Hi everyone. I have a stock Evo IX and am thinking strongly of getting an E-Flash from Dynoflash for some quick gains prior to doing some other mods. Everyone talks so good about getting flashed by Al I just can't wait to try it out.

My main question is how many times can you flash the ecu before it craps out? I don't plan to get a ton of flashes, but I would definitely being flashing back to stock if I needed some warranty work done. Also, flashing after modding becomes a concern of mine.

Next question is - would I need another flash once I installed a cat-back exhaust? I do plan to get another tune, hopefully one in person, once I get the complete turbo back exhaust... just curious if I would need one for just a cat-back.

If I do go with the E-Flash I will be doing a before/after dyno, so I will post the charts so everyone can see.

And I did do some light searching and a lot of reading prior to posting this, so please don't respond with useless comments... thanks.

 

i haven't heard of anyone reaching the flashing limit of their ECU's yet and some people have flashed them ALOT. i currently have an Eflash and am quite happy with it. you can probrably ask for a base flash with a cat-back and still drive on it until you put one on, i don't think just a cat-back would make a huge difference in the tune, but then again, i'm not al. warr, where ya at?

 

Well the catback exhaust will lean the mixture out a little bit, will it be unsafe? no. you wont need a new flash, will you get more power and better drivability with another flash? for sure, its not the sum of the parts. its how well they work with each other.

 

look on the dynoflash website in the Q A page it tells you what you need to know

 

I understand that with a cat-back exhaust it would run the best with a new flash, but you reassuring that it will be ok with the existing flash is good news. My biggest concern is safety/reliability for my car. I would plan to get a reflash when I get the full exhaust installed, I just don't want to get a new flash after the cat-back and again after the TBE.

I looked over the website and it does not mention the maximum number of flashes you can do on the ecu. There is actually not much info on the website compared to what you can find on the forums here.

Thanks for your responses... I would still like to know how many times you can flash the ecu.

 

No one knows, because no one has ever reached the limit even after 900 flashes. Not sure why you're so concerned about it.

You won't need a reflash for the catback.

 

Wow! Someone has flashed their Evo 900 times??? Didn't expect to hear that.

It was more of a question than a concern. A flash is much cheaper than any stand alone or piggy back ecu option, so with a new ecu costing around $800 I was willing to take a chance with it... it was just the only question I hadn't seen asked yet.

Thanks for the reassurance. I'm pretty sure I will be going with a dynoflash and I'll post the results within the next few weeks.

 

Warr let me tell you why he's so concerned about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is speculation that the ecu could take a crap after so many flashes... numbers vary depending on who you talk to. Due to the fact that "nobody knows" that's why he's asking....

THAT'S WHY HE'S CONCERNED ABOUT IT

maybe you being the evolutionm e thug that you are could do some investigation for us. I think now that Al lets customers upload as many maps as there heart desires, it should be something to look into. I mean there is speculation it could crap out, and now that there is something you don't know enough about. Maybe you can do some homework instead of wondering why a person is of concern about his ecu.

Make sense?

 

That so called speculation is complete garbage. There is no limit to how many times flash memory can be flashed. If the ecu takes a crap its most likely due to encountering an unrecoverable error during the flash process.... I've seen this many times over years of performance tuning all sorts of cars. Its software and software screws up..... but, it has nothing to do with the number of times something has been flashed.

The problem I have noticed on this site is that it only takes one person that doesn't have a clue to start a "speculation" post, and then it snowballs into complete retardedness. Next thing you know we have a rampant and real concern over complete nonsense.

 

I'm not sure what type of disk you write to on the ecu, but I do know that on all computers a hard drive, flash drives, and tape drives eventually crap out when you write to them too much. Now I know that it takes an ungodly amount of rewrites to mess them up, but I'm sure the computer in a car is very similar.

Again, it was just a question and I am confident in this process enough to take the risk. A new ecu is what $800? It will be cheaper to replace than go with some crazy expensive stand alone ecu or a piggy back unit that doesn't offer all the features of the flash and paying someone that knows how to tune it to tune it. I may try to learn how to tune my car in the future... but right now I am not knowledgeable enough to do so.

 

Lukytry, not sure what you're going crazy about, but we have already discussed this in great detail IN THE ECUFLASH FORUM. Wow, crazy place to discuss that, huh? The consensus was that NO ONE HAS FLASHED AN ECU ENOUGH TIME TO HIT ANY LIMIT OR BREAK THE ECU. Since multiple people have done 900+, then this guy has no worry. Why is that not good enough for you? This guy won't come near flashing his car that many times.

And as far as me "researching" this, are you suggesting I go outside and flash my Evo 2000 times in a row until it breaks? Could you be anymore stupid?

 

There is no disk drive in an ecu and the flash space in an ecu is in no way similar to a computers disk drive or a tape drive..... dear lord. Its flash memory (solid state)....and for all intents and purposes it can be written to a virtually infinite number of times. The memory chips are the same tech as that of the little USB thumb drives you can buy for your computer. You can also read, write, erase from those, more or less, an infinite amount of times.

The only way they can fail is if the code is corrupted in the flash process leaving the ecu in an unrecoverable state or the chips fail due to extreme old age or exposure to static discharge. On a PC you can simply reformat the thumb drive because youre running an OS (Windows) seperate from the actual device. With a car ecu, if the ecu can no longer boot due to a corrupted image, you will be screwed.... even though there is absolutely nothing wrong with the hardware. People refer to it as a dead ecu.... its actually not a dead ecu. The ecu is perfectly fine... its the fubar'd software stored on the ecu that has made it a paper weight.

 

Thanks all for the info.

 

I guess I could be, but id take that over ignorance any day! Seems to me like you took my post the wrong way? I was only posting to you the same way you do to others on the forum! lighten up....


BTW let me know once you have flashed youre ecu 900 times