These parameters are contained within maps and often there are thousands of them (hence the term ‘engine remap’. It’s fed by a bunch of vehicle sensors (oxygen sensors, crankshaft sensors, air temperature, and more) and processes that information based on pre-programmed parameters. The Engine Control Unit (ECU) which is also sometimes known as an engine control module, or even powertrain control module, is one of your vehicle’s most important brains. Not exactly what you were expecting from your engine remap or tune, right? Hang on, what’s an ECU? Try and go back to the tuner and they’ll likely have left the carpark they just tuned your vehicle in. To do all this can take less than 30 minutes and could potentially cause your engine to go boom halfway around the block. Some of these so-called tuners will often just generically bump up some of the values, by X amount on the file maps. This means it can’t be tweaked…not by them anyway. These are the ones that are supplied with a generic file that is encrypted and uploaded to a vehicle’s ECU. Master Tuners are those that have been approved by file providers and are supplied with non-encrypted files that can be modified by the tuner. Within that space there are Master and Slave Tuners. H aving a tuner that can adjust files to suit your actual vehicle is vital. Nor does it consider what you’ll be doing with it. This type of engine remap isn’t tweaked to suit your vehicle or how it’s been modified. Unfortunately, there’s nothing custom about it. Would it be easier to go back to old school? © Pexels / Mike B What is flash tuning?įlash tuning is really nothing more than grabbing a file from somewhere, usually the Interweb, and uploading it to a vehicle’s ECU. And it’s where the idea that we might be getting scammed comes from. We’ll start with definitions because there’s confusion around what an ECU tune or engine remap actually is. Here’s what you need to know so you don’t get ripped off. There are some shops that tune properly for cheap, and others that don’t and are pricey. Price when it comes to tuning is like prices with everything else in life. Some will simply download a purchased file they can’t adjust and charge you the same as someone who’s spent a full day fiddling with stuff on a computer and a dyno to ensure your vehicle doesn’t explode. Some places will use a dyno and some won’t. Look around the web and you’ll see that an engine remap isn’t cheap, costing anywhere up to $1200. But as the old Castrol ad said, oils ain’t oils and tunes (tuners) ain’t tunes (tuners). These days, just about every workshop will offer an engine remap…and they ain’t cheap. Having been tuning the ECUs (Engine Control Units) in cars, 4WD s, motorbikes, and whatever else has an engine and wheels for more than 20 years has led me to believe that there are most definitely tuners and tuners.
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