I have a 2009 997.1TT and recently had to change my exhaust and reflash back to stock for CA Smog test.

While flashing my ECM my laptop went into "sleep mode" and interupted the file transfer. I was using my wifes laptop and turned off the screen saver but failed to set sleep and hibernate to "never". My laptop is a corprate one and I can not load software on it without ITs' approval so I used my wifes!

The vendor was very helpful and was able to get me a recovery file emailed to me in a few days. I uploaded the recovery file and things seemed to be fine.

Went to smog and secondary air system was not "ready". Searched here and decided to put 200 miles on her and still not ready. 5AM Sunday on freeway disconnected battery and reconnected and did an exact driving cycle, still not ready.

I took it to my Indy Mech who had cleared my airbag light before with his PIWI 1, he plugged my car into the PIWI 1 and it could not read my ECM, came up with a blank screen.

I have contacted the Mfg of the Tune software to ask for help and will wait to hear from them before I jump up and down.

Does anyone have similiar experience or have any proven fixes for my apparent blunder? I have time to ship my ECM anywhere if it can be saved.

Thank you for your ideas..

 

Chances are the indy's "PIWI 1" is not the genuine article but a clone/copy and may not be able to deal with this situation.

You might end up having to have the car's ECU flashed back to "stock" at a dealer then apply the "tune" flash.

Or run with the stock flash long enough to get the readiness monitors all set to complete so you can get the car through smog then afterwards put the "tune" flash image in.

If the dealer with its genuine Porsche diagnostic computer is unable to communicate with your car's ECU then you may have to explore sending the unit out for a repair. For this check the ads in Excellence for the names of businesses that specialize in this service.

 

Thanks Macster.... Ya, I think the dealer may be my next step. I have over 250 miles on it and then did an exact Porsche driving cycle and it still won't "ready" itself so I don't think that is an option any longer.

You may have somethng there Macster, his PIWI 1 may not be the real deal, however, he was able to read it 3 months ago when he reset my airbag light with no issue and only charged me $20.00! Not sure if it reads the same area or my logic would even apply?

Today the tuner asked me to hook up their software and see if I could "read" the oem recovery file that was in the car now and check to see if it reads the correct VIN. I did this afternoon and the VIN number matched. The tuner has respectfully run out of ideas which I don't fault them at this point. A little disapointed but I am the one who screwed it up.

My Indy Tech did also suggest that a PDealer may be able to flash an OEM tune on my ECM so I could get past smog. And yes, I would reflash the ECM with the performance file and make sure I turn the "Sleep and Hibernate" settings on my wifes laptop to "Never" so I don't interupt the upoad again, DOAHHHHH !

When you suggest I "check the ads in Excellence", I assume you are referring to the Vendor section here? Or, did I miss something with my secret decoder ring? It's also been acting up lately.. Anyone you might suggest in So Cal (OC) ?

I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks again.

 

Porsche doesn't release info on its DME's. Whoever writes the software for its diagnostic tools gets this under non-disclosure and that's it. (I sometimes write automotive test equipment software/firmware and tried to get the info from Porsche to add some Porsche specific features to something I was working on and Porsche simply doesn't supply this info even though I offered to sign a non-disclosure agreement.)

While it is rather easy -- relatively speaking -- to reverse engineer some of the Porsche diagnostic computer behavior/communication the situation you encountered I think is pretty rare and not something easily produced in order to reverse engineer the action/behavior of the Porsche diagnostic computer and replicate this in a clone/copy diagnostic tool.

Anyhow, the DME still works at some level or the engine would not run.

However, the image is not 100% correct I think. My stock 2003 996 Turbo can reset all its readiness monitors to complete in just a 30 mile drive (commute) from my home to office with me doing nothing more than than just avoiding hot rodding the car any. Occasionally the engine RPMs exceed 4K too but I don't use enough throttle the DME has to revert to open loop mode in order to satisfy the torque demand I'm making with the gas pedal.

My comment to check the ads in Excellence was in reference to ads in Excellence magazine and the ads are ads by companies that specialize in DME repair. You raised the possibiity the DME might need repair in your first post and while I have high hopes the problems with your car/DME can be sorted out without sending the DME out for repair -- though you would talk to someone before hand to see if this was really necessary -- I was just preparing you just in case.

 

Just wanted to give an update on this. I decided to try a drive cycle one more time before going to a dealer. I was able to do the drive cycle exactly as described in this forum. I drove 25 miles back home and checked ODBII and the secondary air system was still not ready.

I drove it another 100 + miles in the next week cruising on freeway, was making arrangements to leave at a dealer for a few days. Thought what the heck, checked it one last time and all systems where GO !

Took it to smog station and everything was good!

So good news for me & I will never use my wifes computer again without turning off, screensaver, sleep timer and hibernate timer when flashing my tune.

Thanks for your help..

 

Thanks for the update and glad you got it sorted out.