What is Being Done About the ECU Racket?

You might try this...

https://the-ecu-pro.com/blog/article/588222628096/5-main-reasons-why-ecus-fail-and-how-to-prevent-them

...as soon as something like this starts to happen in any quantity, there are specialists that start popping up who can fix the problem straight away at a much cheaper price...

You can replace it yourself with a used unit from the local junkyard, or Ebay...but make sure the numbers match...

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=hyundai+i10+ecu&_sacat=0&_odkw=hundai+i10+ecu&_osacat=0

I'm afraid it's much more difficult than that. All the units are failing the same way, and replacing them means getting a third-party unit with the necessary characteristics, and having it programmed correctly. Not easy to find, and not cheap.

Seems to me that if an electronic gizmo can disable your car, the manufacturer has an obligation to have a replacement available at a price that does not require the owner to take out a second mortgage.

What year is the car?

2010.

Still cheaper than buying a new car every two years or so....that's your alternative to expensive repairs...the other is aftermarket suppliers...

Two problems:

WHAT aftermarket suppliers? I can't find any. Closest I can come is generic ECUs designed for racers, most of them more expensive than what I'm being offered.

As for the cute statement that paying a thousand dollars for an electronic module with a known flaw is better than buying a new car every two years - do you think the people buying cars now are aware of having this choice in front of them? Don't think so, and they need to be told.

And what happens when these gizmos are not available at any price?

You have to match the numbers....

I would make sure that it's the ECU that's bad first, and not some peripheral sensor that's gone bad..you have to check them all...

I'm reasonably sure. I've had the diagnosis done by three mechanics so far.

IMHO: When considering the current high ethics of big business,I would never consider the remote possibility that the manufacturer would deliberately incorporate a Time To Live into the ECU or other software controlled components.

I have seen it happen on TV's with large volume failures at the same time in the same modules,just after the warranty expires in motel TV sets,for instance.

The right to repair laws will eventually boil down to technically legal,but practically impossible for the average consumer to repair.

The smoke is rising from the issue because friction creates heat,caused by the rubbing together of money and politics.

Having given this deep thought, it seems to me that the market (that's us, the car buyers) needs to offer the manufacturers some options, failing which we simply stop buying their product. Either:

Redundancy - the unit notifies the driver that one of its components has failed, and the driver continues to drive the car while a new module is ordered to replace the dead one. This is how fly-by-wire aircraft operate, only in their case the redundant computers are of different design, so that a systemic flaw will only affect one module. No need to go that far in cars.

Parallel operation with mechanical controls - car continues to operate, but the driver is notified that the digital control unit is kaputt and the car will probably not pass its next emissions test unless the unit is replaced or repaired.

In either case, the replacement unit must be readily available at all times, even years after the model is discontinued, and it must be available at a reasonable price. That means that the manufacturer must apply the same policy toward the electronics as toward the mechanical parts - either be prepared to furnish them itself or to transfer the necessary technical information to after-market suppliers.

Please direct me to one of these specialists.

Contacting the first, which didn't show up in my search. Thanks!

The second did show up, and didn't service my model.

IMHO:

The answer to any question that begins with "WHY?" or "WHY DON'T"..is usually MONEY and/or CONTROL.

A hacker can control anything in your vehicle..Brakes,Steering, Transmission, A/C, Heat, Speed,etc.So could the factory to increase trips to the repair shop.

In the past, most ECUs were repairable on a component level,but now everything is potted in in epoxy and makes them non repairable except with special equipment and specials solvents to dissolve the potting compound.
I have been successful repairing boards from some controllers by dissolving the potting compound in Acetone,Xylene,or Toluene,but now most modern ECU's resist all attempts to dissolve or soften them.The factory has probably formulated a special solvent and potting compound for this purpose, and only available to the dealers or specially qualified and contracted repair centers. .

Some of the newer high end cars are renting accessories for your new car,requiring a subscription fee to enable them.Some people have more cents than sense and do not care about cost.

It should be illegal,but one day it will become standard practice and everyone will accept it as normal.Everyone will lease a car,and never own it.

As a Legal Eagle once said: "A good judge is a a judge that stays paid."

A little paranoia is justified nowadays.

These sorts of things are best dealt with under the manufacturer's, and the vehicle suppliers', warranty arrangements.

What happens when the warranty expires? Discard the vehicle because of a faulty ECU?

That makes sense if the vehicle is under warranty. Mine isn't.

I've been driving for 50+ years & have never had a car that is still in warranty.

A ECU Engine Control Unit failure is very rare, overall. It gets picked on because not many people fully understand what it does. It is very difficult to test. In the vast majority of cases, it is anything BUT the ECU. People who can not diagnose their emission systems, esp. pre-1995, will change a ECU in desperation.

That being said, if there is a weakness in the original design, then you have a real problem. Engineering it out of a vehicle for a 2010 model would liquidate the value of the vehicle, without a doubt.

But this is not a widespread problem, so it’s going to be difficult to get widespread support.

How can it not be widespread? Every car has them, and they do fail quite often, if Youtube is any guide.

YouTube is an excellent complaint amplifier. Not so good for statistical analysis

Not interested in statistics. It only has to happen once, to one owner, to be a disaster. And it clearly happens more often than that.

There appears to be several questions being asked.. (kinda hard to lock to single "topic")

- Requesting help for fixing a specific Hyundai model.. good suggestions have been provided (pay the price or buy used for a discount, look for group action, etc..)

- Questioning the design choices of the automotive industry engineers. There is no possible way the demands made by Governments and market forces (environmental, gas mileage, etc) .. can be met without these ECUs. Like you, I don't always agree with their design choices. I don't think additional Government involvement would improve the situation.

- Implied question: what can a consumer (or society) do to improve the repair-ability, safety or cost of cars. Ans: society is working on it. It is complicated.

Remember the 1970s? There was a major push to make cars tolerate a 5 mph impact without incurring damage (or very minor cost). Two months ago, someone backed into the front of my Buick Enclave (2mph?) .. repair cost: $4500. Priorities of society change, technology changes, expectations change. It is complicated.

I call it a racket because I believe it is the result of deliberate choices, all of which limit the customer's options and drain him of his money.

The engineering deliberately (I believe) ignores options that leave the car operating (albeit at lower efficiency) if the unit fails. Before large commercial aircraft went entirely fly-by-wire (God help us), boosters and controllers operated in parallel with physical connections, much as conventional power steering and power brakes do. (When they go out, you can still brake and steer, though you won't do it any longer than you have to.)

I for one do not long for the days of grinding the valves every 10000 miles like my dad did. Nor of servicing it every 5000km like my first car. Nor of changing the timing when moving from my folks' place at sea level to my place 1700m higher. Etc. From the early 1990's, all my cars had ECUs (fuel injected, hence the requirement) and only one gave some trouble - ended up as a faulty temperature sensor (I think), not the ECU. And no carbs to adjust. If you think mechanical fuel injection - just see if you can get a mechanic to explain the joys of maintaining the Kugelfischer system. By the time our 1973-ish Peugeot 504 TI was sold in the late 1990's (same age as your Hyundai), there were only two proper mechanics in the country that could still make a plan with it.

If I had a 24 yr old Hyundai and I found the ECU replacement cost too high, I'd probably say "thanks for the good times, old friend", as there are probably a few other things about to fail, and get a newer used car.

As for the youtube complaints, surely you jest if you think that means anything! There were probably hundreds of thousands made. Each car has its own niggles, and youtube is full of complaints & fixes, so I would not say that a faulty ECU was a design choice by Hyundai

"If I had a 24 yr old Hyundai"

It's 13 or 14 years old.

This is a false dichotomy.

I am not eschewing mechanical improvements, or feeling nostalgic for the days when I adjusted the valve clearances in my Volkswagen beetle, with hot oil dripping on my face. But fuel injection existed before ECUs, and so did valves that did not require the adjustment of their clearances. We didn't have to give ECUs absolute control in order to have these benefits. It is possible to have digital controls operating in parallel with conventional ones, but that is not the choice that manufacturers have made.

The use of ECUs is also influenced by governments & the green lobby pushing for more efficiency in motor vehicles. The ECU is able to learn your driving style & make continuous adjustments to use less fuel.

A bonus, if you are a Tesla owner, is that it allows the manufacturer to introduce monthly fees for various enhancements to your car.

Not looking for additional government involvement. If experience is a guide, that will make it worse.

I do want to find a suitable consumer organization and press it to make this problem known to its members and to press for a solution.

Someone once said that an elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.Nowadays, a mouse is an elephant built to industry standards.

I realize that any business has to make money and to maximize profit,which is making things as cheaply as possible. No need to specify a IC that will take 50% more than circuit needs..get the cheapest one that barely meets specs.The result is a very short component life,just enough to get past warranty and they are safe.

I have repaired many circuit boards in my life,of all types,and I always replaced failed chips or discreet components with MilSpec (zero C to 100C),for instance,and a higher max voltage than required.Chip sockets were replaced with bifurcated gold plated pins sockets.I had no repeat failures and this was in industrial,commercial and government environments.I realize industry cannot afford to do this,but they could make things a little more durable.Most circuits now are surface mount,which is more reliable due to no thru-hole problems,but almost impossible to repair without specialized tools.

This will force repair shops to purchase or upgrade their equipment,the cost of which will be passed on to the consumer.The public may have eventually have the right to repair,but not the ability.

Not looking for more government involvement - I'm pretty sure it was government (specifically, California's government) that forced these monstrosities into every car.

I would love to find a consumer organization that is willing to pursue this.

A 1975 Chevy Vega ran into the back of my 1976 Ford LTD and totaled the Vega,but only a scratch on the chrome bumper of the LTD.5MPH bumpers really worked.They were mounted with springs and shock absorbers like a suspension system.Body shops lost a lot of business for repairs of what would have major damage from a minor bump-up.

I became a big fan of aftermarket "racing" ECUs when the manifold air temperature sensor on my 2008 Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic failed. I bought the bike used and it had a ThunderMax ECU. ThunderMax offers free software, and after a download and a USB cable, I was able to diagnose the problem myself. The ECU saw -50 degrees C as a reason to richen the fuel mixture and subsequently foul spark plugs.

This ECU allows me the freedom to "re-jet" the mix with any configuration changes I make to the system. The best feature of a fuel injected engine system is how much more efficient and long lived the machinery is without the wash-down of an accelerator pump equipped carburetor. It's not rare to see engines go 250,000 miles these days. I'm going this route with a 67 Mustang: electronic-fuel-injection-retrofit-for-your-street-rod

The consumer level diagnostics are very limited in scope,just mainly giving general diagnosis.If you want to really know what is going on,you will need to purchase a professional analyzer,pay a monthly fee for updates and all this just to find out it is a simple problem.John Deere owners have started a grass roots movement to make equipment buyer repairable,including software.Hopefully,this will spread and owners can actually own what they buy instead of being perpetually renting it.

I seem to remember that Andy Germany was starting a project to make a universal white goods controller card (mainly for washing machines), which would be much cheaper than manufacturer's spares.

I'd imagine that the same could be done for ECUs

It is. There are third party ECUs, designed mainly for racers who want to bypass the manufacturer's programming. One problem is that most are even more expensive than the extortionate prices charged by manufacturers. The other is getting your hands on the manufacturer's programming so you can either duplicate it or adjust it.

I forgot to mention the contempt with which the manufacturer has treated me. I sent two registered letters, to Hyundai Philippines and the headquarters in Korea. I haven' t received so much as a "thank you for taking an interest in our products" acknowledgement. They even managed to evade signing the pink receipt card. I know they received the letter because they contacted the dealer. I would be tempted to say that I will never again buy any of Hyundai's products, but I have an awful feeling that all the manufacturers are like this.

Only good news. A friend had the same thing happen to her Honda, including the thousand-dollar quote, but she found a local electronics guy. On his instruction, she bought a cheap component (a diode is my guess), paid him for his time, and got her car back on the road for very little money. I had unfortunately just sent my unit to a friend in Iligan for repair at considerable cost, though still about 1/5 what the dealer had quoted me. Making a note of the electronics guy for the next time my ECU fails, which will happen because it has a systemic flaw.

If that diode is the common failure, then, replacing it with a higher powered one with otherwise similar characteristics might solve the problem.