I have a lot of experience flashing Evo 8 and 9 Ecus, less so with the X. I have a friend with an Evo X FQ330. This comes from the UK with an ECUTEK flash. He wants me to tune it but of course to do that I will need to bench flash it with a different ROM.

I have never done this before so I have a few questions. Not about the bench flash process, but about what to expect when I load a different ROM. I know with the 8 and 9 the immobilizer code is stored in the ECU, but I am told by a reputable tuner that that is not the case with the X. I would like confirmation of this. I also know that when you flash the Evo X the vin number comes up in EcuFlash so I assume that info is stored on the Rom. If so, will this cause issues if I flash a different Rom? I guess I could go into the Rom code and change this if required.

Anyone can give me more insight?

 

Yes you are right, immobilizer code is not stored in the ECU.

 

OK. Thanks for the confirmation.

I have been reading up and it seems that switching roms is possible at least among similar years. So if I get a ROM from the same year SST I should be able to bench it with that ROM.

 

Yup, generally it's safe to 'upgrade' ROM to the later version for same MY without benching. Eg, 53050006 to 53050009.
Benching is required for major change though, like MY11 to MY10.