Hi,

is there here anybody with softronic ECU flash who got current 2010/2011 inspection sticker with no issues?

i had some repairs done on my car and then flashed it back and forth couple of times, so issue seems to be apparently that now when mechanic connects this state issued crap ODB2 reader to a car it wants all systems to be in 'ready' state and only allow2 2 of all systems to show as 'not ready' or they fail inspection.

when i look with durametric in engine section 'ready status' it appears if you have softronic tune installed it always shows 'o2 sensors' as 'fail' or not ready. that does mean automatic fail of inspection. if i put on original ecu code with 200 cell cats i got O2 sensors related cel once and did not try to do it again.

so essentially i want to know - is there here anybody from MA preferably who has softronic flash and got 2010 inspection done with no problems?
can you pls look with durametric or into 2nd page of printout they give you, where you had inspection sticker - it has list of systems with 'ready' or 'not ready' codes - what do you have there for 'o2 sensors monitor'?

regards, Paul.

PS. not sure what state did but something must have changed as last year i had softronic tune on and passed inspection with no issues at same mechanic shop i used in 2009 and tried to use this year. not sure what has changed.

 

It depends - some states require all the OBD sensors to be ready - some will accept 1 or 2 that are in a not ready or failed status.

If you recently reflashed or reset your sensors, cleared all the errors, or removed the battery, it can take up to 100 miles before the sensors go from not ready to ready status again.

b

 

yep, but i drove to lime rock and back last Friday, total of 400 miles or so, 'O2 sensors' in durametric were still show status 'fail'. so it does not seem if 'o2 sensors monitor' ever comes back into 'ready' state if softronic flash is on.
when i flashed car back to stock it gave me 0420 code (or something like that, 'insufficient catalyst error') - so i ordered O2 extension tubes, they will arrive later this week. with extensions i will put on stock flash and it should work just fine hopefully.
I was generally curios if anybody knew of any inspection rules change as i definitely was able to pass inspections last year with no issues whatsoever having softronic flash on.

 

I don't know about the inspection, but have a set of the extnders. They worked for a little while, then it stopped and the CEL came on. Have you contact Scott Slauson? He might be able to share some of his knowledge on the subject.

 

he is on vacation somewhere, i sent him a message he replied in not very understandable way like 'you do not need to flash back to stock' - but i see what i see.

again, i suspect inspection rules may have changed. i think i found papers from last year inspection and on those papers 'o2 sensors monitor' system is also showing up as 'not ready' but i passed inspection fine.

so all i can try to do this year is to put extensions and put on stock flash.
what cels do you get with extenders? same 0430/0420 'Catalyst efficiency' crap? if extenders do not work - is there any cheap o2 sensor simulator for sale?

 

I was getting an error indicating the air flow lambda from the O2 Sensor A to Sensor B too high.

When Softronic did the flash, it allowed for a higher amount of air to flow between those two and haven't seen the CEL since.

 

not sure about the 997 but the 996 and 993 have to go through a drive cycle to re-set the 'not ready' mode, its not as simple as just driving a hundred miles or so, the 993 is almost impossible to do, the 996 one is almost as hard, i spent half an hour on the mass pike at various speeds and stopped in order to complete it

this is a common drive cycle, its what i was told to use for my 996 http://www.srlx.com/p-car/obdii_readiness.pdf

 

hmm. interesting. so system is smart enough to notice you are fooling an after cat sensor... hmm. well, it will be some fun then to get it sorted out.

 

very interesting.

so I guess core question is - if there is ANYBODY here who has softronic flash and do have durametric and had a car without ECU reset for quite a while - at least several months - could you please check what is your O2 sensors monitor system readyness status?

 

System doesn't know anything other then what the program tells it. Softronic's program allowed for the rate of air flow between the two sensors to be greater then what it was with the OEM program.

 

I've had mine flashed for a long time and not reset in months and maybe 1-2k miles. It has always shown them NOT READY. I think it is part of softronic. I have not gone back to stock to see if they would show ready.

 

OK, here is an update. In MA for 2006 cars you will pass inspection if you have all but 1 system in 'ready' state. So after I drove car a bit and let it run on idle 'tank vent' system finally got ready and i passed inspection.
This time i did stay close to that state issued computer and saw how it works - it has no inputs, no adjustments and no output to screen regarding process.
Again - IT DOES NOT CARE of O2 sesnsors, emissions, etc system state. If inspection mechanic says otherwise - it is clear BS. System does not care.
it only asks mechanic if they confirm car looks legit then it goes into 'metering' stage and when it finishes it prints out sticker and only then you can see on the printout itself if you passed or not. So this final time it printed out paper with most systems in 'Ready' state.

Other than that - I just had a chat with Scott, he made a new file that will have all systems in default 'Ready' state immediately after flash, so if you want - contact him and ask for this updated file. Scott is a top guy and will definitely help you.

Again, to avoid any misunderstanding, I have softronic flash on my car since 2009 and never had any issues with it, went to dealer several times, it was fine all the time. Only problems I got recently were related to dead coil on 2nd cylinder and ECU resets dealer did that forced systems into Not Ready state. And apparently it takes plenty of time for all this stuff to come back, but it got nothing to do with Softronic, that is how Porsche ECUs work.

With new softronic file it should be simpler now - you can just flash it over and get systems ready right away, if I got it right. Will try it tomorrow.

 

flashing back will force systems into not ready again and it will take time for them to come back.
again, core of the problem for me was - i do not drive it on street much anymore and in order for systems to come back to 'ready' car mush be driven some relatively significant amount of miles and for some systems like tank ventilation it is even more complicated - like certain time running, certain time at idle, etc. dark voodoo.

from practical perspective - if you disconnected battery recently or did reset CEL in durametric or PIWIS - if you have no durametric to check systems status prior to connecting to state computer ask mechanic to read systems status with usual ODB2 reader. it will be able to show how many systems are currently in 'ready' state and how many are not ready. on my car it was able to read 5 systems and in the end 4 of them went 'ready', after about of total of 3 days and 400 miles. go figure.
and again, it takes same amount of time with softronic or without it for most systems to get 'ready'. my problem was tank ventilation - not sure why but it took a lot of time for it to come back.

 

I thought those new HJS cats on your Fabspeed X-pipe were not supposed to cause or trigger CEL's on a stock ECU? Were they causing CEL's before you did the softronic, or did you just discover the CEL recently when you flashed back to stock.

 

yes, i got P0420 recently when i went back to stock flash to test it. no idea why. keep in mind i`ve been killing car pretty bad those 3 years. plus after i had dead coil on 2nd cylinder i had to drive back home 3 hours with car misfiring. it is possible i could damage cats on first bank during this drive if raw gas was going there. who knows.

all in all with softronic flash no CELs will ever come up, car runs great so it does not matter. if I will have to flash back to stock for in-dealer service i will put on extender tubes for O2 after cat sensors and hopefully it will fix that. or i can put on original stock cats, i still have them. but i hope i will not have to do any of that. will see.