Hi everyone,

I‘m new to ecu tuning and want to learn more about it to do it as a hobby and maybe gain some useful skills :roll: .

I‘m about to buy an e46 320d with edc15 an want to use it as a testing platform.
Ive already done some research on how to find and identify maps and have played a bit with the demo version of winols.

My question is how do I properly read, modifiy and write the data on the ecu?

I would go for a proper interface like mpps or kess v2 in the long run, but I think theyre a bit too expensive for me at the moment.
Also I would like to know your experiences with clones? I know they arent a good solution but I would try it on that car if they actually work.
Maybe flashing via BDM would be a better, cheaper solution but I dont know which tools to use and where to buy them.

Which Software do you recommend ? I would like to use winols but cant find a way to buy it and Im afraid to use some cracked version.

I‘d be really thankful if some of you could share their experience on how they got into ecu tuning .

Best regards, Max :)

I

LutterM wrote:Hi everyone,

I‘m new to ecu tuning and want to learn more about it to do it as a hobby and maybe gain some useful skills :roll: .

I‘m about to buy an e46 320d with edc15 an want to use it as a testing platform.
Ive already done some research on how to find and identify maps and have played a bit with the demo version of winols.

My question is how do I properly read, modifiy and write the data on the ecu?

I would go for a proper interface like mpps or kess v2 in the long run, but I think theyre a bit too expensive for me at the moment.
Also I would like to know your experiences with clones? I know they arent a good solution but I would try it on that car if they actually work.
Maybe flashing via BDM would be a better, cheaper solution but I dont know which tools to use and where to buy them.

Which Software do you recommend ? I would like to use winols but cant find a way to buy it and Im afraid to use some cracked version.

I‘d be really thankful if some of you could share their experience on how they got into ecu tuning .

Best regards, Max :)

I

Buying a clone is a bad idea, even for cheapness..
If it kills your ECU then it would be more expensive than paying for a proper tool in the first place.
also there is no BDM on an EDC15, it was introduced as a feature with EDC16 ECU's.
Cheaper MPPS might be the way to try before you invest heavily into tools.

wbr

[/quote]

Buying a clone is a bad idea, even for cheapness..
If it kills your ECU then it would be more expensive than paying for a proper tool in the first place.
also there is no BDM on an EDC15, it was introduced as a feature with EDC16 ECU's.
Cheaper MPPS might be the way to try before you invest heavily into tools.

wbr[/quote]

Thanks for your quick response!

By cheaper MPPS you dont mean an mpps clone right?

If not could you give me a hint on were to get these from? Is buying a used one a good idea?
Dont I Need an additional yearly subscription to be able to use it?

Also what about a proper editing software? :crazy:

Sorry for these questions but im struggling to find information about this..

LutterM wrote:
Buying a clone is a bad idea, even for cheapness..
If it kills your ECU then it would be more expensive than paying for a proper tool in the first place.
also there is no BDM on an EDC15, it was introduced as a feature with EDC16 ECU's.
Cheaper MPPS might be the way to try before you invest heavily into tools.

wbr

Thanks for your quick response!

By cheaper MPPS you dont mean an mpps clone right?

If not could you give me a hint on were to get these from? Is buying a used one a good idea?
Dont I Need an additional yearly subscription to be able to use it?

Also what about a proper editing software? :crazy:

Sorry for these questions but im struggling to find information about this..

I was thinking Original or maybe second hand if the price is right.
Clones kill cars, maybe a re-worked euro clone but really wouldn't recommend it, or risk it.
It's all about the components, fake tools use copy bit's that tolerances vary and often fail,
not what you need when writing to an ECU.
A Chinese capacitor is not the same as a real capacitor for example, and failing during
a write will brick the ECU, it's a big risk. Only you will know if it's worth taking.

wbr

Shooting wrote:

LutterM wrote:
Buying a clone is a bad idea, even for cheapness..
If it kills your ECU then it would be more expensive than paying for a proper tool in the first place.
also there is no BDM on an EDC15, it was introduced as a feature with EDC16 ECU's.
Cheaper MPPS might be the way to try before you invest heavily into tools.

wbr

Thanks for your quick response!

By cheaper MPPS you dont mean an mpps clone right?

If not could you give me a hint on were to get these from? Is buying a used one a good idea?
Dont I Need an additional yearly subscription to be able to use it?

Also what about a proper editing software? :crazy:

Sorry for these questions but im struggling to find information about this..

I was thinking Original or maybe second hand if the price is right.
Clones kill cars, maybe a re-worked euro clone but really wouldn't recommend it, or risk it.
It's all about the components, fake tools use copy bit's that tolerances vary and often fail,
not what you need when writing to an ECU.
A Chinese capacitor is not the same as a real capacitor for example, and failing during
a write will brick the ECU, it's a big risk. Only you will know if it's worth taking.

wbr

This is sage advice.

I joined yesterday and am trying to learn how to get myself out of a situation with an EDC15C2 from a Citroen Xantia.

Problem for new people like myself dabbling in this is always going to be the cost.

I am trying to clone my duff ECU (Water damage I believe) to a replacement 2nd hand ECU. I've read about MPPS and Willem GQ-4X but I have no clue if this EDC15C2 can be virginised.

I have a friend who has proper Kess and K-tag and he will let me use that but I have no idea at this stage what the best device is to use. Despite massive cost of his Kess and K-tag system (£12,000 I believe some years ago) K-tag don't seem to produce an adapter for a AM29F4000BT chip.

Think I am going to have to learn the hard way and solder wires to correct pins.

I have a Lexia clone device and have opened it up and the quality is obviously very poor when you compare it to genuine article.

But this still returns a newbie to the same problem. What do you do when you are starting out?

I've just read in another post that you say Kess and K-tag are old now and there are better tools out there.

Would you kindly suggest which tools are better or what I should search for please?

In my post above, I refer to WIllem. This is only a cheap tool at around £100 but does that mean it is a clone of a more expensive piece of kit and, if so, which?

Problem with doing research on these things is there is the Willem for instance and then you can see lots of others at a much cheaper price online and MCUmall (Please remove reference if not allowed) say they are the legitimate rights owners of Willem. Tracking down who actually owns what and whether they are the genuine tool or not is a minefield...

Rhothgar wrote:I've just read in another post that you say Kess and K-tag are old now and there are better tools out there.

Would you kindly suggest which tools are better or what I should search for please?

In my post above, I refer to WIllem. This is only a cheap tool at around £100 but does that mean it is a clone of a more expensive piece of kit and, if so, which?

Problem with doing research on these things is there is the Willem for instance and then you can see lots of others at a much cheaper price online and MCUmall (Please remove reference if not allowed) say they are the legitimate rights owners of Willem. Tracking down who actually owns what and whether they are the genuine tool or not is a minefield...

A Willem is just an eeprom programmer not a ecu reading/writing tool, not the same.
There are some new tools coming out recently like Autotuner, I've never used it so can't really comment.
For a beginner you still need to look at Kess & K-Tag as they provide good coverage of most cars.

wbr

Shooting wrote:

Rhothgar wrote:I've just read in another post that you say Kess and K-tag are old now and there are better tools out there.

Would you kindly suggest which tools are better or what I should search for please?

In my post above, I refer to WIllem. This is only a cheap tool at around £100 but does that mean it is a clone of a more expensive piece of kit and, if so, which?

Problem with doing research on these things is there is the Willem for instance and then you can see lots of others at a much cheaper price online and MCUmall (Please remove reference if not allowed) say they are the legitimate rights owners of Willem. Tracking down who actually owns what and whether they are the genuine tool or not is a minefield...

A Willem is just an eeprom programmer not a ecu reading/writing tool, not the same.
There are some new tools coming out recently like Autotuner, I've never used it so can't really comment.
For a beginner you still need to look at Kess & K-Tag as they provide good coverage of most cars.

wbr

Finally got around to playing with Kess V3 last night after all these years.

I never did successfully extract the map with more power from the old ECU but I did plug it in last night for a play because I have a fault with an ECU where I believe a semi-conductor within might not be switching the earth for the 3rd piston deactivation solenoid. Was able to read the AMD29F400BT chip but the file produced was only 226Kb and finishes at something like address 0x003389. I'll do a separate post about that.

One thing I did notice was that despite the Kess have EDC15C2 on there, the only options were for a RHW? and RHX? engine and certainly not RHZ which mine is. I wonder as an amateur if this actually would have any bearing on the read.

I powered up the old ECU (which was the subject of this post initially) using a Godiag GT100 and read it using a Lexia. Obviously, it came up with permanent faults for the sensors and all but, of note, it also came up with a P1613 Configuration Error and I was wondering if this is because the original immo chip from it ended up in the current ECU in the car?

I don't want to do any unnecessary soldering work but was thinking I should perhaps solder the original chip back in and re-read it? This might not be necessary. Looking at the Godiag manual, I was also wondering if, with Kess, I have to actually plug the CPH ECU in for the immobiliser?

The pinouts seemed excessive but I am no expert.

It states in Kess 1, 29, 60 and 72 for VECU (Red / Orange) but the orange wires are marked up as VKEY. Only the red wires are marked as VECU. I am not sure that matters but for a newbie it is a little confusing.

My mate doesn't really use his Kess enough (if at all). I think it was an expensive doorstop for him.

I am obviously worried about reading the file from the old ECU, writing it to the current one in the car and then not having a working car. I guess the solution to that is to back up the current car ECU before attempting to overwrite it.

Also, reading some posts, I see that it might well carry mileage information. I would therefore like to correct the mileage from the old ECU to the current reading on the car. 6 years ago it was only on approx 196500 miles when I look at the mot history. It is now over 207k miles so I would like to correct that if that is stored in the flash memory.