I read on the Superhonda forum that, from time to time (after mods, season change, etc.) it's a good idea to disconnect your negative battery cable for 30+ seconds to allow your ECU to reset (i.e., forget old data). The guy seemed to know what he's talking about, but I was just cruising the site.

Anyone done this/heard of it/think it's worth about 10hp?

 

I have tried this and it made no difference.

The ECU is always adjusting - that is why you see people run numerous dynos with the same TSX and they can differ greatly even when run back to back.

 

Interesting. I see you have the Hondata reflash. I wonder if that is more of a firmware upgrade that wouldn't be affected when you disconnected the battery, or would you lose everything.

 

I don't know exactly what is reset and what isn't, but the nature of the reflash is, I think, unaffected by disconnecting the battery. Surely you don't have to have your ECU reflashed (including whatever settings come from the factory if you don't have the Hondata reflash) if you install a new battery or do some other service that requires disconnecting the battery (or, say, if your battery goes completely dead).

I'll probably disconnect the negative cable when I install headers next weekend (for safety's sake) -- so I guess we'll see!

 

No you won't lose the reflash it is stored in non volatile memory.

I heard you don't have to reset the ECU either. The ECU will adjust dynamically.

 

Yeah, that's what I figured. Thanks for the dialogue, I figured this was something that wasn't necessary for the TSX.

 

This is true and in fact I would suspect that an ECU reset may cause a loss in power temporarily. As the ECU learns how far it can advance ignition timing before knocking occurs, it walks that line in order to eek out as much performance from your fuel as it can. Resetting it puts it back to the default points. All the adaptating it did to your CAI/header/exhaust and the high quality fuel in the tank will be erased and it will take a little while to re-learn that.

Honda ECUs are smarter than we are.

 

Hehehe