Hello from the Land of Sand, Need help on dead Rangy : Becm ?

First of all a Big Hello to from the Land of Sand here in Dubai, UAE, secondly I was kinda surprised I'm not registered here on Land Zone ! Almost every Landy Forum on the interwebz I am a member off, been visiting this site for year, guess I've been just lurking then. Sorry about that!

Anyways hate to say hello and get right down to business but gotta, the issue is of a dead p38. Not mine, but a friends. It finally rained here after what seemed like decades, anyway friend just bought a 1998 4.6 HSE that I knew, it was owned by pretty rich bloke and after the dealers, was maintained by my buddy mechanic so I know it was a great car. Never been abused always driven gently and everything save the EAS replaced with new original Land Rover bits

Anyways, somehow during the night the rear right window opened up by itself ( it was by itself as it did open up two times on it own later aswell and RH window not set message come up ) and let some rain in, not heavly soaked or drowned by any means but the carpet is wet to the touch on that side. Now it won't start at all. The dash is dead with only the SRS light on and the message display. Won't crank, won't click, won't do anything. Checked all the obvious, fuses battery etc etc. The Key Fob works, locks and unlocks and the windows also work. Tried various sync procedures and still nothing.

Noticed some moisture in the Becm fuses, so pulled it out, opened it up, there were traces of previous moisture intrusion in it. Cleaned it up with some CRC electrical cleaner, and left it to air dry overnight, today put it back toghter hoping it will fire up but nothing, same SRS light and now the message display also seems to be going out. Ripped it out again and is now drying some more.

Is there anything else we are overlooking ? I personally feel bad as he really isn't a well off fella and really took our word and a leap of faith buying this RR on our word. Its only been two weeks and now this has happened.

Would it be possible to just swap in a Becm, without any programming ? As Middle East market cars really don't have any real security settings, no EKA, hooked up to a nano com, almost all codes fields are blank. Maybe loose remote functionality but thats a small compromise.

Thanks in advance for any advice or help

Cheers

Try fuse box first !

Looked at all the obvious as I mentioned earlier, fusebox ( which by the way was replaced with a new one a few years ago )fuses, Maxi fuses, Battery, cables etc etc.

Looking that way then no it's not just a strait swap needed to be the right one and synced with a fault mate as I'm
Aware not sure about the nano?? Not my area

desertdude said:

First of all a Big Hello to from the Land of Sand here in Dubai, UAE, secondly I was kinda surprised I'm not registered here on Land Zone ! Almost every Landy Forum on the interwebz I am a member off, been visiting this site for year, guess I've been just lurking then. Sorry about that!

Anyways hate to say hello and get right down to business but gotta, the issue is of a dead p38. Not mine, but a friends. It finally rained here after what seemed like decades, anyway friend just bought a 1998 4.6 HSE that I knew, it was owned by pretty rich bloke and after the dealers, was maintained by my buddy mechanic so I know it was a great car. Never been abused always driven gently and everything save the EAS replaced with new original Land Rover bits

Anyways, somehow during the night the rear right window opened up by itself ( it was by itself as it did open up two times on it own later aswell and RH window not set message come up ) and let some rain in, not heavly soaked or drowned by any means but the carpet is wet to the touch on that side. Now it won't start at all. The dash is dead with only the SRS light on and the message display. Won't crank, won't click, won't do anything. Checked all the obvious, fuses battery etc etc. The Key Fob works, locks and unlocks and the windows also work. Tried various sync procedures and still nothing.

Noticed some moisture in the Becm fuses, so pulled it out, opened it up, there were traces of previous moisture intrusion in it. Cleaned it up with some CRC electrical cleaner, and left it to air dry overnight, today put it back toghter hoping it will fire up but nothing, same SRS light and now the message display also seems to be going out. Ripped it out again and is now drying some more.

Is there anything else we are overlooking ? I personally feel bad as he really isn't a well off fella and really took our word and a leap of faith buying this RR on our word. Its only been two weeks and now this has happened.

Would it be possible to just swap in a Becm, without any programming ? As Middle East market cars really don't have any real security settings, no EKA, hooked up to a nano com, almost all codes fields are blank. Maybe loose remote functionality but thats a small compromise.

Thanks in advance for any advice or help

Cheers

Click to expand...

You cannot just swap the BECM, it will need to be cloned from the current one, i.e. have the lock code set transferred, synced to the engine ECU etc. You cannot see the security setting I believe if the BECM is locked, which it should be.
Rick the Pick is your man on this.

+1 on the BeCM has lost its marbles....

Not a straght swap - needs setting up the vehicle first - I know you say there is no security on some markets, but there are other vehicle params to be set up...

Not sure the Nanocom can fully setup a BeCM, you may need the Extreme MSV for that

Saint.V8 said:

+1 on the BeCM has lost its marbles....

Not a straght swap - needs setting up the vehicle first - I know you say there is no security on some markets, but there are other vehicle params to be set up...

Not sure the Nanocom can fully setup a BeCM, you may need the Extreme MSV for that

Click to expand...

With the SM035 module to unlock the bugger

Any overseas help is just going to be too costly to bear honestly, its the shipping that really does you in and the massive GBP to local clam exchange rate.

desertdude said:

Any overseas help is just going to be too costly to bear honestly, its the shipping that really does you in and the massive GBP to local clam exchange rate.

Click to expand...

If it's any better BlackBox are based in Cyprus. I don't know if Colin could help you.

desertdude said:

Any overseas help is just going to be too costly to bear honestly, its the shipping that really does you in and the massive GBP to local clam exchange rate.

Click to expand...

Still worth a PM to Rick the pick, he repairs them for a living.

Well having mucked about with the nanocom it pretty much handles almost everything Becm related here is a BB video just to show what it can and cannot do. It cannot unlock the Becm though, but can lock it, strange eh ?

Nanocom Evolution II, Range Rover P38 Body Control - YouTube

So setting other parameters shouldn't be a problem I'm guessing, specially if we can get the all the codes from the damaged Becm, since its not completely dead. Also the other thread here about secuirty settings

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f10/security-settings-becm-207092.html

Specially the post by Irish Rover that states most Gems Becm have the code 65535 that having checked mine that is the code is has, also further investigation I found a TSB asking dealers to change the GEMS code to 65535, FFFF is hex, which is learning mode to avoid imobillizer issues. So basically most Gems ECUs and compatible with different Becms.

Once a BECM is set up, it is normally locked to prevent the settings being interfered with.

That's true as far we know but don't ask me how. When plugged into the Nano. My Becm said it was unlocked, we tried unlocking it and went back to the menu it said locked again, so I'm thinking the nano only locks an unlocked one BUT we did change a few other settings for one my Becm was set to UK police and that was put back to normal. Speed was set to 120kph put down to 100 and now it doesn't beep anymore. I know you can set the speed limit on from the left stalk, but before everytime I went below 120 and back up again it would start again now it doesn't. By mistake we set the key in beep to continous, so everytime I switched off teh car, it would keep on beeping until the key was out, so changed that back to normal.

Basically what I'm saying is I have changed setting on a Becm which the Nano itself say was locked

I had a simalar problem with BECM here, tried all sorts even local dealer was stumped, took it back to the UK and dropped it with Irishrover, he said it was fooked and He cloned me a new one, brought it back,plug and NO play, we could not figure out what was going on, in desperation we pulled the fuse box apart (all looked and smelled ok) and found the pins between the boards had dry connections,re-solder fitted original BECM started fine, tried cloned unit NO start, there are some differences in them between markets, Gulf spec has all the immobilisers switched off, eka code is off, police mode is on, I have the printed read out Irish sent with both units and they are very different if I remember correctly.If you want it taking back to the UK PM me I am back there for Xmas and would be happy to take it and return it, if you can get it over to Qatar? This may explain some of the fob issues in your other post?

desertdude said:

That's true as far we know but don't ask me how. When plugged into the Nano. My Becm said it was unlocked, we tried unlocking it and went back to the menu it said locked again, so I'm thinking the nano only locks an unlocked one BUT we did change a few other settings for one my Becm was set to UK police and that was put back to normal. Speed was set to 120kph put down to 100 and now it doesn't beep anymore. I know you can set the speed limit on from the left stalk, but before everytime I went below 120 and back up again it would start again now it doesn't. By mistake we set the key in beep to continous, so everytime I switched off teh car, it would keep on beeping until the key was out, so changed that back to normal.

Basically what I'm saying is I have changed setting on a Becm which the Nano itself say was locked

Click to expand...

You can change a lot of settings on a locked BECM, just not those relating to locks, EKA codes etc.

Datatek said:

You can change a lot of settings on a locked BECM, just not those relating to locks, EKA codes etc.

Click to expand...

Thats the thing GCC doesn't have any EKA codes, lock issues and being a Gems the ECU shouldn't be a problem. You can turn the EKA, Immobilzer on and off from the nano. Once again I refer you to the Nano manual

:: Download - Nanocom ::

Read the section under Alarms but read the whole thing anyways, very useful on how the darn Becm works

Good news....well maybe or more likely hopefully. The local scrappy sells Becms from Jap half cuts on the cheap for around 34GBP since its one of those parts that no one seems to want, except another so called local indie, who buy these off him everynow and then, and charges a fortune from his customers, a proper rip off he is !

Anywhoo, also doing a lot of reading, it has come to my attention that the powerboard is very swappable and the setting like codes etc etc are in the lower signal board. So here is hoping for a successful power board swap. Keep yer fingers crossed !

As with most thread everywhere, I didn't want this to end dead in its track without reaching a conclusion, leaving the reader hanging, so grab a cup of coffee and read on.

I was finally able to go down to have a look today at the dead rover and its Becm. It was plugged back into car in a hope it might fire up. But it was literally dead as a dodo.

So we headed off to a close by town to our scrappie who had land rover stuff literally stacked till the roof. Looked through a pile of Becms, tried to get as close as possible to the original one with a AMR code and a H for a highline. Picked the one that looked the cleanest. Paid the grand total of 41 GBP and made our way back.

Pulled out the old Becm, and I got down to opening it up, was a bit hesistant although I have been messing about with LRs and Range Rover for around 5 years now, but never messed with any thing like this. It opened up pretty easy, but a heck of lot of hex screws on the top lid, which I later found out also acts like one giant heat sink.

The Power ( top ) board looked perfectly alright from the top, undid the four ribbon connectors which popped off pretty easily, flipped the board and instantly it was clear that it was toast. Any place where one of the thick gauge wires was soldered on to the PCB either labled Batt or fuse XY, the connection on the bottom was burned out,


The underside of the toasted power board from the original Becm, you can see all the burn marks from where its gone toasty.

surprisingly non of the fuses anywhere had shorted out, Initial plan was to transplant the donor power board into the original Becm, but the Logic board below is only held in by the four ribbon connectors and just 4 or 5 screws. So it made much more send to just swap the Logic board rather than the Power board, its fusebox etc etc.


The donor Becm with the logic board removed ready to receive a new one.

So donor box also opened up, power board flipped out, undone the few screws on the signal board. Took a look to compare the two, looked pretty much similar, just the donor one ( from a japanese half cut ) had an extra IC on it and one of the IC was bigger than the original, anyways put the original one in the donor box. Put back the million and one little screws. Plonked it back into car, fingers crossed, leaving the door open, put the battery back in and all doors locked, sounded like good news !

Looked inside still dark, put the key back in turned, beep beep beep, all the right sequence of lights came and went. More hope !

Turned the eye.........ENGINE DISABLED....Dang it !!!!!!!!!!

Oh wait, took the key out of ignition, closed the door. Put the key in the lock, locked and unlocked it one time, put the key back in, turned and whrooom the engine comes to life, It Lives !!!!!:clap2::clap2::clap2:

Checked if all the electrics were working and they work, keyfob needed to be resynced later but started to work one it was. Drove around, switched it on and off many times and starts right up everytime. i,e : All' good in the hood

In the end wasn't a difficult job at all, infact one of the more easier ones I've did on a P38a, also another thing I noted the Logic board is pretty well protected with the big power board on top as well have a very thick layer of enamel like clear coat on the PCB itself, so its pretty hard to damage it and I'm thinking in case of drowning, pretty much the power board with short out and cut power to the signal board before any chance of frying it, actually the fuses should fuse even before the power board gets fried but as in this case that didn't happen. Could it be that a lot of headache can be saved before folks go in for cloning, reprograming, chaging out with matched ECUs and locks to give this a try ?

Also to be honest pretty much chuffed with my self at this stage, having never tackled a Becm issue and specially reading all the negative replies almost everywhere I looked that it was impossible to be done, had to be reprogrammed, Becm need to be sent to someone who could unlock it, would need matched new fobs, door lock etc etc so on and so forth, but a few posts on previous threads from Irish rover and another fellow sorry can't remember the name having read almost everything there is to read regarding Becms on the interwebz kinda hard to remember who said what and I'm sure someone on another forum aswell, gave me a tiny ray of hope this can be done.

Anyways thanks a lot people you lot have been brillant

CHEERS !

Well Done chap....

looks like a contact for cheap BECM's now then