jimcol711

i just wanted to share an experience i had this weekend with my car, although it isnt an acura, possible something similar is available for acuras?

i am very suprised and pleased with what happend. it came to my knowledge that within the ECU of my A6, there were plenty of neat little tweaks that can be adjusted, different settings, etc. all you need is this tool they call VAG-COM. its a program for a laptop (also available for palm pilot) used with a cable that plugs into the OBD system on the car and it gives the user the ability to access, view, and make changes to anything and everything on the ECU that a dealer would be able to do. you can review and delete all trouble codes, change settings for any and all systems in the car, etc. is there such a tool for Acura?

anyways, heres what we did. within the ECU, there are optional programs for the tiptronic transmission, this was by far the most effective mod ive done to this car...and at no cost whatsoever!! it was as simple as changing a code from "00002" to "00032" and that simple change gave the following results. Firmer shifts, gears are held out longer. elimination of "gear-hunting" in tranny. and, my favorite, the ability to fully control 1st gear in tiptronic mode. these settings are preprogrammed into the ECU and are just not enabled from the factory. so unless you know they exist, youd never unlock that potential. its incredible the result, seat of the pants difference is VERY noticable in the way the tranny performs and has easily given the car more pep.

additionally, the Bose stereo had some hidden features as well. again, by changing a few 5 digit codes, the bass ability of the system has SIGNIFICANTLY been increased (its easily comperable to the difference noticed when adding an infinity basslink to an acura CL-S...no kidding) and the display screen now can scroll the names of the artist and the track names of songs played on the radio as long as the station you are listening to broadcasts a special signal that contains the text.

last but not least, i changed the way my key FOB works so that i can open and close my windows and sunroof with buttons on the FOB, as well as setting it to unlock all doors with one touch, instead of two.


for as long as i had my acura CL-S, i never heard about stuff like this, is it true? or has no one really dug deep enough into the ECU to find this sort of thing?

my A6 continues to impress me all the time and after this weekend, its again, like a new car. and all these changes didnt cost me a penny, thats the best part. any of you guys looking to trade, take a LONG HARD look at audi. the A6 2.7T is quite an amazing car with nearly endless potential no less.

fuzzy02CLS

iTrader: (2)

I thought I read the Acura ECU is not programable. Which is why no one makes a "chip" for it.

JRock

I'm quite familiar with the Audi ECUs' tunability and hidden features after spending several months on AudiWorld forums, and no, the ECU in the CL does not have nearly the same amount of features or tweaks built it, though what it does control can of course be altered through a piggy-back controller like what A-pexi makes.

The Audis have a lot more changeable info stored in the ECU. I think Acura just has the ECU control things but not store so much inside it. For example I'm pretty sure any and all Bose system tuning/changing/etc on an Acura is done through the headunit itself, not through the ECU.

Ray Khan

the VAG software connects to the OBD2 port. I don't think it's actually controlling all the features available through the ECU. It is a helluva tool. If you know what you are doing, you can mess with adaptation value and "tune" the car a little bit. There is now some more user friendly software on the forefront for tuning the car through the OBD2 port. I know in general the bosch motronic system is quite elaborate. I believe the manual is 7000 pages or so. Vishnu tuning has already put out some great products for the WRX and EVO that put a piggy back to shame. I know they have used something similar on a turbo porsche motronic ECU. They claimed they got 120 hp by custom tuning the car. This is 30 more hp than another tuner's generic porsche turbo chip. So when vishnu releases this capability, things should really get interesting. The EVO product cost $850. Not bad considering audi chips run $450-$800. Porsche chips run $3000 or so. With this hardware from vishnu, you basically have stand along capability with the stock ECU. So stock safety features and more precide maps. You don't have a piggy back fighting the ECU. Anyways, this product sounds pretty cool. Would be nice if they come out with an Acura ECU solution.