What are your thoughts on getting a new ECU for flashing and keeping the original ECU in stock condition? Any point in doing this or is it a pointless move? Any downside to doing this?

 

The 997.2TTS is pretty close to the max right now, esp with the pdk. The risk of voiding your warranty is not worth it, just do a simple exhaust.

 

I had the same question in my mind.. I have a 997 turbo cab. Can the dealer tell when the ecu has been swapped in and out?

 

The only problem is the mismatch btwn hrs of operation and miles when you go back and forth. It is also readily apparent to the dealer that the ecu has been swapped (as is flashing), sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

 

That sucks! There's no winning huh?
Now, warranty aside, is there any benefit to flashing a brand new ECU? This way, I always have a "stock" ECU to revert back to. Can't think of when I'll need to do that, but this way I can flash and reflash the new ECU and maintain a 100% stock unit.
Pointless?
Even if it is pointless, any downside to using a new flashed ECU and one day if I decide to revert the car back to stock, I can reinsert the stock ECU?

 

What I would propose is something like a Softronic tune. That enables you to flash back to OEM any time you see fit. The flash back to OEM is the original program (as opposed to some other vendors that change the tuned maps to reflect OEM operation/settings - if that makes sense). Additionally there's no need to have the vendor do it for you - Flashing can be done in your garage, with the ODB cable (provided) and your laptop, so there's no down time, and flashing back and forth can be done as often as needed.

 

I keep reading that even the flashes that can be flashed back to stock can be detected by the dealer. Therefore, I assume that means that it's still not 100% stock. As a result, I think the safest way would be to keep the stock ECU and do anything I want to do with the new ECU. I also won't have to worry about any downtime if I happen to brick my ECU.

I think I just have too much time on my hands and doing unnecessary things.

 

There are only two reasons why an owner would want to clone their ECU - the most likely is to tune the ECU, have have the ability to mislead either the service tech or PCNA if a warranty event occurred.

It is usually best to try and establish a good relationship with your service department. Most are fairly forgiving in the event a problem occurs. A close inspection by a trained tech or a rep from PCNA will typically reveal any alterations....either a mismatched hours/mileage ratio or an abnormal programming operations. The suspicion of alterations to the ECU programming is typically sufficient for PCNA to look deeper. And while you wait for claim to be mitigated, you car sits in the shop for days, weeks, months. It is not worth the trouble.

When I tuned my 997TT, I purchased a cloned ECU of my VIN from Stephen Kaspar. The only reason I did this was my tuner actually modifies the ECU's hardware to do their tune, and I wanted another ECU in the event I decided to switch to a tuner who used memory flashing.

 

Actually, the reason I ask this is I have already bought a 2nd ECU and it is being flashed as we speak. Jumped the gun. Really should've checked with you guys first. So, now I have a stock untouched ECU and a 2nd already paid for and flashed ECU. If there is no downside, I will just use the 2nd flashed ECU, however, if there is a downside, I will have to pay more to flash my stock ECU and then I'll have a 2nd flashed ECU to use as decor.

 

I'm hoping I did something that has some benefit, but at this point, I'm really hoping I didn't make the wrong move and wasted money on an ECU and flash.

 

No worries. That's part of the modding business. Wait to you get to exhausts. I'm probably going to be on my third one soon--lol. There are folks who have a second ECU for the purposes you mentioned. In addition to what TTSurgeon said about hrs and miles not being consistent, I was always curious if simply the miles read by PIWIS or Durametric would match with what is displayed on the dashboard odometer? That would be a dead giveaway if it doesn't. Maybe you can let us know if you ever install the second ECU.

 

I think you can get only hours of operations out of ECU. So 2 cars with 20,000mile on ODO will not return same number of hours.

 

Mileage is stored in the odometer. Hours of use is stored in the ECU.

If you swap ECUs, and run a 10K miles on a tuned ECU, then swap back, your miles/hour ratio will look odd when you put the stock ECU back in.

 

Thanks guys. Some cars have the odometer readings stored in multiple places for obvious reasons. I didn't know if they were also stored on the DME in some location that only PIWIS can access.

 

This vin specific ecu really makes it impossible to sell your flash or program to someone else if you no longer want it or are parting the car. Makes the cost of the tune that much expensive considering you can recover a reasonable percentage of the cost of most mods from selling it when you no longer want it.