Random Stall/No Start 2005 LGT Wagon

So, after many years of admiring the 4th gen platform, I finally pulled the trigger a few years ago on a 2005 LGT Wagon 5sp. It had 119,000 miles on it, so I figured there would be some work involved but I got a good deal and don’t have car payments! Quickly the factory turbo died. While replacing that, I did the grim speed stage 3 package to replace the inter cooler and down pipe that may have gotten oil/coolant/turbo bits in them. I also electively swapped in the 6-Speed drivetrain and brembos. I had a fueling issue that caused me to do the Injector Dynamics 1000cc top feed conversion.

Every time something comes up I am happy to fix (or upgrade it) because I don’t have those car payments and honestly where else am I going to find a Turbo, Manual, AWD Station wagon?

However, this latest issue has become a little frustrating to trouble shoot. I recently moved to Minneapolis and noticed a small hesitation on my drives between Madison and MPLS as I was moving. The hesitation was usually short lived and would go away after a few seconds.

One night, with my entire family in the car, the car died as I was pulling away from a light. It took maybe a minute for trying to get it restarted, but it eventually got us to dinner. It pulled a P0345 code and P1572 code during the event. This happened again on the way home.

The next day I took it to RS Motors here in the cities and the car was acting completely normal. We swapped Intake Cam Sensors between the bank to try and see if it was the sensor or the relay going bad. I drove it for another 4 weeks without event. When it did stall again, it pulled the same code P0345, so we could rule out the sensor.

Took it back to RS and it was acting normally again. They told me to drive it until it was doing it consistently. Flash forward another month or so to last Tuesday. The car had been having hesitations more often and dying consistently. It actually wouldn’t restart at this point. Towed it back to RS and they spent a few hours tracking the issue back to the ECU. It is waiting on a local dealer to get a new ECU to swap it in.

I am uncertain if this vehicle got the “Service Campaign” for the Radiator Fan Relay issue back in 2007, but the radiator fan was definitely always on, even with the key in ACC.

Have any of you experienced dying ECUs? Have you had similar experiences with an odd intermittent hesitation/stall/no start? Did everything get better once the ECU was replaced?

The car was tuned by Top Shelf outside Madison, WI and it ran very well when these events were not present. Pulled hard, made good boost. AFR was in good ranges. Never over heated.