Austincurtis160
Member
Looking to get some tuning done. Should I send out the ecu or buy mods and mod it myself. ALH TDI lots of upgrades.
Ecu tuning or chipping
- Thread starter Austincurtis160
- Start date
Powder Hound
Top Post Dawg
- Joined
- Oct 25, 1999
- Location
- Under a Bridge, Crestview, FL, USA
- TDI
- '00 Golf 4dr White 5sp, '02 Jettachero 5sp, Wife's '03 NB Platinum Gray auto(!)
Way back in the dark ages, called the dark ages because it was in the days of the knights (sorry, I couldn't resist), automotive computers were made with memory consisting of PROM (programmable read only memory). The car's computer was programmed by burning a one-time only memory chip and inserting it into a socket on the motherboard.
Then, we mere mortals were given the EPROM (electronically programmable read only memory), which allowed the memory chip to be rewritten many times by erasing them. This was followed by the EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory) and the real show was on.
The rest is packaging. That is, at some point, the memory became integrated into the CPU chip instead of in a separate chip. When this happened, the board was no longer programmable separately from the motherboard, and even though you could no longer easily swap chips from the socketed memory chip, nor remove the chip, reprogram it, and then resolder it on to the motherboard (hence the term 'chipping the computer'), you could still reprogam the computer by using equipment that interfaced with the board and did it all without having to solder anything.
Well.
In the same manner as 'dialing a phone' is still used even though people haven't used actual rotary dials in decades, 'chipping' the car is no longer done.
Chipping ended a couple of decades ago for these cars.
Yours, a 2002 by your signature, can be modified via buying a programmer and buying a modified program load to insert, or by physically removing your ECU box and mailing it to a reprogrammer.
You only need to choose who to do the modifications after figuring out what you want done, and then picking the method you want to use.
It sounds like you just need to do some research and then decide which way you want to go.
Good luck, lots of choices out there...
Cheers,
PH
PS: Sorry for the verbosity in my answer, just was thinking it might be fun to recap for some people who don't know the history.
Then, we mere mortals were given the EPROM (electronically programmable read only memory), which allowed the memory chip to be rewritten many times by erasing them. This was followed by the EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory) and the real show was on.
The rest is packaging. That is, at some point, the memory became integrated into the CPU chip instead of in a separate chip. When this happened, the board was no longer programmable separately from the motherboard, and even though you could no longer easily swap chips from the socketed memory chip, nor remove the chip, reprogram it, and then resolder it on to the motherboard (hence the term 'chipping the computer'), you could still reprogam the computer by using equipment that interfaced with the board and did it all without having to solder anything.
Well.
In the same manner as 'dialing a phone' is still used even though people haven't used actual rotary dials in decades, 'chipping' the car is no longer done.
Chipping ended a couple of decades ago for these cars.
Yours, a 2002 by your signature, can be modified via buying a programmer and buying a modified program load to insert, or by physically removing your ECU box and mailing it to a reprogrammer.
You only need to choose who to do the modifications after figuring out what you want done, and then picking the method you want to use.
It sounds like you just need to do some research and then decide which way you want to go.
Good luck, lots of choices out there...
Cheers,
PH
PS: Sorry for the verbosity in my answer, just was thinking it might be fun to recap for some people who don't know the history.
jmodge
Top Post Dawg
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2015
- Location
- Greenville, MI
- TDI
- 2001 alh Jetta, RC2 w/.205's 5speed daily summer commuter and 2000 alh Jetta 5spd swap, 2" lift, hitch, stage 3 TDtuning w/.216's winter cruiser, 1996 Tacoma ALh
One other option, same cereal different bowl, is to drive your car to a tuner and have it downloaded by them through your diagnostic port
jmodge
Top Post Dawg
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2015
- Location
- Greenville, MI
- TDI
- 2001 alh Jetta, RC2 w/.205's 5speed daily summer commuter and 2000 alh Jetta 5spd swap, 2" lift, hitch, stage 3 TDtuning w/.216's winter cruiser, 1996 Tacoma ALh
Tell them the modifications you’ve done, what you will use it for and how you will drive it, and let them do their thing
Curious Chris
Top Post Dawg
Yes no intention to start tuner wars. I worked with Jeff at RocketChip and he would ask the following questions: what injectors, what turbo, what other mods like FMIC and what do you want in the tune: max power don't care about smoke, max power with low smoke etc.
And yes now the tuning can be done through the diagnostic port by your left knee, though there was a time (Upsolute was an early tuner) and he would open the the control box and remove the EEPROM and reflash it and put it back in, close to 20 years ago.
And yes now the tuning can be done through the diagnostic port by your left knee, though there was a time (Upsolute was an early tuner) and he would open the the control box and remove the EEPROM and reflash it and put it back in, close to 20 years ago.