Hi there everyone. I hope you are all doing well and in a happy place. I have a question in regards to my Honda civic 2008 8th Gen 2.2 diesel. What happened me is i was not driving for a few months. My battery went flat. I had it jumped started. Ever since then after a few months it was having to take a few key turns for the key to be recognised.

It got progressively worse over time and after a battery change and having a guy come over saying he could reprogram the key, he told me that the ECU is scrambled and that it needs reflashed. He said he couldn't even get a read of the VIN. So the situation is now, i know i need the ECU reprogrammed. I am in the ICT industry and I do a bit of coding aswell mainly python and javascript. I am no stranger to flashing firmware on desktops and laptops.

I know i would need a ODB to USB 2.0 cable and software to connect to the ECU. Is there popular opensource pc windows or linux software that is used to reprogram ECU's. I hope i am not speaking out of line here. What i am asking is if one were to reprogram the ECU themselves what is my best foot forward? I figure cause the ECU now has corrupted because of the jumpstart due to a weak battery there is no trouble experimenting at this stage if anything.

whoever told you the ecu is "scrambled" has no clue what he's doing.

if ecu had ANY issues it wouldnt even start. you don't need to flash it.

no there are NO open source softwares, any commercial tool is well over 1k.

if you have a key issue you get a new key and someone that really knows how to copy them