Hi everyone. So I am trying to figure out if my current ECU is broken. If I were to install a new (used) ECU is it just a full plug and play swap of ECU's or do I have to have it programmed or anything? My car is a 2003 Evo 8. Thanks!

 

i wanna piggyback this thread. will swapping a new ecu in cause vin mismatch on an 8 or is the vin not embedded. sorry figured the responder could answer both.

 

As long as its a 2003 ecu w/o the immobilizer function I don't see why it would be anything but a plug n play affair. Second poster, I'm not sure I understand your question to be honest.

 

Wondering the same thing. He is talking about when it is hooked up through the obdII scanner during inspection, will it still show as the cars original VIN or will the new ecu have the cars data/VIN still inside (will it not match the cars VIN it is registered under)?

 

Why does it matter if the vin matches? I'm jw. It doesn't really effect anything nor should it. Is there a smog or legal reason why this matters that I am not aware of?

 

My ECU might be broken and I need to smog.

 

in ny, the inspector hooks the car up through the obd port. if the car has a vin in the ecu and it doesnt match the vin on the dash your f-d. hence my question. i am looking at an 8 with an aem in it. so no obdii support. i would then buy an ecu and put a pass code inspection tune in it as long as there is no vin mismatch.

 

Well there is definitely going to be a mismatch unless you can find the ecu that was in your car originally lol. I'm sure there is a way to rewrite the vin in the ecu. I mean crap, we can change EVERYTHING else on the rom these days, why not the vin too? In Illinois they just plug you in and if all the test monitors show "pass" then you're done. People do ecu swaps all the time on these cars so I'm sure you will find the info you need using the search function of this website. Good luck.

 

The more I think about this the more I don't understand why a mismatched vin would cause you to fail emissions, people have ecu's that get fried out all the time and they just buy a used one and put their tune and immobilizer code on the new(used) ecu and call it a day. So you can't just tell the smog people that your ECU got fried and you had to buy a new one????

 

i can tell the tech but nysdmv is less understanding . it's like the gestapo. no funny business in our state . thanks i will dig more

 

Lol @ **** police comment. Good luck brother.

 

thanks j

 

my goto shop says no way but the law reads it would flag the mismatch but pass emissions. looks like the may be a waiver also. any one?