Just read this on IWSTI.com, thought I should share.... Do NOT purchase an EcuTEK license without reading this... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey all, THIS APPLIES TO ALL ECUTEK REFLASHES, NOT JUST 06 CARS. In October, I had a new 06 STi. At the time, Cobb had not produced the AP for the 06s, and I was doing a stage 4 green setup. PDXTuning sold me an EcuTEK license and did a dynotune. After much later installing a blowthrough, an EWG, WI, a header, and other items, PDXTuning felt that economics of the situation was such that with all the dyno tuning and the street tuning that I wanted, I could either buy a Cobb AP, Street Tuner, etc or pay them hourly to reflash EcuTEK. They made a good case for the Cobb, since I love to tune my car, know how, and would continue to make changes. PDXTuning would take my money, but Tim felt I'd have fun doing some of it myself. So, two weeks ago, I bought a Cobb AP for my 06 STI and we proceeded to load the car up on the dyno. The Cobb AP would not marry to the PCM and we were afraid that the AP or the PCM was malfunctioning. We tried GreggPDX's AP (first we had to unmarry it from his 06, etc), and it would not communicate with the PCM either. Afraid that the PCM was broken, we plugged in EcuTEK and tried writing back to a stock program. Worked like a charm. With the stock program in place, the AP would still not recognize the PCM. We had to put my EcuTEK program back on the PCM and unload the car from the dyno. A call to Christian at Cobb didnt give any quick solutions. The next day I stopped by the local dealership and tried to have them re-flash the PCM. Their SPSC or whatever it was called wouldnt recognize my PCM either. I left before they started to ask further questions. I got home, and then sent the PCM off for analysis. Here is the final conclusion: EcuTEK altered the handshaking such that no other program could enter the ECU. Not the Cobb AP, not Subaru, no-one except EcuTEK. Apparently at least 06s (and possibly others) have some of the communication protocol instructions in a re-writable part of the ECU. Tuners currently DO NOT have the ability to put this back to stock. Fortunately PDXTuning has refunded my $$$, and Cobb was able to get on the PCM (at their shop) and re-write it completely to stock. I work at a company that sells shoes, apparel, and sports equipment. If we sold a shoe that you couldnt take off, you wouldnt buy it. If we sold you a shoe that you couldnt take off, and didnt tell you about it prior to you wearing it... well... everyone would sue us, wouldnt they? And they would have every right. I'm disturbed by having a company do this to my car. Im angry that I couldnt reverse it and that I had to ask for a refund for something that I couldnt give back. Rumor is that this was done to combat OpenECU. I dont care. Folks are going to copy you. You have to out-innovate them to stay in business, not take your customers hostage. Welcome to the 21st century. Full Disclosure: Cobb determined what had been done, and reported it to me. I have no first hand knowledge of the changes made. Cobb competes with EcuTEK (somewhat). In this matter, based on my experiences with my PCM, they backup what was told to me, and I have no reason to distrust Cobb. Good luck, Chris
Ah finally, some ecutek drama That's rather interesting, but its more than likely (Should this be accurate) a ploy to try and hold on to the dwindling market share ecutek currently has. With the release of the handheld AP and now the more prominent distribution and development of openecu, EcuTek simply must push forward or sell out. In other words, them locking your pcm like this (once again, should this be accurate) is absolutely retarded and further pushes me from EcuTek. Ive been promoting Cobb ever since they so graciously hooked me into an AP
I doubt this is true. By law you have to be able to reflash ANY OBDII car. Dealerships have to do that. If that was the case then if you wanted to have a dealer flash it to stock you're outta luck. Also if it 'locked' the ECU then how will the ECUExplorer datalogger be able to look into the ECU for the sensor values?
It is true. I read about it a few months ago on NASIOC. http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1027462&highlight=ecutek+handshake Dave from Ecutek even posted this:
PS: Thread also features Trey from Cobb being a complete dick to Colby (OpenECU developer), accusing him of essentially ripping Cobb off and stealing their code.
I personally don't think they are as worried about the end users as they are some unscrupulous tuners. It would be very easy for a tuner to flash an image from an ecutek licensed ecu to another and then use ecuteks tools to tune. The end user would never know that he has a copy of someonen else's license. The tuner could then bank the 650 that the customer paid.
Yeah, but with the openecu tools getting pretty damn good, what is the purpose of using an ecutek license at all? Hell, you could just copy/paste the tables from an ecutek tune into a stock map without worrying about their licenses anyway... edit: other than the customer verifying that they have an 'ecutek license' in which case what you're saying would apply.
thats why I think they are more worried about tuners. The cats already out of the bag for end users willing to tune their own car.
Phew! Finished reading the thread. I-Speed came off as the biggest jerks to me(everyone sucks except them they claim). Ecutek has released a flash to "open" the ECU so other products will work again, including Subaru TSB, Cobb and OpenECU. Basically they think ECU locking protects a tuner's work. Their original intentions may have been to lock customers in? And possibly protect their own licenses... Personally, I think ECU locking is crap. For one, copying maps is asking for trouble. Two, worrying another tuner might learn your "tricks" is a sure sign "IAMUBERTUNERBOWTOMYSKILLZ" lameness. I work with much more complex software products and every "trick" I think I find is really just the same experience every other expert gains.