My 2002 k16 car came with a 1 bar flash from an unknown vendor when I purchased it. I will soon be putting my EBWerks exhaust back on (this time with mufflers) and I want to get the most out of my new setup.
My question is, can a vendor flash an ECU without having the stock image available? Also, is upgrading from a stock exhaust to a catless 3" x-pipe a significant enough reason to re-flash?
I e-mailed Tony at EPL with this question but he never replied so I am reaching out to the forum to see if anyone has had a similar experience and how they resolved it.

 

I'd suggest also checking out Kevin at UMW and also searching the forum for feedback on flashes.
Seems as though EPL is also highly regarded but UMW gets kudo's for customer service.
I just flashed my car with UMW's tune and couldn't be happier.

 

Put the exhaust on first.... if you dont get a CEL then keep it ... otherwise we are here to help you..

 

I too had a 1 bar flash from an unknown. I think it was an older flash. When I did reflash the car it ran noticeably better. I am thinking that the tuner learned something in the last ten years

 

I'm so sorry; I don't know how this happened but I didn't get your response. Thanks for the fast reply here though! Since EBWerks has an extended bung (insert Beavis and Butthead laughter here) for the 2nd O2 sensor the CEL isn't a problem so I guess I don't need a new flash but I think I want one from you since after doing some research online the prevailing opinion seems to be that EPL is one of the best.
Can you PM me about the best way to go about getting a reflash from EPL?

Thanks to everyone for all the replies. As a relatively new owner this forum has been invaluable so far!

 

I would definitely recommend a reflash with ebwerks exhaust. I had it on my stock turbo and saw a noticeable gain in power. With stock exhaust I would only hit .6 boost, with the fvd with 200 or 300 cell cats I saw .6 consistently and sometimes .7, and with ebwerks I saw a consistent .7 and occasionally even a .8. I think to extract the most out of the exhaust you should have a tune adjusted for that free flowing exhaust.

 

If you bought your car out of state, you might want to consider a re-flash as well. I've read a lot of people buying a car tuned for different octanes (91, 93,94, etc) which is not available in their area.

 

No it's a California car so it was likely flashed for 91 already.

Well, when I had the EB exhaust on last time boost went to 1.1 but nothing went wrong with CEL or performance. Actually performance was fantastic but I am going to go with an EPL flash once I get the mufflers installed because of their reputation and just to be sure it is optimized.