Does this look like a burn on my ECM

[vq5speed]

Does this area looked burned to you on the bottom?

 

[the_don]

take some 70%-80% Isopropyl alcohol and q-tips and gently wipe it off to get a better look at the copper tracings.

 

[vq5speed]

I rubber my finger over it and it didn't wipe off. I put it back on the car tomorrow I will take it out again and clean it with some alcohol. So if it burned the plastic should be like melted right

 

[the_don]

there is no plastic on that portion of the board, its made from a fiberglass blend with copper bonded to the top, although there is a type of grease that is used on the terminal contacts that ive seen turn brown when heated. if you can clean the crud off the board you will see burnt tracings(like a fuse) on contact 6,7, or 8 but i doubt it since that is the thickest part of the tracing.

 

[acschilling]

Looks toasty...don't know what it'd mean though.

 

[vq5speed]

Wondering if you think this could be enough to cause a problem. Or does it look like something normal.

 

[2stroke]

Do you know anyone that is big into electronics? You could check that pretty easy with a logic probe. It looks like its the top coating to me. The leads are probably fine.

 

[vq5speed]

Does anyone no how to remove the circuit board from the housing. I want to inspect the backside.

 

[smegun]

hell yea you got reflow issues also try cleaning it then lightly scrape away the formal coat /resins clean it again so you see no black and touch up the fingers on the edge connector

then inspect more look for a blown cap or crossed up solder

 

[smegun]

i got to that point two dummies didnt use a j leg socket to seat the rom in for easy programmin i got stuck there too and was a little pissy about it but there has to be a way most likly has a soldered edge i used to do soldering putting tin cans around pcb that had a trace around it might be epoxy



who knows what to do with the edge connectors were is the factory programmer

 

[vq5speed]

I cleaned it off it wiped off looking clean. No burns or any sign of any melting or frying. I think its ok it looked good,

 

[arco777]

Wondering if you think this could be enough to cause a problem. Or does it look like something normal.

That's nothing important, it's just the J3 service port connector. As long as that crud isn't conductive, it won't hurt anything.

 

[smegun]

good no reflow from the leads then somthing bubled away

 

[larrydd999]

From the photos, it looks to me like you've had moisture in the area, and together with dirt/carbon buildup caused some current to flow between the traces due to voltage differential. That resulted in the area heating up and turning black. If allowed to continue the traces on the circuit board would have opened up and eventually the board would have failed. I've seen it many times in industrial systems. Since you were able to clean the area and remove the discoloration, unless it caused some secondary damage you caught it in time. When I have to repair a board with that problem, once repaired I use a conformal coating spray to keep moisture and dirt away. Moisture loves bare copper, it turns it a nice shade of green.