Help getting connected, please. Alfa 33 Motronic 4.1

[Edward]

I need a bit of help please.

Here is the situation....

I have an Alfa Romeo 33 16v, which although it doesn't appear in the list of supported vehicles - it does use Bosch Motronic 4.1.

Someone previously told me that had connected onto their ECU with Multiecuscan. They had gone in using one of the 164 models as they share Motronic 4.1

I seem to be able to get a connection of sorts, using cable that has 'KKL VAG-COM for 409.1'.

I went in and did a scan and it came back with:

'Engine unknown / unsupported
ISO Code 3B 80 13 89 2C

I did some more fiddling and hitting of buttons and making use of Alfa Romeo 164 QV / Bosch Motronic ML4.1 Injection (3.0 V6) from the menu page I managed to get:

"Invalid ISO Code", but with it was:

ECU ISO Code: 3B 80 13 89 2C
Software version: 3037537621
Fiat Drawing Number: ?????

I then got another window that says things like:

"Unhanded exception has occurred in your application. If you click continue the application will ignore the error and attempt to continue. Object reference not set to a instance of an object."

There was then another page to do with JIT debugging and a further one about 'Unhanded exception has occurred in your application....'

I did try a few other things as well as press the 'scan' button from time to time - but after a while it would time out. Fair enough.

Now I know that the Alfa 33 is not clearly included in the supported list - but it uses the same ECU as the 164 as well as the same version of Motronic at 4.1. I would happily pay the 50€ fee once I can read the ECU - but the first point is establishing connection.

One thought I did have is that perhaps I failed to 'disconnect' each time I tried different 164 versions with Motronic 4.1, or I have the problem with the com port thing that I read about in the set up, or I simply can't read the ECU.... BUT saying that it seems to be reading something - as it is giving me an ISO code.

I would really love to be able to read the ECU as the car has some rough idling problems and a couple of friends with similar cars (33'S with Motronic) always complain about lack of smooth running in the Motronic controlled 33's.

Can someone please tell I am making some simple connection errors - or with MES not connect no matter what? Any help would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks....

Edward.

[Edward]

Anyone? Had another go earlier this week with the help of a friend - but still stumped.

Any help would be hugely appreciated.

[adriann]

Hi Edward,

I know you asked this a long time ago, however it has taken me a few years to get as far as you did... and now a bit further! Yes, I connected and saw data!

For quite some time I have wanted to connect Multiecuscan to my many 33 16V's to help me debug what was going wrong with them... but I have always failed to connect, until today!

Before I dive into what I did, I want to say that since I could never get Multiecuscan connected to my ECU's, I ended up solving all my cars running/idling issues the old fashioned way

I'm not sure how much having the data from the ECU would have helped anyway... I guess it may have made things a little quicker checking the output values from the sensors were sane... but overall the data you get requires interpretation and even if you do see errors (I used the flash code method), it often doesn't help unless a sensor has flat-out died. In old ECU systems there aren't a lot of sensors and means to accurately pinpointing the error... generally the warnings/errors you'll see are way downstream of the actual problem, chiefly showing up as O2 out-of-range errors, this doesn't mean your O2 sensor is broken, it can be any number of things upstream that is causing the fuel mix to be off.

You mentioned rough idling, I suspect you are (were) probably experiencing surging/hesitation on very light throttle at highway speeds too.

Nearly all of my cars were running badly like this because of the 'Air Flow Meter' (AFM)... the resister strip wears out where the contact arm spends most of it's time (the lower end of the strip). My advice is to clean the resister strip with alcohol, then use a conducting switch lubricant. However, this often this isn't enough and you may need to modify (bend) the contact arm so the contact points run of a fresh bit of resister strip.

Other things to do is clean the 'Constant Idle Actuator' (CIA) which is the rotary valve on the front of the intake plenum and clear out your vacuum lines into the throttle bodies (which is how the CIA feeds the car air on idle), these can be choked and will mess up your idle. Also check that your throttle bodies are balanced, you can do a good enough job of that by eye, remove the plenum and watch the throttle butterflies opening... they need to open at exactly the same time, some basic adjustment of the linkage lengths and throttle stops will solve that.

NOW BACK TO WHAT YOU REALLY ASKED (FWIW):

Clearly you have managed to get some connection to the car ECU because of the message you saw regarding the invalid ISO code... I just saw this today since I corrected the pinouts of my 3 pin adapter (cheap Chinese one I got was wired incorrectly).

3-pin-hack.jpg (196.21 KiB) Viewed 2554 times

Anyway, I saw the same message you got and I clicked Yes to continue, however it fairly quickly times out and loses connection.

Screen Shot 2017-04-20 at 10.07.42 am.png (512.05 KiB) Viewed 2554 times

I tried numerous times... on a few attempts I had enough time to click in and see some parameters...

SO IT DOES WORK... kinda!

I was determined to see more params, so I started the car... now it takes way longer to timeout... (but is still does) so I can get at least a snapshot of data before the connection drops.

Screen Shot 2017-04-20 at 10.29.56 am.png (454.72 KiB) Viewed 2554 times

I have a paid version so I can actually access the data, but the short connection time pretty much isn't worth buying a license, unless there is something the author can do about that.

I'm using paid version 3.6.

My advice is... try the current version of the software and run your car while attempting to connect, you may have enough time to witness a connection, however you wont get data without a license.

Better late than never, right?