[Greenie]

New owner of Lusso with auto. Been reading this forum and learning alot. Maybe interested in "tuning" this summer. What are my options? The best I understand it is that I can replace the ECU, add a piggyback unit and change the program on the existing ECU by flashing it through the OBD. Is this right? Looking for the easiest not necessarily the cheapest. Also since I'm leasing the car I want to be sure I can turn it in at lease end without any problems. Thanks guys for any and all feedback.

 

[Greg]

Flashing through the OBD2 port is not an option on this car at this time. That leaves two methods. Either a direct flash of the ECU (meaning you have to send the ECU to someone who does that) or going with a piggyback. I can't imagine that either one would create a problem when turning in the car at the end of the lease. However in this case the piggyback would have the advantage of being something you could remove and resell.

Greg

 

[SteveWy]

Greg ...time after time you have tried to explain to me/us that the OBD2 cannot be used to flash the ECU. I am so thick headed, I cannot wrap my head around this OBD2 thing. I am viewing it as nothing more then a portal to the ECU, but obviously it is much more then that, and I do not understand it's function, I guess.

 

[Greenie]

When you say flashing via OBD is not available at this time, does that imply it may be in the future? Also, not available with your company ? or not available from anywhere? Thanks again

 

[[email protected]]

There are certain "handshakes" that have to be carried out when flashing anything through the OBDII port to the ECU. Some of these handshakes are not required when flashing directly to the ECU (as in a bench tune, or opening up the ECU and connecting directly).

These procedures for OBDII must be identified, and implemented into an ECU flash. Some cars are easier to nail down than others. Some are simply using another vehicles read/write system, so it already exists. Some are using something different, and have to be sorted out. There are a lot of technical variables at play.

At this time, no one is offering an OBDII ECU flash available to purchase. That does not mean that it will not be figured out. It just means that at this time there is nothing that works consistently. There are a few software/hardware companies at the top of all this, and once it is sorted out it will trickle down to others. Dimsport is one of those companies, and we are working with them to find what works. There is no given ETA with these kinds of things, and I can tell you that they, as well as us, typically will keep it pretty close to the chest until it is 100% finished and ready.

 

[Greg]

Greg ...time after time you have tried to explain to me/us that the OBD2 cannot be used to flash the ECU. I am so thick headed, I cannot wrap my head around this OBD2 thing. I am viewing it as nothing more then a portal to the ECU, but obviously it is much more then that, and I do not understand it's function, I guess.

Steve, Toby's explanation is very good, but I am going to try an explain it another way.

You can think of the OBD2 port under the dash as a "portal to the ECU". However you need to start by thinking of it as a locked portal. It's going to take some time to get past that lock. Now we can tell you about how much time it will take to get past it. However to continue the portal analogy, we don't know what's behind it just yet. It's very likely to be another locked portal. Since we don't know how many we will encounter on our way to the ECU, it's impossible to make an accurate guess about how long it will take.

Greg

 

[Greg]

When you say flashing via OBD is not available at this time, does that imply it may be in the future? Also, not available with your company ? or not available from anywhere? Thanks again

Yes, I am implying that it MAY be available in the future, but it could be the far future. When it does come it will almost certainly be from our company. We have a pretty good track record in this area. We were the first to do it for the 500 Abarth which uses essentially the same ECU, and we have learned more since then and are working harder on this. Still it could easily be years away.

Greg