heads up - AP bricked ECU

[chrisyng]

Not to raise any paranoia (even though it seems like the common thing to do on here these days) - Seems that a number of people, including me, have ended up with dead ecu's in the last couple days when flashing out ECU's...

flash interrupted car wont start - COBB Forums

It seems odd to me that all of this has started happening in the last couple days.. I did nothing from my usual flashing technique, my AP was plugged in at all times, I did not bump the cable, it just decided to seemingly kill the ECU... From the looks of it, nobody has been able to recover from this yet.. sucks that it looks like the ECU will have to be removed and sent to Cobb.. however, people may want to hold off on flashing their ecus for the momment until we get word back from cobb on what exactly is going on.. I am crossing my fingers that I will not need a new ECU.. how the heck am I going to explain that to the dealer??

[ztuner]

hmmn - have you been using ATR ?

Harry

[Deadman]

i have flashed 72345 times and no problems.... no but seriously i have flashed many many times and ecu is still going strong!

[Jarods7920]

i hope its not a case where the ecu can only be written to a certain number of times.

[chrisyng]

yes, I have been using ATR and was just about to flash a revised map onto my ECU.. I have had my AP since last sept and have flashed my ecu several times since then without issue... until today..

[Derek88]

I wouldn't panic. This happened to me and I just needed to update the dongle and the AP from my computer. Get the latest software update from Cobb's website and make sure you update it in AP manager.

[chrisyng]

Originally Posted by Derek88 I wouldn't panic. This happened to me and I just needed to update the dongle and the AP from my computer. Get the latest software update from Cobb's website and make sure you update it in AP manager.

I unistalled my AP updater as well as AP manager and reinstalled them from the website files.. once installd and connected to the AP, the AP went through an Update.. after updateing the AP, I plugged it back into the car, the AP still shows an MS3 (It used to show an ms6) and the first option still asks me to install the AP into the car.. which of course stil fails because it can not connect to the ECU... thanks for the suggestion, but it didn't look like this was the same issue you had...

[rodrigo]

it has zero to do with firmware updates. this happened to me friday morning. i called cobb my ap did NOT go into recovery mode. they asked me some technical questions, firmware version etc etc. this has happened to 4 speeds this weekend that I am aware of, Monday morning cobb will have my ecu and ap (per their request) . at first I thought that i touched the cable but it never became undone, I dont know what happened im sure cobb will inform me when they look at my ecu vs ap. ill let u guys know, but 4 cars in one weekend is odd.

[Scatt Nasty]

sounds like the supposed software failure of the year 2000. Maybe cobb forgot to add some zeros and your day was fail day.

[Lymerock]

this is shitty, hope its just cali emission cars or something

[Fobio]

there's a CDN car...we're under the Federal designation...

[Lama]

Originally Posted by Fobio there's a CDN car...we're under the Federal designation...

There is two canadian car.....my ECU and AP are in the mail. There is no Overnight shipping Canada/USA so it will be a little longer for me : 3 days to ship

I got the code 1014 too and car wont start

[stormin84]

Originally Posted by Lama There is two canadian car.....my ECU and AP are in the mail. There is no Overnight shipping Canada/USA so it will be a little longer for me : 3 days to ship I got the code 1014 too and car wont start

Did you get in touch with them, what did they tell you (Cobb told me that i should wait to see what happened to lenny's ecu because if there is a fix that can be done with the ap then they will send me a file.)

[phillyb]

fucking fail...just as my hopes were getting up

[stormin84]

anyways a canadian car has the same problem, i was just like lenny never touched anything came up to 13% flashing and boom nothing.

[jahman]

Could it be possible the files were corrupt? EVOs had this problem with one of the OTS maps.

If thats the case, the fear now would be how do you know for sure your files arent corrupt? Sending my ecu in for repair is not an option for me and I'm sure many others. I need my car every day.

Still weird there were almost zero failures before and all in the matter of 2 days we have four.

[smakdown61]

What base maps do you guys that have bricked ecu's been using?

[stormin84]

was on stage 2 +sf 91 v103 w/ atr

was going to flash stage 2 + sf 93 v103 that when all hell broke loose

[smakdown61]

Originally Posted by stormin84 was on stage 2 +sf 91 v103 w/ atr was going to flash stage 2 + sf 93 v103 that when all hell broke loose

fed or cali?

[stormin84]

Originally Posted by smakdown61 fed or cali?

fed

[rodrigo]

so u were running an ots map tweaked with atr??? then were gonna flash a ots map (with no tweaking?)

Originally Posted by stormin84 was on stage 2 +sf 91 v103 w/ atr was going to flash stage 2 + sf 93 v103 that when all hell broke loose

[stormin84]

Originally Posted by lenny127 so u were running an ots map tweaked with atr??? then were gonna flash a ots map (with no tweaking?)

actually forgot to mention that it was with the FMIC and it was with increasing the idle speed, and lower the closed loop..

[dread]

I am holding off on flashing until this is resolved.

[stormin84]

Originally Posted by dread I am holding off on flashing until this is resolved.

haha don't we feel like the guiney pig here...try it and see if yours fucks up....

[jahman]

Originally Posted by dread I am holding off on flashing until this is resolved.

Agreed, no flashing for me until there is an explanation.

If it were disconnects or something like that related to user error that'd be one thing, but 4 in one weekend when there were zero failures before, and all failing at 13% with the same error message tells me this is something to be cautious about.

[rodrigo]

i was running ots stage 2 sri fmic v.103 with 3 things done to it, afr .300 richer across the board (after 2500) rev limiter raised to 6900 and max speed to 170. i ran that map for a full week . i went to flash a map that i had previously used numerous times months back and it got stuck. so i wasnt flashing anything new.

i can speculate a million things but reality is i have no clue what happened. when i was at the track i flashed this very map i was trying to flash and no problem, then went back to my ATR map. i then later made some changes to it and ran the car for a full week with the new version of atr map and still nothing. so reverting back to an old map i doubt has anything to do with this. ill wait for cobbs results before forming an opinion

and i am CA

[Silver Ecstasy]

Wow, I was really considering investing in a used AP if I find one for the right price but i'd seriously shit my pants if my ECU fried.

I know this has little relation but it could be the AP themselves, having a power failure midway through the flash. That would definitely fuck things up on the ECU's side of things. I've flashed phones in the past, same idea. Disconnect the cord or have a battery failure and you'll wish you hadn't.

[dread]

I flashed 5 times this weekend so I have been flashing a lot. I am definately going to chill out .

[rodrigo]

i wouldnt go into panic mode. but....it doesnt hurt to be wise and hold off on flashing until at least the cause of all of this is determined.

[fhaze]

weren't you both at 13%? That's too much of a coincidence.

[dread]

coincidence or just the unlucky number 13

[rodrigo]

hahah 13 was the last number i saw. maybe it went up a little more who knows

[rodrigo]

yeah the tech said the 1014 was unusual and is NOT the code it throws when it doesnt recover. so im fucken not so happy about this, 1014 means wrong car

[stormin84]

Originally Posted by lenny127 yeah the tech said the 1014 was unusual and is NOT the code it throws when it doesnt recover. so im fucken not so happy about this, 1014 means wrong car

how the fuck does it mean wrong car it was plugged into my car and flashing and then this shit came up...

i don't know if i should take it to the dealership or sent it out to Cobb. i guess i'll wait and i will have to drive a company truck for a while...

[jahman]

Hmm...did you guys by chance recently download your base map? I wonder if the base maps are fucked up somehow, mixed up ms6 and ms3, and when you try to flash an ms6 map to an ms3, this happens.

[bioevolve]

So is ATR reflashing with another married code to cause these locks, if it's saying wrong car?
Changing it some how or seeing it as a different code?

[rodrigo]

no , i was trying to load a map from a buddy that was tuned by surgeline ( i have flashed this particular map a dozen times before) the corruption is not in the maps.

[fhaze]

(Just thinking out loud here)

I wonder if the ECU does a "self-check" periodically. Looking for the same checksum or MD5 Hash that it knew about from the last time it was flashed with the factory tool. If it doesn't get the response it expects it shut her down.

Obviously not while driving or anything, but it wont accept anymore flashes w/o a reset or unbrick back to factory defaults.

[rodrigo]

well this means u would have a limited number of flashes and i can assure u an 08.5 ms3 wont have the same amount of flashes as my 07. i have flashed my shit over 100 times easily


EASILY

[stormin84]

Originally Posted by lenny127 well this means u would have a limited number of flashes and i can assure u an 08.5 ms3 wont have the same amount of flashes as my 07. i have flashed my shit over 100 times easily EASILY

agree i've got an 2008.5 so it can't be the number of flashes