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Old 09-26-2012, 10:32 AM   #1
gberryhill
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Default ecu bricked.. again

Okay if anyone could help me out here I would appreciate it. I tried to flash a rom on my 04sti and followed the procedure to the best of my knowledge. It ended up bricking my ecu. I shipped it to Cobb, had it unbricked. When I got it back, I called my tuner to make sure I was doing everything perfectly so I tried it again. And now it appears to be bricked again here is what I done.

- opened ecu flash
- connected green test connectors under dash
- turned on ignition
- read and saved stock rom (the one Cobb put back on for me) in case I ever need it.
- turned off ignition
- opened rom from tuner that I need flashed
- turned on ignition and wrote rom to ecu

It took about 3 or 4 minutes to write and said it completed successfully. But then when I go to start my car the solenoid next to the ecu just clicks and the cel lights flash. The car only turns over, it will not start. I have tried disconnecting battery and power to ecu. Nothing works, so it appears to be bricked again. Also, I monitored voltage during the entire process and it stayed well above 12v. Does anyone have any ideas as to what may be going on? Thanks, Garrett
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Old 09-26-2012, 10:53 AM   #2
the suicidal eggroll
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What is the Cal ID of the ROM you're flashing? It sounds like you might be flashing the wrong ROM for your ECU.

Also remember that after flashing, the ECU has to run a few diagnostics when you turn the key on, which will prevent it from starting. It's best to turn the key on and leave it for about 10 seconds before attempting to start the car after a flash. If you try to start it too soon it will just crank and crank without firing until the ECU is done performing its checks.
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Old 09-26-2012, 11:09 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gberryhill View Post
so it appears to be bricked again.
Just because it won't start doesn't mean its bricked. It's possible for a bad/wrong rom to constantly reset the ecu (clicking + CEL) without actually bricking it.

Try to reflash the stock rom you pulled from the car.
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Old 09-26-2012, 11:13 AM   #4
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I am not exactly sure what the Cal ID is, but here is an image of the rom info in ECU Flash.



https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7j_...d2c/edit?pli=1
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Old 09-26-2012, 11:17 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by izergfx View Post
Just because it won't start doesn't mean its bricked. It's possible for a bad/wrong rom to constantly reset the ecu (clicking + CEL) without actually bricking it.

Try to reflash the stock rom you pulled from the car.
I tried, but since that happened my laptop will not even recognize the ecu anymore. Is there a way i can get past that?
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Old 09-26-2012, 11:37 AM   #6
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Sounds like a brick then

Post a screenshot of the rom you pulled from the ecu after it was fixed.
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Old 09-26-2012, 12:04 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by izergfx View Post
Sounds like a brick then

Post a screenshot of the rom you pulled from the ecu after it was fixed.
I was afraid of that... Here is the stock

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B7j...HpITUNESmRzQWc
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Old 09-26-2012, 12:10 PM   #8
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Can you verify the tuned rom displays "524288 byte image read" in ecuflash? Does it display any messages regarding the checksum?
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Old 09-26-2012, 12:12 PM   #9
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You did disconnect the green test connectors after flashing correct?

The last few steps after what you posted should be:

- turned on ignition and wrote rom to ecu
- waited until "ROM flashed successfully" message
- turned off key
- disconnected green test connectors
- turned key on, waited 10+ seconds, started car
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Old 09-26-2012, 12:21 PM   #10
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Yes, I followed those steps except for waiting the 10 seconds, but as soon as my key turned to the on position it started the clicking instantly. Then my heart dropped. (another week of waiting and another 90 bucks I have to pay Cobb)
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Old 09-26-2012, 04:08 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by izergfx View Post
Can you verify the tuned rom displays "524288 byte image read" in ecuflash? Does it display any messages regarding the checksum?
I will check on this as soon as i get home, thank you guys for the help so far.
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Old 09-26-2012, 10:43 PM   #12
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Okay, opened the ROM in ECU flash and verified it does say 524288 byte image read. Any ideas?
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Old 09-26-2012, 10:53 PM   #13
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The only thing I can think of is that the ROM you're trying to flash is corrupt.

Next time, skip the tuned ROM and just flash the stock one you read back onto the ECU. Maybe make a small change, like bumping up the idle speed, and flash that.

You may also want to look into this:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=2200443
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Old 09-26-2012, 11:04 PM   #14
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One note...

I've flashed my 05 WELL over 100 times via open source using the same steps you've posted here, and have never had a problem. The closest I have ever come to a bricked ECU was when I flashed the car when the battery was low, and about halfway through the flash it started dumping out a mess of errors and then failed. I just left the key on, hooked up a battery charger, and flashed it again and it was fine.

The main difference between what I do and what I see here, is that I've never directly flashed an emailed or otherwise downloaded ROM onto my ECU. I always open the downloaded ROM and a bone stock ROM in RomRaider/ECUFlash, copy/paste the necessary tables over, and then flash that. I couldn't really tell you why. Even patches like SD, LC, or FFS...I always patch a vanilla ROM, and then copy the tuned tables into it using RR/ECUFlash before flashing.

A corrupt ROM image is the only thing I can think of for your situation at this point.
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Old 09-26-2012, 11:14 PM   #15
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you also want to remember to not do anything else with the car. Like open doors, hood, ac button. Nothing!! tripping those will cause an interruption in the write.
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Old 09-27-2012, 10:41 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by the suicidal eggroll
You may also want to look into this:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=2200443
Thanks for the link, I thought about giving this a try the first time it got bricked but my soldering skills are terrible. I'm afraid I would completely destroy my ecu. :/
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Old 09-27-2012, 10:45 AM   #17
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My tuner said he is going to attempt to flash that rom on another sti in his shop. So, I guess I will see what happens. Hopefully I can get it figured out soon. Thanks for all the info guys
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Old 10-07-2012, 07:05 PM   #18
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Did you ever get an update on this?
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Old 10-08-2012, 02:16 PM   #19
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No i wish! I am still waiting to hear back from my tuner. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. The shop i use is about 2 hours away from me so I cant afford to have the car hauled there right now. I'm hoping that I can ship them my ECU and have them fix it.
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Old 10-09-2012, 04:03 AM   #20
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Your cal-id is A2ZJ500J, EcuFlash just calls it "Internal ID" in the ROM info section.

I am really curious what's gone wrong here. I'm up to about 200 flashes on my ECU now, but stuff like this still worries me a little, because it would ruin my day... My guess is that the file you got from your tuner was corrupted at some point, but that's just a guess.

Did you verify that the ECU worked before you tried reflashing? I mean, were you able to start the engine and idle, for example?

While you wait for your ECU to come back, try downloading another copy of your stock ROM from the archive at RomRaider (there's a sub-forum with stock ROMs, find the one with the same cal-id) and compare that to the ROM file that you read from the ECU. Put both files into the same directory and open up a command line window, and run this command:

fc /b YourRomFile.bin RomRaiderFile.bin

(Use the actual names of your files, of course.)

You should get a message like "no differences encountered." Or if there are differences, it will print out a bunch of numbers. If they're different, that would indicate that data was corrupted in the transfer from your ECU to your laptop, which would suggest that data may also have been garbled when your laptop sent your tuner's ROM to your ECU.

Come to think of it, you should also ask your tuner to email you another copy of the same ROM file that he sent you, and run "fc /b" on both copies. If they're different, then one copy was corrupted in transit.

Before flashing again, try doing a test write, and verify that you get no errors when that process completes. If you do a test write of the exact same file that you just read from your ECU, EcuFlash should end with a message that says the ECU's ROM matches the file that it just pretended to write. If it reports that they are different, then something is wrong, and you should NOT attempt a real write. I'd guess that your cable is hosed if that happens.
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Old 10-23-2012, 09:43 PM   #21
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NSFW, I did verify that the ECU worked properly when it returned from COBB. The car started and idled. I followed your instructions and checked for differences between the rom i saved, and the correct stock rom from the romraider forums. There were no differences encountered. I downloaded another copy of the rom i need and compared it with the one i tried to flash, also no differences. I am not sure that it matters but my tuner named the rom with spaces in the name. I had to use quotations in the command prompt to get it to recognize the files when comparing. Does this matter at all?

Last edited by gberryhill; 10-23-2012 at 10:28 PM.
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Old 10-23-2012, 10:06 PM   #22
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Please make sure neither of those are pro tuned maps if you are posting them for all to see.

Last edited by simon021; 10-27-2012 at 11:10 AM.
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Old 10-23-2012, 10:32 PM   #23
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Quote:
Originally Posted by simon021 View Post
Please make sure neither of those are pro tuned maps if you are posting them for all to see.
Links removed from post. Sorry, I didn't know that was not allowed.
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Old 10-23-2012, 11:50 PM   #24
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Open your stock rom, and the pro-tuned rom and copy everything from the pro rom to the stock one.

itll solve your bricking issue.
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Old 10-24-2012, 12:31 AM   #25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gberryhill View Post
NSFW, I did verify that the ECU worked properly when it returned from COBB. The car started and idled. I followed your instructions and checked for differences between the rom i saved, and the correct stock rom from the romraider forums. There were no differences encountered. I downloaded another copy of the rom i need and compared it with the one i tried to flash, also no differences. I am not sure that it matters but my tuner named the rom with spaces in the name. I had to use quotations in the command prompt to get it to recognize the files when comparing. Does this matter at all?
If the files are all identical, then the problem isn't the file. There's something going wrong when you're reflashing. I don't know what it could be, though.

Spaces in the filename don't matter, I'm sure of that. The filename never gets sent to the ECU.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Black94Snake View Post
Open your stock rom, and the pro-tuned rom and copy everything from the pro rom to the stock one.

itll solve your bricking issue.
Generally a good idea, but in this case I am not so sure...
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