What is Car ECU

27-02-2022 - The auto motive's computer is an electric control unit which used in present day autos to control its electronic components. Interpreting input from sensors and transmitting output to it's components, the vehicle main computer manage the appropriate operation of the vehicle.

The automobile computer collect information from the different digital units in the automobile as the camshaft and fuel consumption sensors to smartly compute information like fuel consumption, intake, cooling system and several other internal components to determind and control the running condition of the transmission, engine system as the AC, the lighting control, the fluid flow and so on.

A common illustration is the wheel speed detector which calculate the car speed and send the information to the engine control unit. In this system, rather than distributing signals to number of modules from one detector, the signals would be distributed by the ECM to all the components that use this information like the suspension system, speedometer, ABS and so on.

On-board Diagnostics Port

A car that incorporate ECM will also arrange On-board Diagnostics (OBD) provision to let driver or officials to plug diagnostic equipment to retrieve and display the automobile computer system settings.

Auto motive's computer theft deter control

The car immobilizer is anti theft instrument placed on the vehicle computer. It prevents the car engine from turning on without using an authorized key. This system uses a special chipped key that stores the electrical security pin-code or plainly a pass-code. The car computer doesn't start up the fuel supply instrumentation and the ignition circuit if the PIN code in the key is different then the PIN code reserved in the immobilized computer.

Worldwide auto makers use various types of car computers such as the PCM (Powertrain Control Module), BCM (Brake Control Module), GEM (General Electric Module) and more. Latest car may contain many ECUs and with this development, the programming required in configuring or resetting the ECM is turning more and more troublesome to handle.