There are over a dozen places online that say they will rebuild your ECM like AES provides ECU ECM TCM PCM BCM Control Modules Automotive Electionic Solutions Main and ECU/ECM/TCM/BCM/ICM Rebuilding Service and Auto Computer Systems - quality auto ecu, tcu, & ebcm units,engine control units/modules/computers(ECU,ECM,ECC) & transmission control units(TCU,TCM,TCC to name a few. They say they can rebuild it for about $400. Has anyone tried that? It would sure save the cost and hassle of dealer key reprogramming if the original code was retained.
Anyone had a Kessy module rebuilt?
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I don't know is it Ok in US to pay $400 for some cheap radioelectronic parts replacement or not. But I think it's too much.
I had transistor replacement in KESSY unit free of charge in Russia (but because techincian did not repair the main problem) and now I dont have annoing "Key not found" warning. I know a story that one guy in Estonia had the dead KESSY unit repaired for $60 (two transistors and two resistors replacement). But the car prices in US much more adequate then in Russia (almost two times less), so that repairement costs looks not so terrible.
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For $400 rebuilt sounds too much. I'd rather take the plunge and pay brand new prices for that rebuilt price.
But don't forget about adaptation and key matching costs.
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^^^Good point
Now I could say that I had KESSY module rebuild. The totall was about 165$ (including parts and labour). One more transistor has been replaced in my KESSY module and everything works fine now. You dont have to pay for the new KESSY ECU, its adaptation and keys matching. Just find good radiotechnician around and you will save a lot for beer, whiskey or whatever you like.
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Yes, ofcourse. And I think that parts total not more then 10-30 USD.
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Ok, thank you again!
One last question, albeit a dump one I suppose but I have to ask. When you remove the Kessy black box, the the vehicle will not be operational with out it? Assuming this is the case, how many hours or days of downtime did you have to put up with? This is important to me since my Touareg is my daily driver.
I left my Treg at repair-shop at 10PM and take it back next day at 3PM. But actually for well-skilled technician such repair should be not more then 1.5-2hrs if all spare-parts (transistors, resistors) are in stock. You can look at attached pictures (KESSY ECU from my Treg after repair) to decide how many hours it should take.
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Seeing how the replacement Kessys from the dealer are remanufactured, it’s not surprising they can be repaired. It’s just hard to believe the bad components can be found without sophisticated proprietary test equipment. Sure you can visually tell if a resistor or transistor is burned out but how do you know if the integrated circuits and chip components are good without special equipment?
In my particular case bad transistors and resistors looks absolutely as new ones (not burned out), so nothing you can visually identify. And that is why I paid for that repair - I don't have any knowlege, skills and special equipment to find a problem. But it seems that for radio-engineers its not too hard and ofcorse they have some special equipment for that. But for the official dealer it is not interesting and economically useless to make such kind of repair and sure, most of them even don't have employes who able to do this work. In many cases they only can solve a problem on the trial-and-error basis but at the customers expences.
I know the feeling. And frankly, I'm sure there's plenty of stuff that can't be fixed without propietary diagrams, etc.
But I can never forget my a/c transformer breaking down in Spain a couple of years ago (and not due to over-voltage, as the thing was 220v-compatible). My friends took me to a back alley where this elder man from the Far East who hardly spoke any Spanish took out a multimeter and started measuring at various points.
He fixed a part which in the U.S. is a standard throw away and replace. Not saying the Kessy situation is exactly the same, as a Kessy is many orders of magnitude more complex than a simple power adapter, but goes to show in someplaces some people still fix stuff which over here is automatically thrown away without blinking twice.
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vwW12, its basically the reliance of "equipement" to do all the work for us that has rendered the northern part of the "west" just stupid. What you wrote reminded me of the story where a man had an overgrown heart here in Canada, and other than the usual medication, and time wasting protocol procedures that did nothing, he seeked this operation in the middle of nowwhere in South America, that the geniouses in Medical institutes of both USA and Canada, ahem, frowned upon. Long story short, they take the heart out, slice down the unwanted overgrown sections, stitch it back up and done. This procedure, as simplistic as it sounds, is a tried and tested method "down there". But no, we in the richer civilized part of the globe no better 
. Anyways....back to the Kessy module, to me the similiraties of finding trained mechanics who are capable of using their heads is striking in similiarity to todays Doctors in this part of the globe.
Hope I didn't offend anyone on here, but I call them as I see them.
. Anyways....back to the Kessy module, to me the similiraties of finding trained mechanics who are capable of using their heads is striking in similiarity to todays Doctors in this part of the globe.Hope I didn't offend anyone on here, but I call them as I see them.
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Good luck. Waiting your results.
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