What happens when an ECUTek mapped ECU is unlocked?

Presumably reverts to standard out of the factory map?

Cheers
Stew

 

As far as my simple understanding of the subject goes.
The ECU is "locked" until you pay EcuTek £150 to have it unlocked.
Then you can download your own map to it.

I don't believe there is a factory map held in the background somewhere
There is only one map there and that is whats used.

Shaun

 

On the 06-07 car ECU is flashed with the original (virginal OE map) and you're good to go. We would charge a small fee for this unless it was one we had mapped in the past in which case it would be FOC.

 

I'll probably be coming to Zen to get it done. So thanks for the heads up!

 

Out of interest - what happens to the license at that point ? Is the license able to be sold on to someone else?

 

Nope.

 

AFAIK If you've had a car Ecutek'd the license resides with the ECU, not the owner, so if you sell the car or the ECU, the new owner does not need to pay a new license fee, just for the mappers time. I don't think the "new" mapper can see or access the old map though; they have to start from scratch, unless there has been some prior agreement between both mappers!

Ns04

 

I'm going to go Open Source next time. Decision is made. Just a bit of a shame that the ECUTek license goes to waste. Hey ho. Lesson learned...

 

Sell yours for an identical non-Ecutek'd one plus cash !

HTH

dunx

 

Yeah, just need someone who is up for it on like the 6th of April. Will make a post in For Sale and see what happens.

 

I was told (from AndyF and Ben from ECUTek) that the flash2002 ECU's can't have ECUTek removed completey, thus no OS access. I've had to buy 2 JDM ECU's, neither have matched my car, I now face having to import the correct ECU from japan at £800, or buying a Simtek/Solaris.

 

why not just get another ecutek remap?

 

Not enough local support Simon. I can't be waiting 2+ months for my current mapper when something isn't right. I've just been having a nightmare with the car...

 

eek.. my reply was meant to Bluenose.. but also valid to you I guess

hope you sort it..

Simon

 

Ah ok. Sorry Simon.

 

I've been OS mapping my old mans WRX over the last 6 months, I wanted to map my car, but couldn't/can't.

 

When an ECU is Locked by ECUTek it cannot be written to read to without the relevant ECUTEk software and licence key.. IT's not a case of remove the licence and it reverts to standard.. THe ECU only has space for one "full" ecu map so it's not technically possible to remove licence anc voila standard car.

WHat needs to be done is a ECUTek technician unlock the ECU and wipe it then re-write the standard map onto it without ECUtek licencing.. This should be done at little cost..

Tere is software out there "claiming" to be able to read/overwrite ECUTek mapped ecu's but I don't have a ECUTEk map on mine so can't confirm whether it works or not... Also doing so is illegal as you'd be breaking the ECUTek licence agreement

 

I never agreed to or seen an ECUTek license agreement at the point of sale or since. I'd like to see them try to take me to court.

 

Does a license actually exist or does it just re-write the access kernel ?
I know as a mapper you have to purchase the licenses from ECUTEK in batches of 5-off so I guess there must be some kind of key or serial number logged in there.

tactrix used to provide the service but have now dropped it for the 2002-2005 ECU.
IIRC there was a way of doing it with a small amount of hardware, and is probably document on North American Subaru Impreza Owners Club somewhere.

 

Because the OEM ecu's were never designed for licencing it's purely software based.. as the ECU is just EEPROM it can in theory be wiped and re-programmed like any other EEPROM. However the common protocol used for connecting to the ECU can have a security level put on to it.. Like the ECUTek licencing..

But that works only to the point that all connections make use of the standard protocols (which they should) But as mentioned above, there is a mini addon for ECUFLash which temporarily "hacks" the protocol to ignore the security level and just read the raw data.. Allowing the user to read/write the data stored. Effectively allowing your to backup the ECU or re-program with origonal/alternative ECU MAP..

That's how I "believe" it works.. I've never heard of an update to the kernel until this thread..

As for the whole licencing not requiring agreement.. I can't really comment on that for sure as I've never had a ECUTek map.. But it's a good point if your don't have to sign/acknowledge any terms of agreement!



P.s. It's the tactrix cable I use with RomRaider (Formerly Enginuity) / ECUflash for mapping.

 

It's quite annoying, but appreciate that both ECUTek and the mapper want to protect their intellectual rights. That said, it's my ECU. I don't care if I can't read the ROM, but at least should be able to overwrite at will.

 

I'd never get mine ECUtek'd, i'd rather get a independent mapper to do it or get a stand alone ECU