Flashing CEL = Severe Misfire or if you shorted the DLC flashing all the times means you got no codes.

 

Thanks,
Wade

 

Overnight I had the ECU out of the car with the battery disconnected. I plugged it back in today and reconnected the battery.

 

Im having dsm flash backs. God help us all. Lexus must not have the leaky capacitar fate. !!!

 

Thanks,
Wade

 

it only time it should blink rapidly is when you jumper E1 and TE1 at either one of the diagnostic ports and there are no DTC's present. Otherwise it should come on and stay solid until the car is started. Theres no other logical reason i know of for it to be flashing without the diagnostic port being jumped to check for codes, unless theres a short of some sort in the wiring harness

and to answer your question, you probably need to find a cali-spec ecu. There are differences in the wiring harnesses, mainly with the O2 sensors being 4wire on the cali spec and 1wire for all others

 

a bad ecu could cause this, but my first thought was misfire. have you recently removed the tranny for any reason. these are some of things i think it could be. bad ground to tranny, neutral switch, spark plugs/coils or wires, crank sensor/cam sensor. have you checked if your getting fuel? i would start eliminating these things as soon as possible. check your fuel pump fuse also

 

Kind regards,
Wade

 

Okay, the search is on!