I have an option to buy a 2005 Toyota Camry XLE V6 188,000 miles. The mechanic said the ECU is dead. Everything else in the car is new all done by the dealer, tires, starter, fuel pump etc. I wanted to know if I can just go to the junkyard and get a ECU from the same model and also if I have to program it of some sort, or can I just swap them.
I would give it a hard pass.
It's a 16 year old car that you can't even hear run. If it were just the UCU why wouldn't the present owner just stick a junkyard ECU into it and sell it as a running vehicle?
You have no idea if this thing has a blown head gasket, a burned valve, or if the transmission is any good.
You also don't know what fried the ECU. Somewhere in the wiring harness there may be a computer ground shorted to a positive wire.
If that's the case it will fry every replacement ECU you stick into it.
The car is an office car where my dad works all the maintenance has been done under his supervision, every time the car needed something he was the one to get it done before the ecu went out everything was fine. A couple days ago the car got a dead battery so when they went to jump it they left both the cars running while they were still connected by the jumper cables and the high amount of voltage shorted out the electronics. So that's the only thing wrong with the car and i just need to know if i need to get the ecu programed or can i just swap them.
No, as long as you get the ECU for the same model, year,engine, and transmissio.
But you may have to reprogram the new ECU for the master key which is done by jumping the Tc and CG pins on the DLC and performing the relearning procedure
A. Insert a registered Master Key into the ignition cylinder.
B. Turn the ignition ON (engine OFF).
C. Jump Tc and CG terminals of DLC and leave for 30 minutes.
D. After 30 minutes, turn ignition OFF and remove check wire from DLC3
E. Start the vehicle to confirm successful ECU communication.
