Hey, im wondering if any of you have done any major mods (ie, intake, exhaust, chip) and had any problems with their ECU's? Just wondering, cause i installed an intake on my 01 i30 a while back (when i thought modifications would make sense) and it fried my ECU. I noticed nice gains across the band, but the car freaked out and i had to get a new one from infiniti (for free, denied everything lol). I attribute this to my car's personality (she doesnt like to be touched). Anyways, lets keep our eyes on it... i didnt have trouble until like 4 months after the mod... be safe out there!

 

A few things I noticed:

1) You say major mods including chip, that would cause a problem with the ECU? Chip=ECU.

2) An intake will not fry your ECU, the only thing the intake will do is pull in more air(Sometimes cooler with Cold Air Intakes and whatnot) to which more fuel will have to be mixed to keep a "correct" Air/Fuel ratio, the ECU will adjust the amount of fuel being mixed. This is the only thing the intake should have to do with the ECU. Your car just probably decided to die, not because of the intake.

 

Not true. The ECU is the complete engine electronic control module. The "chip" is the EPROM chip which is seated in the ecu which provides the ecu with it's values. This is why when you see companies selling chips they have two prices: Chip only (or core swap) and Full ECU.

 

Any thoughts on how to set-up a programable ECU (EPROM)? I'd like to have the ability to make changes via a laptop. It would nice to have the ability to not only monitor the engines performance, but also have the ability to modify/save the map settings. I've got to believe that this is possible. What software would be required? Do I have to buy another ECU and create a programmable EPROM through modification? What would be the best was to make this happen?

Thanks in advance.
Cheers. -m

 

I have not seen an OBDII system that was laptop programable. EPROM's are coded using an eprom coder while removed from the ECU. On the bosch front, a couple companies created eprom chips with multiple programs that the driver could select either through the cruise control buttons, or from a remote box. The differnt programs would include things like a stock mimic, chipped for more aggressive values running pump gas, race chipped for race gas only, and a valet mode which would set the rev limiter way low and limit the speed to 50mph.

There are piggy back ECU modules that can be laptop controlled as well as some computer controlled nitrous oxide systems.