Bosch DME ML 1.3 Engine ECU Repairs

Type: Bosch Engine Management
Fits: BMW 635i
Engines: E24
Year:
Ref: ECUT352195

Note: This ECU may also fit other models.

Five separate parts records name Bosch number 0 261 200 018 as a Motronic ML1.3, and that agreement is the firmest thing this page stands on. Not every detail about the unit is backed as well, so each section below says how much weight a detail carries and what you should send us.

What the five records agree on

The name and the number go together without exception in what we checked: every one of the five sources that lists 0 261 200 018 calls it an ML1.3. Those that name an engine give the same one, the M30 3.5-litre straight-six.

So if the case in your hand carries this Bosch number, you have the right page, whatever car it came from. That is the one question the number answers on its own.

The 735i is on firmer ground than the spec line suggests

The spec lines at the top of this page name one car, the BMW 635i, with E24 on the line beneath it. Our records give that car in full as the E24 635CSi, and three of the five sources place the unit there.

The car the spec lines leave out has more behind it. Four sources record 0 261 200 018 in the E23 735i, one more than name the 635CSi, so an ML1.3 from a 735i belongs on this page just as surely as one from the car the spec lines name.

The note beneath the spec lines allows that the unit may fit other models, and the 735i is the only other model our records name. If your ML1.3 came out of a different BMW, tell us which one on the form; we take the car from you rather than assume a fitment we cannot trace.

What rests on a single source stays out of the table

A BMW part number is the detail with least behind it. Only one of the sources we checked prints a BMW number against 0 261 200 018, and one source is not enough for us to print it, so the OEM cell in the table below is blank by choice.

That blank is not a gap for you to fill from elsewhere. If your label shows a BMW number, copy it exactly as printed and send it with the Bosch number; if it shows none, the Bosch number is enough to go on.

Your own label outweighs all five records

Five records tell us where 0 261 200 018 has been found. Only the label on your own unit says what that unit is, so it is the evidence we weigh first.

Copy the Bosch number from the case, not from a listing or an invoice. Our table prints it as 0261 200 018 and this page spaces it as 0 261 200 018; either form reaches us intact, provided all ten digits are there in order.

The ML1.3 is an early Motronic, and its label may be faded or scuffed. Send what you can read and mark the characters you cannot. A partial reading is still evidence; a gap filled in from the car’s details is not, so we would rather receive the gap.

What happens once the DME reaches our workshop

Each unit is logged on arrival against the details from your form, checked visually, then tested electrically before diagnostics aimed at the fault you described. The work is done by our own engineers, in our UK workshop, on our own equipment.

When the cause is known, we come back to you with what we found and a quote, and nothing chargeable starts until you give the go-ahead.

The repair is made at component level: the failed parts on the board are identified and renewed under a microscope, using temperature-controlled rework equipment. Your ML1.3 is not signed off until it passes final testing, and the specific repair carries our 24-month warranty.

Sending your ML1.3 in

We work by post and accept units from anywhere in the UK. Your enquiry needs three things from the label and one from you: the Bosch number, any BMW number, whichever characters you could not read, and a sentence on how the car has been behaving. Then put your label’s reading on the Repair Form.

A label naming some other Bosch DME points you to the BMW hub. Engine ECUs from other manufacturers are gathered under our whole engine ECU repair service.

Below is the row as our table prints it, OEM cell left empty.

Common part numbers associated with this type of unit