Are there any Dyno graphs for this stuff with A/F charts . Also what is going to be the price for these programmers??????

 

See the second post in this thread for boost and a/f. See the 2.0 thread for dyno charts. Good power gain, and very significant mid-range torque boost. BTW, nice 50.

 

Does the ECM track flashes? I read on a Cobalt forum that their ECM might be tracking 10 flashes with dates, so if you went in for service, while you may be running on the stock profile, it would show that somebody put that profile on recently... thus causing some suspicion on the dealer's part that you've been tinkering.

 

Yes, that is correct. The last 10 flashes are held in memory. And if there was a non-gm update, warranty repairs could be denied.

I would add this to Snoopy's earlier post. If GM decides to deny warranty and the consumer decides to fight them it will not be days or weeks, it will be months or years before the issue is resolved.

 

If you read through the whole sequence of posts, you can get the full range of opinions and positions on this. In some ways things were simpler in the days of 12mo/12,000 mile warranties, weren't they? Bottom line, if it is a powertrain failure, Chevy should not have to pay for your "experimentation", if it is not a power related failure, then you will learn whether or not your dealer/service manager is a decent human being or a jerk, in the latter case, never go back there for another new car.

 

"If GM decides to deny warranty and the consumer decides to fight them it will not be days or weeks, it will be months or years before the issue is resolved."

I have had two cases (in 40 years of Chevy ownership)where Chevrolet initially denied coverage because the car was outside warranty. In both cases the dealer went to bat for me as they felt they were mfg defects. Both were settled within 10 days. A really good dealer, working with a good regional manager can make a huge difference. On the other hand, I don't blame Chevy for denying coverage on a heavily modded Duramax with some wise-ass abusing the crap out of it. (Heavily modified and tuned Diesels seem to be the biggest problem).

 

all of the above issues is why I ordered a spare ECM, and believe me I don't beat on a car, never have, but I don't want the dealer to see that the ECM has been reflashed for however many times, this way with the extra ECM, I could add whatever tune I want and swap out when it time for the dealer....

 

In 20 years of the same, I've had one go each way... with the first one requiring a legal battle that lasted 2.5 years (I won, including compensatory damages)... but it's not worth the pain. And the second one being quickly and reasonably handled by the Regional Office.


When you swap ECMs, do you have to "re-learn" the VATS info from the car (typically a power on-wait 10+ minutes-power off x4 cycles)? If so, a write is made to the ECM at that time (synching the VATS data to the new ECM). I don't what minimally constitutes a "flash" to these ECMs, but if I were the programmer (and my goal was to track ECM manipulation), I'd define a flash as any write to the ECM from anything other than a sensor with error code... which would include the VATS learn sequence. _IF_ this is what GM does, your new ECM won't insulate you from the evidence of flashing.

Note-- I'm ONLY speculating as to whether a simple R&R would get written into the log. I DO NOT know one way or the other. Maybe one of our learned GM ASE folks could chime in on this.

 

As XXL alluded to, and I think I saw someone else mention earlier, or in a different thread...

There are multiple modules in the vehicle. The modules communicate between one another during operation and it is quite likely that each one is aware of the serial number (or some other identifying characteristic) of each of his buddies.

As a result, swapping out a separate ECM will probably not cover your tracks... the BCM or other modules will see the new ECM. Other than the anti-theft-system info re-learn and any other setup-related stuff, the other modules may not throw any protest for the time being... but this could be another security measure that gets enabled at the dealer level at some point.

Just something else to think about.


On a related note: I'm really happy with the stock power the little motor is putting out. Can't you guys just be happy like me
I'd love to see GM come out with a tune though... but I'm concerned that they won't due to the torque capacity of the stock HHR trannies. However, the Aisin manual tranny in the Solstice/Sky is also only rated up to 260 ft-lb of engine torque.... so maybe we still have a shot at getting a GM tune ???



Sorry for the partial thread hi-jack :)

 

Torque limitations, combined with relatively low performance-per-dollar of the SS means there'll be more "teenagers" (even older ones) buying the car than, say, a Z06... and so you end up with more genuine abuse potential, which means more warranty claims. I think GM saw this with the Cobalt SC, and are going to play it even more conservatively with subsequent products of this price point. OTOH, the Z06 can be flogged absolutely every which way... as my neighbor back in CO decided to show me with his new unit, and his inability to drive a stick with precision