Topic: Tuning Explained

[Warlox]

Hey Ralli Art owners and other Lancer peeps,

I have some questions about "tuning".  I see a lot of mention of this and it's not fully explained so I thought i'd start a thread on it so I, and others, can take advantage of the knowledge.

While browsing for parts for my car to make it ridiculously faster, I notice that you will commonly see "car must be tuned after installing this part" stated along with the part description.  I can only assume that this means that one has to access the car's computer controller (ECU - engine computer unit?) and set it up to take advantage of the new part's dynamics.  I dont think there's any mechanical tuning that we do on cars these days (like with a timing gun and a big fat long flat head screwdriver).

What are your options to "tune" your car?  I imagine that you could take it to a garage that did such things and have them do it, but what would that cost?  Also I've seen options for tuning it yourself by getting a cable that will attach it to your laptop and downloading some open source software to tune it with. (http://www.openecu.org/)  But what programming specs (or schema) would you want to apply to the car's ecu to get performance out of it?  Would it be a trial and error task?  What would you be looking for?  Would you have to be on a dyno see what the results of your tuning were?

I have seen performance flash's you can purchase from companies like AMS that will pre-program your car to a specific set of parameters to take advantage of it's inate abilities which were probably de-tuned by the manufacturer for fuel conservation, warranty length considerations, etc.  Has anyone purchased this (or other) flash and has an opinion about it?  Is this a big no-no for warranty considerations?  Can it be "un-done" to preserve your warranty if something were to go wrong and you had to take it in?
http://www.amsperformance.com/cart/AMS-Mitsubishi-Lancer-Ralliart-Base-Flash.html

Also available is a unit such as this which seems to come with a few "pre-programed" schema's for your car's ECO and will connect to it and flash it.  Has anyone used this one?
http://www.amsperformance.com/cart/cobb-mitsubishi-lancer-ralliart-accessport.html

The flash seems like a great upgrade, but I want to add performance parts at a later date.  Would I have to re-tune the car, thus negating the flash I purchased prior to this?  Would a product like the Cobb flashing device have options to "add an air intake" to the flash parameters?

One last question.  What would the best performance parts be to add to the vehicle in combination with a performance tuning?  What I mean here, is which parts take advantage of a re-tuning the most?  Or perhaps....what parts can a tuning take advantage of the most? 

I'd love it if people could post here their experiences with tuning their car.  Perhaps we could even get some OpenECU ECU tips here for our Ralli Art's (or any lancer of course).

Thanks a bunch for your inputs.

Warlox

[Golyadkin]

When I talked to a guy at WORKS, he said what they do is you mail them your ECU, and tell them exactly what performance parts you have on your car, and they tune it depending on what you have. Didn't really get specifics, though.

[khaos]

Personaly I wanna add performance but keep warrenty. I don't have a ra but if I were to tune I would go with a cobb acces port and tune it that way. 


I was looking at the vids on their page yesterday and it all seems pretty damn good offering diff tunes depending on ur mods

Soo take a look at them. One thing I liked the most about it was that you can return to stock if you want

[Warlox]

When I talked to a guy at WORKS, he said what they do is you mail them your ECU, and tell them exactly what performance parts you have on your car, and they tune it depending on what you have. Didn't really get specifics, though.

Yes, mail in ECU changes seem to be the popular way.  The tuning facility (works, ams, etc.) maintains intellectual property over the parameters of their tuning program that way.  I believe some of them will also mail you the flash on a CD or USB drive if you have OpenECU and a cable to flash it yourself. 

Has anyone tried this before?  Has anyone done a mail in of their ECU?

[Warlox]

Personaly I wanna add performance but keep warrenty. I don't have a ra but if I were to tune I would go with a cobb acces port and tune it that way. 


I was looking at the vids on their page yesterday and it all seems pretty damn good offering diff tunes depending on ur mods

Soo take a look at them. One thing I liked the most about it was that you can return to stock if you want

Ahh, awesome.  I didnt know you could return it to the stock tuning with the cobb device. 

Here is a list of the tuning "maps" for the cobb tuning device.
http://www.accessecu.com/accessport/mitsubishi/AP-MIT-002/LancerMaps.html

Hmm, it seems that the "stock map" they provide still leaves the AP (application?) installed on the ECU which would provide some evidence of tampering were they to check during a warranty fix.

[khaos]

Hmm. From my understanding it diddent leave evidence of tampering which is why I wish there was one for the lancer haha

[Warlox]

Hmm. From my understanding it diddent leave evidence of tampering which is why I wish there was one for the lancer haha

On the downloadable map for "Installed Style Mode" it shows this explanation:

"Stock style map. Uses stock fuel, timing, and boost values for conditions when you need the vehicle's ECU to act like it is still stock. DOES NOT UNINSTALL AP FROM VEHICLE.   "

I think it leaves AccessPort installed ... which could be some evidence against you in a warranty case....but it'd probably be a difficult one for the dealership to argue.  I would imagine that there is no historical data stored in the ECU (such as "what maps have been installed").  I know they keep some historical data on your driving habits (such as how often has the user redlined the car, etc.) but I doubt the map install history is kept.  There could be a "flag" they check off if any ECU tampering has occured at all .... I wonder if there's a way to reset that if there was one.

I'm a programmer by trade, and this sort of thing is very interesting to me.

[Warlox]

Hmm. From my understanding it diddent leave evidence of tampering which is why I wish there was one for the lancer haha

I did a little more research on this and I discovered that you CAN indeed completely uninstall the AccessPort software from the computer.

Quoted from the Cobb site:

Uninstall - In the event the car must be returned to the stock configuration, the AccessPORT can be completely removed and the ECU restored to its factory condition. Perfect for trips to the dealership.

[Malicust]

You just have to unmarry the AP. Problem with the AP is the maps, you have to have the map thats identical to your build or still pay a tuner to make a custom map for your AP but even then you have to find a tuner that can work on the AP. When it comes to tuner theres nothing better then getting a Protune. Mail in ECU Flashes are a crock of shit

[Warlox]

You just have to unmarry the AP. Problem with the AP is the maps, you have to have the map thats identical to your build or still pay a tuner to make a custom map for your AP but even then you have to find a tuner that can work on the AP. When it comes to tuner theres nothing better then getting a Protune. Mail in ECU Flashes are a crock of shit

Have you experimented with tuning yourself?  Ever tried the OpenECU software shown above?  I'm eager to get some tuning stories in this thread so we can learn from other's experience.

I think the optimal situation would be to have the maps defined on the Ralliart AccessPort device "reverse engineered" and available via OpenECU so that you had a baseline to start from but could customize it yourself from that point onwards.  Some pre-defined tunes for your car type (GTS, GSR, Ralliart, etc.) with stock parts, basic performance parts, pro parts, etc. would be perfect.

[Malicust]

Have you experimented with tuning yourself?  Ever tried the OpenECU software shown above?  I'm eager to get some tuning stories in this thread so we can learn from other's experience.

I think the optimal situation would be to have the maps defined on the Ralliart AccessPort device "reverse engineered" and available via OpenECU so that you had a baseline to start from but could customize it yourself from that point onwards.  Some pre-defined tunes for your car type (GTS, GSR, Ralliart, etc.) with stock parts, basic performance parts, pro parts, etc. would be perfect.

My friends use the Cobb AP. My suby friends just use the off the shelf maps. My Evo friend that uses it takes it to our tuner. I get my car tuned at Reese Tuning so I dont personally do anything. The problem with Mail in flashes is its not tuned to your car specifically so there will always be problems.

[Warlox]

My friends use the Cobb AP. My suby friends just use the off the shelf maps. My Evo friend that uses it takes it to our tuner. I get my car tuned at Reese Tuning so I dont personally do anything. The problem with Mail in flashes is its not tuned to your car specifically so there will always be problems.

Sweet.  Good info.

Mind me asking what a custom tune costs for your GSR?  Do they throw it on a dyno and try many things before coming up with a final map?  Do they ask you what parameters you want out of the car before tuning it?  (i.e. high performance, fuel economy, balanced performance, etc.)

[Malicust]

lol my retune is 450  thats a dyno tune. Its much cheaper to tune if you road tune. Talk to benchinapark on this forum, hes going to get street tuned by Looney Tuning.

Do they throw it on a dyno and try many things before coming up with a final map?

pretty much.

Do they ask you what parameters you want out of the car before tuning it?

it all depends on your tuner, in my case I have to tell him how I want my setup.

[Warlox]

I've heard some horror stories about modified ECU's messing up the TCU in the SST transmission in the MR and MT Evo's and Ralliarts. 

Do we know if the flashes from Works/AMS or the Cobb tuning device take this into account?

[Golyadkin]

I've heard some horror stories about modified ECU's messing up the TCU in the SST transmission in the MR and MT Evo's and Ralliarts. 

a. MT Ralliarts? There are none.
b. Anything to mess up TCU. F* the toads!