Problem Reading Evo IX ECU
Oct 28, 2006, 01:12 PM
#1
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Problem Reading Evo IX ECU
Hey guys. Need some suggestions/ideas here. The two people who have tried to flash/access my ecu have had problems.
HERE’S THE STORY:
I purchased my car brand new one year ago. I never flashed (or had anyone atempt to read my ECU) or even took the car back to the dealership until 10k miles.
I took my car down to see Al in Chicago for a street tune this summer. Immediatly he had problems getting access to simply read my ECU (even before a flash occured). Al said he had never seen anything like this. He thought that maybe the ECU was bad or that someone had already flashed it (aka locked it). This was not the case. Al ended up flashing the ECU by removing it and hooking it up to his moble bench harness that he brought with him.
Anyway, the car is great - Al's flash is fantastic and I'm delighted. But we never figured out what the problem was. Al thought it was my light weight battery since it did get drained a bit while we were sitting with the car's ignition on (and the engine off). Al thought that the ECU was somehow protecting itself since the volt level was low with all the auxiliary gadgets temporarily hooked up to the car (this could be seen on the volt gauge). I thought this might have been the problem too but whatever - the car was flashed and the car exhibited no other problems on a daily basis due to the aftermarket battery so I left it in the car.
Last week I had a friend with a laptop and the necessary software/cables to do data logging on my car. He does it all the time on his on Evo 8. I thought it would be cool to see how it worked on my car so he tried to connect and after several attempts he had the same results as Al. Battery was fully charged - indicated 12+volts.
Here’s what my friend posted on the Open-ECU board about this test. No one has responded after several days so I hope someone here has a clue. I know there are some smart people on this board with tons of experience with ECU data logging/flashes. Hope someone knows what we can try. Fortunately it’s not an emergency, rather just a curiosity as my car runs perfectly with Al’s tune.
http://forums.openecu.org/viewtopic....17ec58d37c6b72
“So I have been using my laptop and cable on many friends cars but a I have a buddy with a IX and I can't read his ECU. I have the exact problem mentioned on the first page of this post.
Cable works fine, I flash and log all the time. This is the first car I've had an issue with.
Dynoflash had a similar issue when he did a custom tune just this past summer and ended up taking the ECU out of the car and hooked to what was explained as a bench harness he had brought with him. Al suggested that he had a bad car battery but it is at the right voltage (IX MR gauges)
Any ideas?”
HERE’S THE STORY:
I purchased my car brand new one year ago. I never flashed (or had anyone atempt to read my ECU) or even took the car back to the dealership until 10k miles.
I took my car down to see Al in Chicago for a street tune this summer. Immediatly he had problems getting access to simply read my ECU (even before a flash occured). Al said he had never seen anything like this. He thought that maybe the ECU was bad or that someone had already flashed it (aka locked it). This was not the case. Al ended up flashing the ECU by removing it and hooking it up to his moble bench harness that he brought with him.
Anyway, the car is great - Al's flash is fantastic and I'm delighted. But we never figured out what the problem was. Al thought it was my light weight battery since it did get drained a bit while we were sitting with the car's ignition on (and the engine off). Al thought that the ECU was somehow protecting itself since the volt level was low with all the auxiliary gadgets temporarily hooked up to the car (this could be seen on the volt gauge). I thought this might have been the problem too but whatever - the car was flashed and the car exhibited no other problems on a daily basis due to the aftermarket battery so I left it in the car.
Last week I had a friend with a laptop and the necessary software/cables to do data logging on my car. He does it all the time on his on Evo 8. I thought it would be cool to see how it worked on my car so he tried to connect and after several attempts he had the same results as Al. Battery was fully charged - indicated 12+volts.
Here’s what my friend posted on the Open-ECU board about this test. No one has responded after several days so I hope someone here has a clue. I know there are some smart people on this board with tons of experience with ECU data logging/flashes. Hope someone knows what we can try. Fortunately it’s not an emergency, rather just a curiosity as my car runs perfectly with Al’s tune.
http://forums.openecu.org/viewtopic....17ec58d37c6b72
“So I have been using my laptop and cable on many friends cars but a I have a buddy with a IX and I can't read his ECU. I have the exact problem mentioned on the first page of this post.
Cable works fine, I flash and log all the time. This is the first car I've had an issue with.
Dynoflash had a similar issue when he did a custom tune just this past summer and ended up taking the ECU out of the car and hooked to what was explained as a bench harness he had brought with him. Al suggested that he had a bad car battery but it is at the right voltage (IX MR gauges)
Any ideas?”
Last edited by itrsport.com; Oct 28, 2006 at 01:16 PM.
Oct 28, 2006, 01:39 PM
#2
Yes, any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated. I'm stumped as to why this is happening. Here is what ECUFlash shows.
I even tried MalibuJack's ECU unlocker program and it sent another init sequece but the ECU still did not respond. It's very odd.
Code:
[00:23:21.093] Version 1.29.906 [00:23:21.109] 8 memory models read. [00:23:22.062] 140 ROM metadata models read. [00:23:22.062] checksum module "subarudbw" loaded. [00:23:22.062] flashing tool "wrx02" loaded. [00:23:22.062] flashing tool "wrx04" loaded. [00:23:22.062] flashing tool "sti04" loaded. [00:23:22.062] flashing tool "sti05" loaded. [00:23:22.062] flashing tool "mitsukernel" loaded. [00:23:22.062] flashing tool "mitsukernelocp" loaded. [00:23:22.062] flashing tool "mitsubootloader" loaded. [00:23:35.734] sending init sequence 1 (0001) [00:23:38.968] sending init sequence 1 (0003) [00:23:42.203] sending init sequence 1 (FFFF) [00:23:44.921] no response to any known code
Oct 28, 2006, 02:11 PM
#3
The unlocker should work as long as the cable is working.. Have you used the cable recently on another car just to be certain? Double check everything, there is no way to prevent the ECU from being locked with the Unlocker running, if the battery has low voltage, or there are voltage fluctuations it could affect the ability to read the rom. double check that the white cable is plugged in and all the pins that are supposed to be connected, are..
Also if you recently updated from ECUFlash 1.28 to 1.29a, you could have a driver conflict and you need to make sure the old drivers are removed, and the new ones are installed properly (I have seen this before)
Also if you recently updated from ECUFlash 1.28 to 1.29a, you could have a driver conflict and you need to make sure the old drivers are removed, and the new ones are installed properly (I have seen this before)
Oct 28, 2006, 02:15 PM
#4
There is the possibility that one of the pins in the white molex connector, either on the car side, or the cable side, isn't seated or connected properly, or even that one was intentionally disconnected by the dealer (I've never heard of that before, but it would make sense since that might discourage reflashing by the enduser)
Oct 28, 2006, 03:09 PM
#5
Thanks for the tips Malibu, I'll give it a shot again. The cable does work for sure as I had just gotten done logging a drag run at the track and then we tried to read itrsport.com's ECU as he had just gotten there and wanted to check it out. I did read in my ECU just a couple days prior as well.
I did do an upgrade and had some driver issues on my laptop but was able to resolve them. What I will do though, just to be certain, is I will remove the ECUFlash and the drivers completely, then reinstall 1.29a from scratch.
Is there anything special I need to do to remove the remaining drivers other than through the control panel?
I did do an upgrade and had some driver issues on my laptop but was able to resolve them. What I will do though, just to be certain, is I will remove the ECUFlash and the drivers completely, then reinstall 1.29a from scratch.
Is there anything special I need to do to remove the remaining drivers other than through the control panel?
Oct 28, 2006, 03:14 PM
#6
Yeah, try to find the FTDI files in windows\system32 and in the registry.. Theres also a turd left behind in windows\system32\drivers FTD2xx.dll I think..
Also, If the molex connector isn't functioning correctly, either due to a bad connection, loose wire, etc, you can still log sucessfully, but you will get timeouts trying to read/write the ECU.. So keep that in mind.
Also, If the molex connector isn't functioning correctly, either due to a bad connection, loose wire, etc, you can still log sucessfully, but you will get timeouts trying to read/write the ECU.. So keep that in mind.
Oct 28, 2006, 04:11 PM
#7
If the ECU could be flashed OK when removed, and runs well when installed, it makes sense that the problem is somewhere between the PC and the connection to the ECU.
I dont know much about flashing, but the above seems pretty logical to me.
I dont know much about flashing, but the above seems pretty logical to me.
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Oct 28, 2006, 08:53 PM
#8
Originally Posted by bigfishs
If the ECU could be flashed OK when removed, and runs well when installed, it makes sense that the problem is somewhere between the PC and the connection to the ECU.
I dont know much about flashing, but the above seems pretty logical to me.
I dont know much about flashing, but the above seems pretty logical to me.
Oct 28, 2006, 10:35 PM
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Originally Posted by MalibuJack
There is the possibility that one of the pins in the white molex connector, either on the car side, or the cable side, isn't seated or connected properly, or even that one was intentionally disconnected by the dealer (I've never heard of that before, but it would make sense since that might discourage reflashing by the enduser)
Oct 29, 2006, 06:04 AM
#10
Interesting, I have to go outside and look at my own car.. But the Openport cable's molex connector has three wires.. In reality I think its to support several pin configurations on different cars.. Try to trace that wire and make sure its hooked up, and making good contact (and there's a pin on the openport Molex connector that matches up to it)
There are several general problems people have with the openport cable.. If your able to log data on that car, then the problem is the molex connector, since when you trigger one of the signals on the RS232 port, its supposed to send voltage to that line to trigger bootstrap.. If your car has very low voltage, it may not trigger bootstrap.
We do know other IX's that are flashed and unflashed can be read/written so its isolated to this car. And if the ECU was removed and reflashed successfully on the bench, and your cable has sucessfully read and written other reflashes on other cars, then your problem is specific to your car..
Let me suggest something you can try real quick.. Get a battery charger and boost the voltage to your car's battery (charge the battery) then while your doing that, try to extract the rom.. If its a low voltage issue, the battery charger should get things "up to snuff" and the reflash should work.. If thats the case, and it works, replace your battery as there may be something wrong with it. (I have a mini battery and as long as its fully charged, I have no trouble)
There are several general problems people have with the openport cable.. If your able to log data on that car, then the problem is the molex connector, since when you trigger one of the signals on the RS232 port, its supposed to send voltage to that line to trigger bootstrap.. If your car has very low voltage, it may not trigger bootstrap.
We do know other IX's that are flashed and unflashed can be read/written so its isolated to this car. And if the ECU was removed and reflashed successfully on the bench, and your cable has sucessfully read and written other reflashes on other cars, then your problem is specific to your car..
Let me suggest something you can try real quick.. Get a battery charger and boost the voltage to your car's battery (charge the battery) then while your doing that, try to extract the rom.. If its a low voltage issue, the battery charger should get things "up to snuff" and the reflash should work.. If thats the case, and it works, replace your battery as there may be something wrong with it. (I have a mini battery and as long as its fully charged, I have no trouble)
Oct 29, 2006, 07:06 AM
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MalibuJack - That’s excellent advice. Sounds like we are getting somewhere. I have a new battery charger. Next time Laakless and I meet up we can give this a try.
Can someone else with an Evo IX please post these same pictures of their own car too?
Can someone else with an Evo IX please post these same pictures of their own car too?
Oct 30, 2006, 08:11 AM
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I've experienced something similiar twice now on 2 different IX's, both of them are BONE stock.
On both cars I was able d/l the rom and view all the parimeters. I was also able to datalog using EVOScan. But when it cames to reflashing the ECU I got an error that said to contact Colby. I made a post on OpenECU - http://forums.openecu.org/viewtopic.php?t=1199 you need to be logged in to see the screen shot.
On both cars I was able d/l the rom and view all the parimeters. I was also able to datalog using EVOScan. But when it cames to reflashing the ECU I got an error that said to contact Colby. I made a post on OpenECU - http://forums.openecu.org/viewtopic.php?t=1199 you need to be logged in to see the screen shot.