Sorry to perpetuate this wastegate discussion, but I’ve got another question.

Is it possible that my EC has adapted to the 4.5 wastegate modification I did last week?

Initially I had great throttle response and the turbo would spool up at the drop of a hat. Now, after about 500 miles, the turbo doesn't spool up nearly as readily and the throttle response, though smooth, seems to lag. (maybe because of the turbo response?) However, the PSI and newfound power seem to be as high as they were after the mod.

Could the EC have adapted?

Should I try another turn or two?

Disconnect the battery overnight and re-connect to reset the ECU.

I think you can disconnect for a shorter tiime but I'm not sure how

short -- just disconnecting and immediatly reconnecting does not

seem to do it.

See if that makes a difference. Note: On my T5 it does and I have

the wastegate out 2.5 turns -- but it also made a difference even

before I did the wastegate mod.

Make sure you know your radios code since you will have to re-set

the radio and clock. Trip computer amy lose info, too.

Ray, when you do the "re-boot" do you find that performance reverts to the previous state over time? Or does the EC just need to re-adapt? If it does go back, how long does it take to revert? I guess that’s a similar question to “how long does it take the EC to adapt?”

Thanks

It reverts over time. AFter 20 miles, or so, it "calms down"

and then seems to slowly lose a bit of power over a longer time.

I mostly notice more power at low RPM after an ECU reset.

If you don't want to disconnect power to your car, but just to your ECU, you can remove the ECU alone as well. That's what I did while I had my exhaust, air filter and ECU mod done.

I don't know why when I tried this it didn't seem to work. However, I probably didn't give it sufficient time to reset because I only removed the ECU for an hour or so. Disconnecting the battery overnight definitely reset the fuel maps in the ECU. From a logical standpoint, both methods should work just the same, just give it an entire night to reset and you should see a difference in the car's behaviour.

I guess so.

I had my ECU out of the car for about 48 hours.

About the only downside to doing this is, I'm sure it isn't good for the pins to constantly remove and reinstall the ECU over and over again.

I think you may have a point. I worked for a computer manufacturere

and we had disk drives that slid in with a similar setup. They

were not rated for too many insertions cycles (I forget the number,

but it was quite low). The spy agencies that had these systems

removed the drives every night and locked them in a safe. They

never had problems with the contacts which actually surprised us.

I'd prefer to diconnect the car's battery (which may not be a bad

idea anyway if you are pulling the ECU).

Should be OK so long as you're careful when sliding the ECU back into the box.

You don't think sliding it up and down over and over again won't prematurely wear out the contacts?

Well, if you plan on taking your ECU in and out of engine compartment on a daily basis then yes, you're just waiting for trouble. Just being careful with the contacts on those few instances where you'd need to remove the ECU is all the advice anyone needs.

stepping on your conversation here:-)

Good tip Sin. This way I don't have to reset the radio every time and deal with the alarm.

I had my card out for about an hour and the reset seemed to work fine, though it could have simply been my MAF and intercooler mods(removed air flow obstacles, horns and support). My assumption is that they used a capacitor system of some kind to hold the power for a bit. In general, in the computer HW world 30 seconds - 2 minutes of no power is enough for a reset. However, it may be that the computer makers of our ECs included some safety measures in case of a dead battery?

As for the pins, if you look at the alignment guides, there is almost no way to bend the pins or goof up the alignment going in. And, though metal does wear, it takes a long time to really wear so that you don't have contact. My concern with taking the thing in and out every once and a while is what happens to the pins while it's out? How many times have we all bent pins on things by bumping it or some such silliness? Ok, I'm speaking for myself here, but you get the point.

Later guys.

I found the best way to reset the ECU is to remove fuse # 1 (10 amp)for about two minutes. It is fast, don't lose the radio and much easier than removing the battery cable or the ECU.

Thanks Gary, it works a treat. 2-3 minutes, no hassle!

btw my #1 fuse is 15amp ...

rgds

jeff

95 855T5A SAM chip

Brilliant, great idea!

Thanks