so bought radiator cap today...

[psyolent]

at my local auto place.
was having a chat with the guy there who i've known for a long time, and, on the bench, he had a VZ ECU. tiny thing.
it seems, they are particular. ie a VZ berlina sedan ECU will not work in a exec, or a calais, or an S/SS, or wagon. and there are two other computers that go with it, and, they all need to be in sync apparently (sounds like the usual PCM/BCM pairing)
it turns out that the ECU had a broken pin, and they needed a replacement. holdens cost - $5K.
they managed to fix it by soldering a new pin into it and making it work, but, what is to come of these later models. $5K for an ECU when the whole car is worth $8K?

anyone had experiences with these new things yet?

[Gareth]

Yes, lots, replace them often, not for $5k though...

Replacement pcm is approx $650 plus programming

You said new...? VZ is over ten years old, not new anymore...

[Dylan]

I had one fail on mates car a few years ago. Got one from a wreckers it was of any old VZ Alloytec not a model specific ie Berlina etc. Sent it along with key hewd BCM and TCM I think it was. Then around $800 later they were all paired up again. Quote from local Holden was around $3K.

[vlad01]

good old 808 is free to 50 bucks.

[Holden202T]

lol yeah im with vlad!

[psyolent]

2nd that. 808. FTW.

[The1]

From VZ the modules send a security code onto each other module, if the code is wrong or a module doesn't exist the first module which is waiting for a return doesn't receive it, similar to vats, the end result is typically no crank or fuel. I had this problem once before, ECU died in a VZ, put a ECU in from the wreckers still no go, would crank but no injector pulse, used tech2 to relink, can't be done as the new ECU has the code from the old car, you have to input the old code from the original car to wipe the code, then with tech2 and TIS Security access you can relink the ECU to the rest of the modules and BCM in the system with the current code that the car is using. Not sure how these companies do them but im sure there is a string somewhere to decode the old code from to wipe it and then relink it again. Pre VZ apart from linking PCM to BCM there isn't anything lol