The issue started a few months ago where my 997 was having cold misfires. The engine light would come on and the reading was multiple misfires. Otherwise, the car ran fine. I then changed the coils, plugs, air filter, temp sensor, battery, MAF sensor and solenoid valve adjusters. The cold start misfires would not go away. Finally, I had the car boroscoped and the Porsche dealer did not find anything wrong with the engine. After 12 hours of diagnostics at Porsche dealer, it came down to the clutch or reprograming the DME and losing the Softronic flashing. I decided to go with reprograming the DME which was the less expensive option. Since reprograming the DME, the car has not had any cold misfires. No one has ever touched the DME since the Softronic software flashing. According to the Porsche dealer, the Softronic software was corrupted.

In hindsight, it would have been easy to have the DME flashed back to Porsche default, however I did not realise that the Softronic software could get corrupted.

I then contacted Softronic to see if they would stand behind their product and compensate me for months of headaches and thousands of dollars spent.
After many exchange of emails, Scott from Softronic contacted the Porsche dealer and confirmed my story but still did not offer any compensation.Obviously, I am not a happy customer and I would now think twice before using the Softronic flashing software ever again.

 

just curious, who installed the Softronics software? they should have a copy of your original file and put it back to stock and then send scott the corrupted file to see if it can be re-programmed. sorry for your time and $$ lost

 

This seems like a logical suggestion...unfortunately we never get the whole story in just 3 paragraphs - I'm sure there's more to it. Did OP contact Softronics before he started down the expensive diagnostic path?

 

The Op forgot to mentioned he purchased the car from the original owner that installed the software back in 2009. He purchased the car from him in 2010 and basically contacted me a couple weeks ago after it being in the car for over 5 years and explained the situation. I mentioned it has been 5 years and the software doesn't get corrupt and would have done this when it was initially installed if it had a problem. I also have no control over the car and what is done to it between 2 owners and that time frame.
The file that is installed in the car is check summed and if it somehow was altered without the checksum being re calculated the car wouldn't run. The dealer by flashing it would have re-written the same file as the orig would be yet it also resets the learning parameters. The resetting may have fixed the issue in the DME yet the file isn't going to change or get corrupted pure and simple. Softronic provides a file in which is the same as the Dealer would have loaded yet either Tuned or Stock. The Map is separate from the learning parameters of the DME itself. The issue may also be that the Dual mass is no good and it has not caused the issue again yet since the timing etc is not as high and as mentioned the DME was reset.


I tried to explain to the OP about programming and checksums etc yet he was not interested. I was also contacted after all the work was done and much of what is listed shouldn't have been done for misfires. The Dealer also stated the car had been taken to other places prior...

The only confirmation with the Service manager of the Dealer was it was re-flashed and doesn't know what it specifically does or changes and that the problem may still be there and I have more knowledge in this type of matter. The Softronic map in which is an altered stock map cant get any more corrupt than an original Porsche map as installed by the factory. Since there is no defect in the product, the age of it being flashed , 2nd owner and so On, no I would not offer any compensation.

Best Regards,
Scott

 

Thank you for the explanation.

2009 - ECU Flashed by first owner
2010 - OP bought car as 2nd owner
2015 - car misfires, assumed flash corrupted, demand compensation
Compensation denied - Joined 6sp, with 1 post throwing reputable vendor under the bus

 

+1 for Scott. Always went above and beyond for me with the tune on my C4s that was heavily modified. He knows his ****

 

another +1 for Scott. He is here to help on the software side, no doubt.
Ive seen different makes of cars on very rare occasions not take to a tune well throwing codes,etc.


A tuner can never be held responsible for labor associated charges.
All that aside, im sorry for the OP as I wouldn't want to run around chasing issues either. I would have returned the car to stock and drove on it a while.

 

Scott, thanks for the info. Its always hard to get things right just by listening to one side. I've seen way too many posts like these over at a Benz site.
You might want to get things straight on the identical post on ren......

 

+1 Scott

 

I paid the original owner $1000 for the cable and the software when I bought the car. I have had the car since 2010 and have never flashed it back to stock. I understand that it is easier to come up with reasons not to support your products than to actually support it. Had I know that software could get corrupted, I would have flashed it myself before taking it to the dealer. The Porsche top mechanic spend 12 hours working on the car and the only thing that fixed the cold start misfire was flashing the ECU to stock.This issue cost me over $4000 to fix and I was looking for Softronic to at least refund me $1,000, the cost of the software and cable. I am willing to ship back the cable.


Below is a post from another Porsche owner with similar problem:


rennlist.com/forums/997-forum/447920-cel-misfire-after-softronic-flash-upgrade.html

 

[QUOTE=Wally K;4269875]I paid the original owner $1000 for the cable and the software when I bought the car. I have had the car since 2010 and have never flashed it back to stock. I understand that it is easier to come up with reasons not to support your products than to actually support it. Had I know that software could get corrupted, I would have flashed it myself before taking it to the dealer. The Porsche top mechanic spend 12 hours working on the car and the only thing that fixed the cold start misfire was flashing the ECU to stock.This issue cost me over $4000 to fix and I was looking for Softronic to at least refund me $1,000, the cost of the software and cable. I am willing to ship back the cable.


Below is a post from another Porsche owner with similar problem:



How is it that your username changed from the original post to your latest post? What is going on here?

 

This user and his pseudo username have been banned...having multiple usernames, especially just to flame a vendor or another member is a permanent banning offense...thread closed