Need help: CEL but no codes

[Jabeo]

Hey all, ive got myself a bit of an issue going on with the car that im needing some insight/advice on. last sunday halfway to auckland, past bombay cruising at 100 just fine, car CEL light comes on abruptly and car bogs hard, afr goes very rich and car wont accelerate, much like when you are in limp mode. pull over and turn car off and on to see if that does anything, no luck so i manage to drive the car at low speed up and off the motorway at the Ramarama turn off.

Pulled over and did some checks, no leaks, no funny smells, everything is still plugged in. bridged diagnostic port and there was no codes but still a constant CEL. Disconnected battery to reset codes, started up again and got a CEL instantly, checked codes again but nothing just constant CEL. Car is rough to start and rough to idle on its own, rich as hell. Pulled the ecu and opened it up roadside to find capacitor c810 blown out, with electrolytic fluid on the PCB, 1 other looked to be on its way out. As i understand it C810 is one that is used for idle control which sort of explains the rough start and idle. Not wanting to deal with a tow truck, i put the car back together and managed to somehow drive it to pukekohe where dad lives, black puffs of smoke out the back and no boost at all, but still got there. it was an extremely rough drive

He took me out to jay car and i bought some replacement caps, same spec as the ecu ones. de soldered c810 and the other one, cleaned the PCB as best i could, re soldered the new ones in, and yes they were oriented right. reset battery, plugged ecu in, and boom same issue. pulled the ecu to double check everything, tried again and same once again. it would just start up for a few seconds then idle down and die. If i revved it a bit i could get it to stay running albeit, very roughly and with the CEL. There are no funny noises or smells and as far as i know the engine ran fine before it happened.

Left car in Auckland and went back to Hamilton, got a mate to help me desolder the caps i did and re do them with a higher quality ones, cleaned it up better and even checked the traces with a multimeter to confirm there was no continuity between parallel traces that it could short on and check that there was continuity on the positive of the cap down on different points of its trace and that was sweet. in total 3 caps replaced and all other caps were checked with a meter and tested fine. Stopped by dads on the way to Auckland last night to try the ECU, reset the battery and fired it up and same issue! Tried it all again and got a constant CEL with no codes.

Because the car is stranded in Pukekohe its not easy for me to have time to troubleshoot everything as i live in Hamilton. I have a spare GTE ECU coming with the same PN as mine from a "good working car" just to rule out the ECU as an issue, however i have no clue what i can check after repairing my ECU and still not having a CEL code to go off of. EFI and ECU fuses are all sweet, and car can still start just very roughly and is not in a drivable state. Next time i am in Auckland i will be checking the plugs for spark, replacing the leads, and the fuel filter was done in last couple of months as well. Has anyone ever seen a car with a CEL not throw codes before? everything ive looked at and read points to it being an ECU issue when that happens, but im wondering if anyone has advice or insight to offer so i can add it to my list of shit to check when im up there next if the replacement ECU doesnt work

Sorry for long post, i dont usually ask unless i cant figure it out on my own

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[Jabeo]

MAF, coil and igniter, O2, knock are all plugged in and i cant see any visible breaks in any of the wires as well

[Benckj]

The ECU PCB is multi-layered so can be difficult to get new caps installed. Shorted or leaking caps can also damage other components within board so it may be a write-off. I would think that the new ECU will solve your issues unless there is an outside module such as ignitor or ground connection.

[4CylinderSpecial]

Quite possible that the leaking caps cause a short and fubar'd the ecu. But if not I would think it could be something like the MAF? Being Mafless myself I'm just guessing but it seems to be misjudging the amount of fuel/air etc entering the car. Could it even be something like the cold start injector pegged open?

[GDII]

To rule out the ECU try to find another one you can borrow to test. Your car is a little more 'rare' being a 92 so might be a little hard to find one.
Your part number should be 89661-17380 for the ECU.

[Jabeo]

To rule out the ECU try to find another one you can borrow to test. Your car is a little more 'rare' being a 92 so might be a little hard to find one.
Your part number should be 89661-17380 for the ECU.

Yeah last paragraph i said i had one on the way with the same PN as mine Guy sent it out today and it should arrive in the next few days i hope, then ill have to sort a day to head up to puke to test it out to see how it goes driving to auckland gets old very quick hahah

Quite possible that the leaking caps cause a short and fubar'd the ecu. But if not I would think it could be something like the MAF? Being Mafless myself I'm just guessing but it seems to be misjudging the amount of fuel/air etc entering the car. Could it even be something like the cold start injector pegged open?

Quite possibly, like jim mentioned the pcb is multi layered which i didnt know so could have definitely messed with other stuff i cant see on top. Next time im up for the day ill have to see if i can borrow a maf from tony or something if the ecu doesnt work and start pulling things apart. a couple of things to check on my list now