Getting an AP V2, as a newbie, what can I do?

[HerNameIsSway]

Hey guys,

I am seriously considering ordering a COBB Accessport V2 and should be ordering it in a few days for the following reasons:

- Get better gas mileage (I drive 80 miles a day, 60 miles of it is 70mph on the interstate)
- Increase HP (not by a lot, just a fun little bump in power)
- Monitor engine health (I'm at 95k miles now)
- Monitor/delete recent codes that may not be important (only one so far was last week when an emissions part failed and disabled my cruise control, which was annoying and emissions testing is not a requirement in my county...)

Here is my car's setup:

2007 WRX (bought brand new and put all 95k miles on it)
- Turbo timer professionally installed at 1000 miles
- SPT intake and 3" catback exhaust installed by dealership

Currently 242HP 246TQ right off the showroom floor

There are NO other mods and I'm not planning to make any more changes on the car. The Subaru is my reliable strict daily driver and my hobby is in a particular motorsport with a different car. I work on cars from the 80s, so this new OBDII cars is like a foreign language to me right now.

I hear that the COBB Accessport would pay for itself by the money saved with the MPG improvement in the long term aspect, and I intend to keep the car long term.

I know nothing about electronics, and I know less about tuning. I am still trying to research, but this forum section appears to show specific cases per thread, so it's hard to compare my situation with another forum user.

I dont *need* to do any custom tunes, but is there a pre-set tune that fits my situation/setup?

Any input from you guys would be greatly appreciated! I know you're tired of noobs and their dumb questions, but the main thing is, I dont want to ruin my car, but I know this car can be tuned better to fit my driving style.

Help me help my car help me financially... (lol)

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[Cftom]

So i'm not really sure what your questions are but I'll just share my experiences with my AP. I have an 04 WRX with an AEM CAI and an agency power catback so pretty close to the same set up. Now i know Cobb's instructions say to only use their intake or the stock intake for their off the shelf maps but i called Cobb and they said either the SPT or the AEM intake i have will flow better than stock and not mess with the maps. Now this was just one gentleman i talked to over at Cobb so i'm not entirely sure as to it's validity.

I currently have the Stage 1 OTS map specifically for Arizona and my car runs great. I've also noticed what i think is a small bump in MPG when i can stay off the throttle. But overall i'd say it's definitely worth it. You can monitor almost everything your ECU does as well as record data and read trouble codes. Definitely worth the money IMO

[HerNameIsSway]

I guess I am asking these questions:

Is my car already set up to go basic Stage 1?

Is my car set up to go Stage 2?

Do I need to do a custom tune?

[Cobb Tuning]

Originally Posted by HerNameIsSway

Hey guys,

I am seriously considering ordering a COBB Accessport V2 and should be ordering it in a few days for the following reasons:

- Get better gas mileage (I drive 80 miles a day, 60 miles of it is 70mph on the interstate)
- Increase HP (not by a lot, just a fun little bump in power)
- Monitor engine health (I'm at 95k miles now)
- Monitor/delete recent codes that may not be important (only one so far was last week when an emissions part failed and disabled my cruise control, which was annoying and emissions testing is not a requirement in my county...)

Here is my car's setup:

2007 WRX (bought brand new and put all 95k miles on it)
- Turbo timer professionally installed at 1000 miles
- SPT intake and 3" catback exhaust installed by dealership

Currently 242HP 246TQ right off the showroom floor

There are NO other mods and I'm not planning to make any more changes on the car. The Subaru is my reliable strict daily driver and my hobby is in a particular motorsport with a different car. I work on cars from the 80s, so this new OBDII cars is like a foreign language to me right now.

I hear that the COBB Accessport would pay for itself by the money saved with the MPG improvement in the long term aspect, and I intend to keep the car long term.

I know nothing about electronics, and I know less about tuning. I am still trying to research, but this forum section appears to show specific cases per thread, so it's hard to compare my situation with another forum user.

I dont *need* to do any custom tunes, but is there a pre-set tune that fits my situation/setup?

Any input from you guys would be greatly appreciated! I know you're tired of noobs and their dumb questions, but the main thing is, I dont want to ruin my car, but I know this car can be tuned better to fit my driving style.

Help me help my car help me financially... (lol)

Hi there. The AccessPORT v2 meets all the requirements you listed. The primary function of the AccessPORT is to allow you to load different maps depending on what your goal is. We have a number of off-the-shelf (OTS) maps for your car for different modifications (stages 1 and stage 2), different octane fuel (91, ACN91, and 93), and specialty maps for different functions (fuel economy, anti-theft, valet).

The AccessPORT v2 also allows you to read check engine light codes as well as reset the codes (via ECU reset). You can also choose to data log from over 100 different parameters as well as view any one of those parameters live.

Our stage 1 maps are for a completely stock car (aftermarket catback is acceptable). A stage 2 map is for a car with an aftermarket downpipe (stock or aftermarket catback is acceptable).

The only thing that will not work with the OTS maps as is in your case, is the SPT intake. Intakes have a special consideration in that they are critical to engine operation (determine airflow/load) and can become a problem if the map is not designed for that particular intake. Our OTS maps for your car will only work correctly with the stock or Cobb SF intake. While the SPT intake is a Subaru part, it still ends up skewing airflow so that the reported airflow (when using a map designed for the stock intake) is not always accurate. Probably they felt that it was within some acceptable range for a stock car, but when you get into adding more power (via stage 1 or stage 2 map or beyond), it becomes a problem as you want airflow/load (and therefore timing/fuel) to be as accurate as possible (you can also argue that you would want this even with a completely stock map). So, your options, if using the AccessPORT, would be to put the stock intake back on (or a Cobb SF intake) or you can get a custom tune through a Cobb protuner for the SPT intake.

I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Bill

[zstout]

im also new to this ap stuff if he buys an ap2 can that ap2 tune any subaru as long as its only one at a time? or do they sell specific cobbs for specific cars

[HerNameIsSway]

Thanks for the descriptive reply!

I guess my next step is to looking into some different intakes.

What other brand intakes are acceptable?

[Cobb Tuning]

Originally Posted by HerNameIsSway

Thanks for the descriptive reply!

I guess my next step is to looking into some different intakes.

What other brand intakes are acceptable?

For the 2007 WRX, the only intake that are acceptable are the stock intake and Cobb SF intake as least as far as our original off-the-shelf maps. You can, of course, also get a custom tune for different intakes.

Bill

[Cobb Tuning]

Originally Posted by zstout

im also new to this ap stuff if he buys an ap2 can that ap2 tune any subaru as long as its only one at a time? or do they sell specific cobbs for specific cars

The AccessPORT can only be used on one car at a time. When you install the AccessPORT to a car you cannot then use that AccessPORT on another car. You must first uninstall the AccessPORT on the first car before you can load maps/tune the second car.

There are 3 part numbers for the v2 Subaru AccessPORT that determine which group of Subarus it will work with (SUB-001, SUB-002, SUB-003). You can see what vehicles work with which part number here (2012 WRX and STI are not listed here but are supported):
http://www.cobbtuning.com/info/?ID=3260

Bill

[STOOPID]

Would a K&N drop in air filter with the stock air box still be considered a stock intake for use with the OTS maps? Thanks.

[Cobb Tuning]

Originally Posted by STOOPID

Would a K&N drop in air filter with the stock air box still be considered a stock intake for use with the OTS maps? Thanks.

As long as it is a stock panel-style filter with the stock intake, you generally shouldn't have any problems running one.

Bill

[vwbeaner]

I have had my ap for a while. If you run the fuel economy map your car will feel like its balls were detached and the milage increase is minimal I figure it saved me $2 at the pump. Not worth it. Just adding the ap is a great set up. since you have a cat back I would suggest getting a downpipe as well. They arn't cheap but the going to a stage 2 feels great. I also have a '07 wrx in the same color.

[Black94Snake]

The SPT intake wont cause any issues with your car. I have one on my 07 WRX, and I am using the Cobb stage 2 map. I have gone in and tweaked the map myself, because lets be honest, cobb runs WAY too much fuel in their maps. That's how they can make it "safe" for all vehicles.

I ran my car in a forced open loop and data-logged the commanded AFR vs my wideband readouts. Aside from seeing a very small variation between the two around 3200RPM (0.1-0.2) I didn;t notice anything that seemed to be out of the norms.

If your end goals are to have the car pro-tuned, you should ask the tuner what they will tune your car with. You may find that they recommend an Open Source tune over the AP. If you plan to learn to tune the car yourself, then the AP is a nice investment to make. It may not "pay for itself" because you will end up raising your boost and burning more fuel... but if you ever decide to sell it off, you will get most of your money back.

[Cobb Tuning]

We generally don't run any more fuel than the stock map (often a little bit leaner) and closed loop fueling is not generally touched from stock, so it isn't as if you are going to burning through more fuel than stock by running a Cobb OTS map (often users report that they see the same mileage or an increase over stock). Of course, if you are spending more time in boost with more aggressive driving than before, you'll see an increase in fuel usage regardless of whether you are running an OTS map or custom tune (regardless of tuning solution). To make sure the maps are safe for a variety of vehicles, we stay more on the conservative side of things with our OTS map, which is why a custom tune can see some decent gains.

The v2 AccessPORT gives you quite a few options as far as what you want to do. We have well-proven OTS maps available for stage 1/2 for different octane gas, along with other maps for fuel economy, anti-theft, and valet. Then you have the option of downloading a free copy of AccessTUNER Race if you wish to tune yourself. It has the same access to the 300+ tables that the Pro version has, has real-time tuning, and you can open and modify any of our OTS maps or even the stock map. You can also take your car to a protuner who uses our AccessTUNER Pro software and get a custom tune done for your car.

What tuning solution a shop uses depends a lot on what the goals of the shop are. A lot of our protuners like our software because of real-time tuning. Unlike other solutions, with our real-time tuning, you don't have to shut the motor off, connect the test mode connectors (earlier vehicles), wait for a reflash, disconnect connectors, and restart vehicle to make a tuning change. You can make a change with our software with the engine running in only a matter of seconds. In fact, on a load bearing dyno, you can make a change while holding a cell and see what impact that change has on power. That saves a lot of time for the tuner and generally speaking, allows them to spend more time actually tuning the car.

As stated, there's a good used market for the v2 AP, so if it no longer meets your goals, they are pretty easy to sell used (and have good resale value). Uninstalling the v2 AP will return your ECU back to the original state when the AP was installed. If you buy a v2 AP directly from us, we also have a 30-day satisfaction guarantee.

Bill

[davidboies]

I recently aquired my 2009 Wrx. I ordered a tsudo catback exhaust the other day and plan on getting a CAI of some sort. I was wondering if it was really necessary to order an Accessport(or a different tuner) to run these mods on my car. Are there any other tuners that compare to, or are better than the Cobb Accessport with a little lower price?
Thanks

[Black94Snake]

Originally Posted by davidboies

I recently aquired my 2009 Wrx. I ordered a tsudo catback exhaust the other day and plan on getting a CAI of some sort. I was wondering if it was really necessary to order an Accessport(or a different tuner) to run these mods on my car. Are there any other tuners that compare to, or are better than the Cobb Accessport with a little lower price?
Thanks

Did you really just ask this in the Cobb section? Do you really think they are going to recommend someone else's product?

[davidboies]

Originally Posted by Black94Snake

Did you really just ask this in the Cobb section? Do you really think they are going to recommend someone else's product?

Yeah, if they got one and didnt like it, i think they might say somethin but whatever. I still would like to know if im going to have to get the AP before i put on my catback. Is the ecu really that sensitive? I'm just wondering because i had an SPT catback and intake on my 05 Legacy Gt and never got it tuned. It seemed to run fine, but from what ive read you cant just do that on the newer subies. Anybody know?

[Cobb Tuning]

A catback will not affect the tune on the vehicle and you could safely run that on a stock car or our Stage 1 and Stage 2 mapping. Once you add an intake, the car WILL require tuning and can run very poorly without it. The AccessPORT alone will add way more power and torque than an intake will, so in my personal opinion, you'll get more bang for your buck using an AP. I'm not biased though

Once you have an AccessPORT, our SF intake and AEM intake maps are free downloads from the website and will take full advantage of those modifications.

Ian

[davidboies]

Originally Posted by Cobb Tuning

A catback will not affect the tune on the vehicle and you could safely run that on a stock car or our Stage 1 and Stage 2 mapping. Once you add an intake, the car WILL require tuning and can run very poorly without it. The AccessPORT alone will add way more power and torque than an intake will, so in my personal opinion, you'll get more bang for your buck using an AP. I'm not biased though

Once you have an AccessPORT, our SF intake and AEM intake maps are free downloads from the website and will take full advantage of those modifications.

Ian

Thanks for clarifying. I ordered my AP this morning

[03WillieRX]

Does the AccessTUNER Race software work with Apple OS or does it have to be on a pc with windows?

[Cobb Tuning]

Originally Posted by 03WillieRX

Does the AccessTUNER Race software work with Apple OS or does it have to be on a pc with windows?

It is Windows (PC) compatible only.

Ian