P2138 and Reduced Engine Power

[blackswan]

Let me be first - THANK YOU! Excellent post/updates. I'm curious, are these surface mount solder connections (and hence a specialist needed)?

Great idea to go with the tune!

Originally Posted by Cbrowne

Hello again everyone,

Firstly, sorry everyone for the late reply. I'm hoping this post benefits those still looking for the answer.

TLR at the bottom but it is worth a read.

After lots, and lots of digging, I believe I have found the issue, which especially for non-American dwellers is not going to be an easy fix.

I believe the soldered joints in the ECU are degrading, overtime this becomes somewhat permanent as previously the vehicle would go into P2138 before the engine was even running. I found a refurbished ECU through eBay which did not resolve my issue initially but after more tinkering I determined the ECU was the actual fault. I then ordered a replacement refurbished ECU which 'fixed' the issue for all of 2 months (in the UK we cannot source brand new ACDelco ECU's for Camaro's). With the newer ECU I found the car would only go into P2138 after the engine had gotten thoroughly warm after driving then stopping, constant cold air flow would prevent P2138 but it would always come back after stopping for a short while.

The permanent solution to this would be for a specialist to resolder the ECU pins related to the APP sensors as the factory solder has degraded overtime causing intermittent connection issues when warmed up. As a UK resident no ECU specialist will touch my car as it is "exotic" here. However, my best work around was to purchase an 'upload' tune from Trifecta Performance Tuning, who's software allows you to disable P2138 by simply unticking a checkbox. At this time I am unsure if you can use this function on a stock tune, but I am more than happy with the performance gain from the Trifecta tune. It is worth noting the Trifecta Tune Ghost Cam option is known to cause limp mode with no error so best not to use that option despite how cool it is (I learned that the hard way). Hopefully this helps those lost and frustrated as I appear to be the first person to encounter this issue so here's to hoping I can make your lives easier.

Thanks, everyone.

TLR resolder ECU connections or disable P2138 DTC via tuner.