Well i re-installed my ecu on friday. (Sent on Tues) and my first impressions are.... . That first time i was nervous going past redline but than i said What the hell? Anyways, the car is amazing and has really seem to wake up. I do still think that there is alot more power to get out of the car with the mods I have, but unfortunately until WORKS does their own 3"TB, I will just have to settle for their current exhale program.

I dont have a boost gauge (buying one today) but I do have a OBDII scanner and I was doing some datalogging, and I noticed that the air flow increased dramatically from stock. Before any mods the highest reading in air flow that I got was 28lb/min, now I am hitting upwards of 30 and changes.

The car is sick now. much smoother and more fun to drive. Def. a good investment for someone who doesnt want to fool around with a/f all day long.

 

General question about reflashing... can you put it back to stock if you need to (say going back to the dealer for warranty work)?

Like you, I don't have a boost gauge. I want to try the data logging. What kind of logger do you have and can you log boost with it?

Glad to hear you like the results.

 

You can have it reflahsed back to stock if you want. The dealer is not going to know one way or the other so I'd just leave it as is.

 

For the warranty conscious, a reflash is probably going to be your best bang for the buck... It is not going to get found unless someone is really looking for it.

 

My understanding is the dealer won't be able to detect it even when hooked up to there computers.

 

I would also like to know more information about this. What's the deal as far as the dealer's are concerned, can they find out it's been reflashed?
Peter

 

In a word, no. We have already run the Mitsubishi scan tool on the Brain flash and were unable to detect the reflash. Also, factory diagnostic codes are still accessible to the technicians, just as they were before the flash programming.

-- DavidV

 

New WORKS exhaust goodies (and flash programming for them) coming soon... In the meantime, have fun with the Brain flash!

-- DavidV

 

Based on my experiences with turbo cars with Bosch ECUs, I have these comments. Generally a scan tool isn't going to blatently see that an ECU has been modified. I have a very nice scan tool software for Volkswagen/Audi/Seat/Skoda products that's very much an equal to the factory scan tool. As far as may scan tool is concerned, there is nothing unsual with my chipped ECU.

However I know that service techs get pretty good at finding signs that a car is chipped. Often you can tell a car is chipped by just driving it. Other times there is tell tale wear around the ECU that indicates someone has been playing. This is especially true with people who swap back to a unmodified box. But usually the biggest give away are the boost values. In the case of Bosch ECUs, you just have to log the target and achieved boost values and take the car for a good spin.

In the end, it becomes a case of you have to be prepared to pay to play. Fortunately I have a good relationship with my service manager. We have a unspoken understanding that my is modified. The deal is that things that are clearly a result of my modifications are something I take basic responsibility for. If it's something that is clearly an know problem with my car, modified or not, he just fixes it. If I did have a turbo failure he would probably work with me. You can't underestimate the value of patience, personal relationships, and compromise with these things.

 

David, I sent an email to the Works contact addy on the webpage. Can you look it over and get back to me?
Also, in response to Pete S4, I hear ya, trust me, I know that you gotta pay to play. My toy (in my sig) is costly fun, I just don't want my warranty to void on my daily driver in the case that something catastrophic were to happen. David, do you guys have an option to have the stock map also sent with the reprogram so that in the event that something really bad happened we could reflash the ECU to the stock specs?
Thanks
Peter
pblach@att.net

 

Good points! A couple of comments. There are no telltale signs with our method since we do not open the ECU -- all we do is upload data. In fact, for local customers who drive in to our shop, we don’t even have to pull the ECU out to upload the data. There is no physical "chip" being installed on the board.

As far as service techs logging boost, again, we are flying under the radar since the factory peak boost remains unchanged with the Brain flash.

If a service tech were to attempt to find the rev limit on the car during a test drive by hammering the car to redline, that would likely give-away that something has been changed. That said, I would quickly look for another dealership to have my car serviced if I found out that my dealer techs were exploring the rev limit on my car.

-- DavidV

 

Yes... should the need arise, we can flash you back to stock.

I'll look for your email.

-- DavidV

 

FWIW, most modern high performance cars (like the Sti, all BMWs, most Hondas, and most likely, the EVO) record max engine speed in their on-board "black boxes" which is a non-flashable portion of the ECU. This is the first thing most dealerships check when faced with a warranty claim. This is how they prove if an engine failure was caused by a mis-shift which would not be covered under warranty. I suspect the same logic will apply for detecting mods which raise the max allowed rev limit.

Just my 2c,
shiv

 

simple just have them flash it as a stock rev limit....... or dont go over 7,000rpm......

 

You mean 7300 rpms That's our redline. Or was it 7400rpm. Dont' rememeber. Can't really find out on out tach since it's so off.