Well, I kind of dropped out of the mainstream posting on this board, but I still lurk daily.
Everything's been going pretty good with the Beat - I still love it. STILL waiting on one last document to come from Japan so I can get it registered. I still take it out once in a while with the Civic's tag on it (shame on me).
A common problem with Beats is that the six canister capacitors on the ECU's PCB wear out over time. This is due to engine heat and to natural aging. If you don't catch them in time, they swell and burst, releasing their highly corrosive electrolyte onto the PCB and causing lots of problems. There are all sorts of gadgets to help prolong the life of them - from thermal insulation blankets to put between the ECU and firewall to wiring harness extensions so you can relocate the ECU away from the firewall.
I finally got around to pulling my ECU and main relay to check them. The main relay has the same issues as those on Civics - cracked solder joints. My main relay is perfectly fine, but two of my capacitors have leaked. As I understand it, the capacitors work mostly with the fuel control circuit, and are
the cause of poor efficiency and poor performance.
When I get back from camping this weekend, I'm going to remove the capacitors and try my best to clean up the board. If the neighboring resistors and diodes look to be corroded enough for concern, I'll replace them as well. I'm going to be using a higher temperature rated capacitor to help alleviate this problem. As I understand it, I'll be great for another 10ish years after this, which is the average life of these capacitors.
Hopefully I'll notice an improvement in performance and efficiency after this. Pictures of the ECU and the two leaky capacitors:
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