ABF ECU techie query

[jcs356]

Hi everyone, got a techie query for you. As some of you know, I’ve now got a 16v ABF Cordoba as my track toy to replace my 8v 2E Ibiza. As part of giving it some more oomph, last year I bought all the parts off Dinky Dave that he couldn’t re-use on his throttle body conversion – namely Schrick cams, TSR manifold, decat, Viper induction kit & Stealth Racing remapped ECU. Everything got transferred over to the Cordy, and the head got polished & ported at the same time. Saxon Motorsport did the work (who also did Dave’s car).

Unfortunately the Stealth Racing ECU doesn’t work on my Cordy – it plugs in ok, and the car fires up, however it then immediately cuts out. In terms of the vintage of the ECUs – the Cordy is spring 1996; the Stealth ECU is autumn 1997 – so there is 18 months between them. This is mirrored in a subtle difference in part numbers:

• Cordy ECU part number = 037 906 024 AB
• Stealth remapped ECU part number = 037 906 024 BE

Saxon have remapped the Cordy ECU but they have only got 166 bhp out of it – which is probably 15 – 20 less than it should have (the setup made high 180s on Dave’s Ibiza).

So, anyone got any bright ideas? I’m guessing the later remapped ECU has an extra sensor or something which my car is missing hence the startup followed by immediate cut out. If there is something quick and easy I can try I’m up for it.

If not, then I guess there are only two ways forward:

• Get the soldering iron out and transfer the remapped ECU chip onto the board from my ECU. Whilst I’m reasonably ok with a soldering iron, it’s realistically beyond my skills and hence very, very risky as I could end up messing up both ECUs!
• Accept that I’m never going to get the remapped ECU to work with my car, and take the car to Stealth and pay for another remap onto my original chip. This is obviously the more costly option, but is the least risk.

I’ve currently got my car booked in with Vince @ Stealth on the 7th December to go for option 2. This is on the basis that the general concensus is that they are probably the best people to deal with ABF tuning. Anyone got any suggestions in the meantime?

Thanks for your help

 

[m0rk]

Option 2 is sensible to me.

Vince know's his tricks - whereas Saxon may not know the old VW ECU tricks that work.

 

[techie]

The new ecu doesn't just need it's learned values erased does it or something silly like that?

 

[Jonny95 SXE]

is it ot just the immoliser in the clocks needs to be reset to accept the new ECU?

 

[Jonny95 SXE]

hence the immediate cut out after start. its a simple fix with vagcom

 

[M1KEH]

I believe all you have here is immobiliser coding issues. I've been told you don't need the SKC of the car to adapt to the immobilizer to the new ecu. So to change over you need to plug in the new ecu then You need vag-com, then go into immobilizer section 25, then go to adaption and read channel 00. It should then enable the save button, click this. Then close and close vag-com. Turn off ignition and leave off for 15 seconds and it should start fine. If when you click read the save button doesnt come up you will need the skc.

 

[m0rk]

http://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/Immobilizer_I_ECU_Swapping

 

[jcs356]

Thanks guys. I didn't think my Cordy had a Seat factory fit immobiliser? The key is just a key - there is no remote central locking or battery in it.

On that basis does it mean I'm stuck because I've got an ECU that expects an immobiliser and a car which doesn't have one so I can't get the two to synchronise with each other as per Mark & Mike's instructions?

 

[M1KEH]

I'm 99% sure it did have a factory immobilizer. Is the key one with a seat logo and with a joint line round the outside? You don't need remote central locking or a battery in it, there is just a little chip which is read by the reader coil around the ignition switch.

 

[Jonny95 SXE]

there is a chip in that key jcs you just need to complete the steps in the document mork linked above

 

[M1KEH]

Easiest way to check its the immobilizer stopping the starting is plug the ecu in and connect to vag-com and read the engine fault codes.

Whilst your in there you can check for the immobilizer by opening immobiliser (25).

 

[jcs356]

Just split the key and yes, there is a chip in there - never realised!

So just need to find someone who can do the VAG-COM stuff for me....

 

[M1KEH]

Whereabouts are you?

 

[jcs356]

I'm near J4 of the M3 - Farnborough/Aldershot - but more than happy to travel.
Will have a look through the VAG.COM forum and see if I can find someone close.

Thanks once again for all your help & advice.

 

[M1KEH]

You may need your skc to do this coding is the only problem that you may have, I have read different things in different places. If you do apparently you need vag-tacho to get this. Dealers no longer supply skc's. But it's worth trying with vag-com before just in case.

 

[Dave_R]

I have VAG Com, haven't done anything like this before but as long as it's follow a load of instructions it's worth a try! Would be nice to see the Cordy running to it's full potential

 

[m0rk]

I'm near J4 of the M3 - Farnborough/Aldershot - but more than happy to travel.
Will have a look through the VAG.COM forum and see if I can find someone close.

Thanks once again for all your help & advice.

Come to me quite handy with vag-com & I'm close enough.. PO8 area

Drop me an email / PM if you want to

 

[jcs356]

Hi Mark - thanks I'll take you up on that one - email sent.

 

[ibiza_95]

you can also wire the fuelpump earth into the ecu... defeats the purpose of having an immobiliser, but if the ecu has a drop to earth output for a fuel pump realy, wire it to that and itll bypass your immobiliser.
From memory its a blue and yellow wire and can easily be accessed in the scuttle wiring to the ecu.

 

[jcs356]

Right, quick update on this one. I decided to go ahead and go to Stealth for a custom remap in the end - but thanks very much to Mark for offering to help out with VAG.COM recoding the immobiliser.

It was a good job we didn't try to do this as Stealth confirmed that my car doesn't have an immobiliser in it. Strangely whilst the key has a chip in it, but there is no immobiliser 'wiring' around the ignition barrel to detect the chip. All I can think of is that either they were being introduced in some sort of haphazard fashion so not necessarily all cars got them (?); or more likely the key I've got is non-original, so has been recut against a later key blank which has a blank chip in it which would need to be coded into the car. That's on the basis that it is cheaper/easier to have one type of key blank rather than one for immobiliser cars and one for non-immobiliser cars.

So no matter what fiddling we'd have done, my car would never have worked with Dave's donor ECU!

Anyway, although I've had to pay for another rechip, Stealth have done a good job and ironed out some of the previous funnies (big dip in torque around 2200 rpm), and the scores on the doors with their 'known to be optimistic' RR were:
Peak power = 182.2bhp @6350rpm
Peak torque = 158.5lb/ft @5775rpm

This compares with the previous figures from Saxon Motorsport (different RR) Feb 17th of:
Peak power = 161.9bhp @6388rpm
Peak torque = 140.0lb/ft @5635rpm

And from the JKM rollers at the SC.net/Briskoda RR day on the 13th Nov:
Peak power = 166.4bhp
Peak torque = 145 lb/ft (approx).

I appreciate there are many variables (air temp, pressure) let alone the differences between respective RRs. However I'm happy that the car is now closer to what I thought it ought to be doing given the work that has been done.