronic components, circuits, and/or sensors, it will immediately cause the Check Engine warning light to illuminate. The easiest symptom to recognize is when the “Check Engine” warning light illuminates on the dashboard. Fortunately, there are certain symptoms that you can look out for early on to detect if your engine control unit is going bad.

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