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Resetting ECU without CEL light on

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Old Jun 7, 2004 | 03:14 PM
  #1  
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Default Resetting ECU without CEL light on

Hey,
Just put on quite an extensive list of mods: Exhaust, crawford cats, plenum, pop charger. No CEL light has come on yet but just want to reset the ECU to be safe an possibly receive some benefits. In doing the pedal method, How do you know if the ECU has reset if there is no CEL light to go off in the first place????
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Old Jun 7, 2004 | 03:38 PM
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Because if you follow the TechnoSquare instructions it will give you a CEL, which will then disappear after the instructions are completed correctly.
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Old Jun 7, 2004 | 04:03 PM
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Hmmmm... this has been talked about before and I don't really know if a "DEFINITE" answer has ever been agreed upon.

I have personally spoken to Tadashi while I was at TechnoSquare and he said that to reset the ECU, just remove the negative battery terminal for a couple minutes.
Other people say you need to leave it disconnected for over 13 hours.
Still others say that you have to do the accellerator pedal "Hokie Pokie" to reset it.

In the end... I'm just not really sure.
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Old Jun 7, 2004 | 06:49 PM
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From: Zainoland
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Here is the "pedal hokie pokie". It works. Also, you can just unplug the battery overnight too.



http://www.technosquareinc.com/350reset.htm
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Old Jun 7, 2004 | 06:54 PM
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Not to be rude,
BUT i know it works. My question is how do you know if it works if there is no CEL light to disspaear appear when reset completely.
Considering you need to be very accurate with the reset, u may not have reset the ECU and may not be aware if there is no CEL light to dissapear?????????
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Old Jun 7, 2004 | 09:18 PM
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Whats up? I had the same question. I never got a proper answer. If I were you I wouldnt worry about it. What I did was unplug the negative battery terminal before i started working on the car. After a few hours put it back on. To know if it worked your station presets should be all messed up.

Screw the pedal crap...
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Old Jun 8, 2004 | 03:53 AM
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From: Zainoland
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The "pedal crap" works in about 30 seconds. All I can tell you is that you just have to trust that it works. You are correct. No CEL light to go out and "prove" that it works but you may notice a slight improvement in performance.

It is only temporary though since it has been theorized that the ECU will eventually "learn" that you have modded and revert back to it's old settings.
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Old Jun 8, 2004 | 01:40 PM
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By what I have heard, the only true way to completely reset the ECU is to unplug BOTH battery terminals, touch/clamp them together for 5+ seconds, and then reconnect to the battery - I have done this and had a much more noticible difference than the pedal dance... and I was never "for sure" that the pedal dance worked b/c it never deleted my radio presets, etc...
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Old Jun 8, 2004 | 02:06 PM
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Default New ECU reset method

I discovered a new way to reset the ECU if you don't have a SES light.

First, disconnect the negative battery terminal for about 10 minutes. Next, while standing on one foot, grab a hold of the negative terminal and count backwards from 10 to 1 while patting your head and shaking your hips from side to side. Lastly, perform 3 sommersalts and reconnect the negative battery terminal and start the car.

Timing is critical for the reset to work properly, unfortunately there is no way to tell if it worked or not because there is no SES light to let you know, so if in doubt... do it again.

-Chris
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Old Jun 8, 2004 | 02:35 PM
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Final question,
If the CEL light doesnt come on maybe it is not neccessary for you to reset the ECU. the CEL light indicates that there is a problem with the car. However, if there is no light and therefore no prblem surely you dont have to reset it

OR, would people aggree that in resetting the ECU it learns your mods and you gain more performance out of them?????????????
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Old Jun 8, 2004 | 02:38 PM
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Originally posted by bwzabodyn
By what I have heard, the only true way to completely reset the ECU is to unplug BOTH battery terminals, touch/clamp them together for 5+ seconds, and then reconnect to the battery - I have done this and had a much more noticible difference than the pedal dance... and I was never "for sure" that the pedal dance worked b/c it never deleted my radio presets, etc...
Popular Mechanic had an article where someone wrote in about clamping the terminals to drain leftoff power to reset the ECU.

Wrong, at least partly. Yes, this probably will turn off the Check Engine light, atleast for a while. But his late model car uses OBD II - the auto industry's latest diagnostic software. It might not have volatile memory that would be erased by disconnecting the battery. Plus, it takes a while, sometimes as long as an hour of normal driving, for engine management computer to relearn it's new trim settings for fuel and spark - so the car might have run poorly enough to fail if he had it tested first thing in the morning. Moreover, this technique will destroy all the radio presets, the date and time on the dash, the seat and mirror memory, the anti-theft codes in the stereo, an maybe the codes in the keyless entry.
So even if you disconnect the battery terminals, it still might not reset it. Guess only the pedal procedure will work.

Plus, why would you think the pedal procedure will reset the radio? they're not related or connected in anyway. The pedal procedure only reset the ECU, nothing else.
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Old Jun 8, 2004 | 02:46 PM
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Originally posted by mmorris
Final question,
If the CEL light doesnt come on maybe it is not neccessary for you to reset the ECU. the CEL light indicates that there is a problem with the car. However, if there is no light and therefore no prblem surely you dont have to reset it

OR, would people aggree that in resetting the ECU it learns your mods and you gain more performance out of them?????????????
If you get a CEL, you should check the code to see what the error is first before clearing it. It could be totally unrelated to your mod.

Resetting the ECU should give more performance. Since it adapts it should balance your mods out. I think it'll do it even without resetting the ECU, but resetting will make it faster (learning wise)
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Old Jun 8, 2004 | 05:44 PM
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From: Zainoland
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OR, would people aggree that in resetting the ECU it learns your mods and you gain more performance out of them?????????????
This stuff was debated AD NAUSEUM for months about a year or so ago so if you search you will find a lot on it.

Even with all of the debate however, I don't think it was ever definitively addressed. The consensus was the you would put on a mod, say a CAI and then reset the ECU (the pedal technique) you would then appreciate an increase in performance for a while until the ECU "relearned" its settings and you were back to square one.

Again, this was the consensus but it was never definitely proven.

As for the radio presets, resetting your ECU has no effect on them.
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Old Jun 9, 2004 | 08:41 AM
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Originally posted by Dr Bonz
This stuff was debated AD NAUSEUM for months about a year or so ago so if you search you will find a lot on it.

Even with all of the debate however, I don't think it was ever definitively addressed. The consensus was the you would put on a mod, say a CAI and then reset the ECU (the pedal technique) you would then appreciate an increase in performance for a while until the ECU "relearned" its settings and you were back to square one.

Again, this was the consensus but it was never definitely proven.

As for the radio presets, resetting your ECU has no effect on them.
Hmmmm.. I thought that by resetting the ECU, it would cause the ECU to immediately "learn" the new mod and adjust itself accordingly to increase performance, but you would achieve the same result over time by just installing the mod and driving for a few hundred miles. I hadn't heard that the ECU would ever revert back to a state of less performance? Not to say it isn't true, I just hadn't heard that before.

-Chris
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Old Jun 9, 2004 | 05:07 PM
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actually the Z ecu learns your mods quite easily. You can do it either by driving, or by resetting the ecu.

Both the pedal method AND the battery disconnect work. pedal dance retains radio settings, battery disconnect does not.

Unless your ecu is flashed already, it will, over time, tend to revert back towards a more conservative map after mods are performed....the reflashed ecu, or some form of fuel/timing control is a critical step in getting consistent results from your mods.
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Old Jun 10, 2004 | 08:54 AM
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Originally posted by Z1 Performance
actually the Z ecu learns your mods quite easily. You can do it either by driving, or by resetting the ecu.

Both the pedal method AND the battery disconnect work. pedal dance retains radio settings, battery disconnect does not.

Unless your ecu is flashed already, it will, over time, tend to revert back towards a more conservative map after mods are performed....the reflashed ecu, or some form of fuel/timing control is a critical step in getting consistent results from your mods.
Wow! I did not know that. Thanks for the insight.

Hmmm... that TS flash is sounding better and better every day.
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Old Jun 10, 2004 | 09:10 AM
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Default ECU

Originally posted by Z1 Performance
actually the Z ecu learns your mods quite easily. You can do it either by driving, or by resetting the ecu.

Both the pedal method AND the battery disconnect work. pedal dance retains radio settings, battery disconnect does not.

Unless your ecu is flashed already, it will, over time, tend to revert back towards a more conservative map after mods are performed....the reflashed ecu, or some form of fuel/timing control is a critical step in getting consistent results from your mods.
If the ECU can be coaxed into changing its fuel maps by either the battery disconnect or the pedal dance after a mod than why can't it be coaxed back again by the same method.? Or can it?
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