ECU - Chipped

Hello to everyone. I'm new on here, having only just found this site today, having owned a 2004 1.9 JTD GT for the past 6 months.

What a cracking site! I'm no mechanic, but can see that there are many of you out there who are more than happy to dabble with the maze beneath the bonnet!

Already found a solution on here to the stuttering electric wondow problem, and come 5pm will be hopefully fixing the said problem on mine with the 10 second reset.

Anyway, another problem where I am seeking advice if anyone has come across this.

Brought the car without knowing that the ECU has been chipped. Wasnt told, and wouldnt have known what to look for. Over the past 6 months, I have had the ECU failure message pop up twice, both times whilst on runs. The message corresponded with a drastic loss of power. Car was still drivable, but like driving a tractor. Strangely, over 24 hours, the problem seemed to go away, and normal service was resumed. I took it to a dealer, and was told that the ECU chip had been replaced with a 'power' chip of some description. They were able to reset the error message, but their diagnostics were unable to work on the new chip. They informed me that the error was a turbo charger power surge (or something like that), so I guess that the engine management then shut down the turbo, hence the power dropping to that of a tractor.

Dealer asked me where it was chipped, but obviously I couldnt answer. Does anyone have any advice?

Can I get this changed back to an AR chip? Any idea what these cost?

Apart from this, and driving with caution for when it will happen again, just love the car. Was going to go for a BMW 325, but now know that I made the right choice.

Moved to Tuning Lounge

Can you not contact the previous owner.

Not common for many newer alfas to be "Chipped" as they are usually remapped. Where are you based.



OA

Like OA says, it's probably remapped rather than chipped.

I had the same troubles myself, a turbo pressure spike causing the ECU to shut the car down into safe mode. The guys who did the map came back and fine tuned it to bring the turbo in earlier and more gently, cutting out a lot of lag and the immense power surge. It drives a lot smoother since it was re-done.

The top 3 engine mappers people here have used are Angel Tuning, Celtic Tuning and Red Dot. Google them and give them a bell, they know Alfa engines inside out and should be able to help you out. Garages don't tend to have the software or the know-how to go monkeying about with engine settings. You could get the original map put back into the car but with a decent map the JTD engines drive like a dream.

Good luck getting it sorted.

Go to an Alfa dealer and ask to have to remaped with the original map. They will do it for a cost.

Welcome on board.

If its beem remapped rather than chipped then surely an ECU reset would take it back to factory status (not sure) but I'm sure you could try it by disconnecting battery for 15 mins(there's a thread in the GT lounge)Hope this helps.

It may be a chip by Squadra Tuning.

Thanks for your comments.

I first learnt about it from a Fiat (old Alfa) garage where I took it with the initial fault. You will need to excuse my lack of technical jargon here, but the service dept told me that car had a new non Alfa chip fitted. My understanding is that this was in place of the factory chip.

They told me to find out who had initially installed this and go to them for the problem. Unfortunately, the dealer I bought it from were unable to give me a current phone number for the private seller they took car in p-exc from. All I know is that the car was previously from Sussex.

The garage told me that although they could read the error message of a turbo boost spike, they could not make any changes to the ECU chip programming because it wasnt the Alfa chip which their software could change.

Car needs an MOT shortly, and I have that hissing noise which on here suggests the turbo hose compromised. I will ask them again to give me any info they can, eg marking on the chip to see if I can then identify the source.

I am here in Nottingham, so if anyone knows of local Tuners etc that might be able to help, even if not their own chip, then please let me know.

Thanks to all who have offered advice. Really useful.

Fozzie,surely they sold you a 150BHP car so if this is not the case then they are liable, not to mention the fact that your insurance company wouldn't be to keen on paying out on a modified car if -God forbid-something bad happened.I'd be putting pressure on them to rectify this.

Angel Tuning and Celtic Tuning do a mobile service, Red Dot are in Watford and you'd have to go to them. Any of those 3 should be able to reign in the turbo pressure for you. Those 3 firms know their stuff when it comes to Alfa engines so give them a bell and talk it over with them, they're the experts and they'll be able to tell you if it's been chipped or mapped. If it's been mapped they'll be able to read the data from the ECU and tell you who did it, when it was done and be able to fine-tune that spike out of the turbo.

Maybe I was niaive, but so hooked on the car I bought it from a well known local car dealer, but one that operates from a home base and not a forcourt. They still trade 200-300 cars pa mind you.

As it was, the car was bought as seen, with an option for a warranty which they would just buy off the shelf and add to the price. Whether they had any duty to know the car was chipped and therefore to let me know, I have no idea. I understand the insurance issue. Lets just say that at the moment, I can play dumb on the off chance I was to have a claim.

Anyhow, I'm keen to take away the risk of the repeating Boost error, and if this means going to one of these Tuners, or even buying an original Alfa ECU and taking out the current 'Chip', then I am happy that this would be the right thing to do. Anyone got any clue as to what a factory Alfa ECU costs on the off chance?

Sounds like getting one of these back in, coupled with a remap from one of these reputable companies will give me the security of a decent set-up, and one that can be corrected if any future probs occur.

Ah well mate I hope you get sorted soon. Angel did mine and I'm more than happy with it.

I doubt it has been chipped, since shipping isn't quite easy and doable with modern Alfas.
It was, probably, remaped.

Originally Posted by ALRN

If its beem remapped rather than chipped then surely an ECU reset would take it back to factory status (not sure) but I'm sure you could try it by disconnecting battery for 15 mins(there's a thread in the GT lounge)Hope this helps.

A reset wont take it to factory values since they are in a new map, recorded in the ECU memory. A reset only erases the adaptive values that the ECU learns while you drive/how you drive.

Hope it helps.

I really need to get back to the garage to find out exactly what the status is.

They certainly led me to believe that there was something attached that shouldnt have been there, and this was in place of the original. Maybe I just failed to understand. Can these 'chips' exist alongside the original ECU, or will they be in place of, or are they actually just a programming change that has been made to the original?

My understanding was that this was a new chip that was in place of the original factory chip.

Maybe I can simply pop the bonnet and look for myself. No idea what I am looking for or where mind you. Any tips?

Originally Posted by Dibby

Angel Tuning and Celtic Tuning do a mobile service, Red Dot are in Watford and you'd have to go to them. Any of those 3 should be able to reign in the turbo pressure for you. Those 3 firms know their stuff when it comes to Alfa engines so give them a bell and talk it over with them, they're the experts and they'll be able to tell you if it's been chipped or mapped. If it's been mapped they'll be able to read the data from the ECU and tell you who did it, when it was done and be able to fine-tune that spike out of the turbo.

I very much doubt Angel or Celtic could do this with the mobile tuning service.

They could be a plug-in chip that fools the ECU into dumping a load more fuel in than it should. If it's an El-cheapo one from ebay, get rid of it as quick as you can, these things kill engines. Look for something that looks a bit straggly or a box with wires coming from it, maybe wrapped in a plastic bag to keep it dry, covered in zip-ties or insulation tape? Your garage will be able to sopt this easily and unplug it for you.

Doubtful it will be a replacement ECU when remapping will be cheaper and easier. There's a zillion and one revisions of ECUs and it will have to be the exact right one for the car, too much hassle to replace the ECU really.

If there's no extra chips then it will be remapped, this can be played about with by any of the tuning companies, garages won't be able to help you here.

Your garage will know what's going on when it goes back there and will be able to tell you if it's a remap or a chip.

You can't tell without taking the ECU apart. You still may not be able to tell and may risk damaging the ECU.. I suggest you call the company you bought it from and get them to sort it out.

Originally Posted by OperationAlfa

I very much doubt Angel or Celtic could do this with the mobile tuning service.

Angel did it to mine in the car park at work and to be honest, couldn't praise them enough for the customer service. Nigel couldn't make it himself so one of the guys came out from Cardiff and fiddled about with the settings, no idea how these things work or what he did but it took a lot of the lag out and gave me ultimately more power at the top end.

Originally Posted by ALRN

If its beem remapped rather than chipped then surely an ECU reset would take it back to factory status (not sure) but I'm sure you could try it by disconnecting battery for 15 mins(there's a thread in the GT lounge)Hope this helps.

All this does is reset the adaptation settings, these are stored in the EEPROM. The actual mapping is stored in the EPROM along with the ECU's operating system.

Originally Posted by Dibby

Angel Tuning and Celtic Tuning do a mobile service, Red Dot are in Watford and you'd have to go to them. Any of those 3 should be able to reign in the turbo pressure for you. Those 3 firms know their stuff when it comes to Alfa engines so give them a bell and talk it over with them, they're the experts and they'll be able to tell you if it's been chipped or mapped. If it's been mapped they'll be able to read the data from the ECU and tell you who did it, when it was done and be able to fine-tune that spike out of the turbo.

Not all tuners in fact few leave signatures in the software so doubtful they'll know who it was tuned by originally. What type of ECU is it on these? Who are Angel, Celtic and Red dot buying there tuning from? Or are they actually tuning with WinOLS or map3d?

BEFORE you do anything to your car, Please try a new solenoid valve that controls the turbo VNT....it costs about 60Euro.

These are very common fault!!!

Thanks to you all for the replies to date. Some good advice for me to follow up on.

I popped the bonnet at the weekend to see what I could see myself. There is a small rectangular box, about 4inches long I would say, tie-wired to another cable of some sort that is sitting just to the right of the battery. This box has no marking of note, and on one end is an electronic plug that connects into the box - this has Power Plug embossed on it, and has a label that says Bosch 2. The other end of the box is an access point which appears to have computer connections for some leads.

Is this the ECU? From the Power Plug end, the cable seems to run off into the engine somewhere round the otherside of the battery.

So am I looking at a standard Alfa ECU, or is this device some additional plug-in chip as I was led to believe at the garage?