Has anyone else had their car not accept an APR ECU flash? (allroad)

[JustMtnB44]

At the end of December, I put my stock engine 4.2 V8 allroad on a Mustang dyno to get a baseline power measurement. The result was 181 hp at the wheels which seems really low when the engine rating is 300 hp. Locals say this dyno tends to read a bit low compared to others, but if I use the same one before and after the comparison should still be valid.

Anyway, I decided to get the APR ECU upgrade (when it was on sale) since most posts I have read about it gave a positive review, although I could not find anyone that did a before and after dyno run to see if it actually added any power.

I drove around for about a week with the APR upgrade 93 octane mode before going back to the dyno. I couldn't really tell a significant difference. The car did seem a little quicker at low speeds, maybe due to a change in throttle response, but if I did a pull from a stop, or even pulls at highway speeds it didn't seem all that much different. I went back to the dyno place and we did a few more runs with the car in 93 octane mode. The results were...surprising and disappointing. The car made 5 hp more peak, but lost a lot of midrange power. Also torque was down about 10 ft-lb.

So, what does that mean? Either something is wrong with my car or the APR tune. I can't believe that over all these years people would still buy the tune if it was not effective. Given how low the power numbers are that I am getting, I'm leaning towards there being something wrong with my car or the way it is taking the flash. There are no CEL's or warnings and a VAG-COM scan turned up no stored codes relating to anything with the drivetrain. In the last 20k miles or less I have changed spark plugs and coil packs, air filter, and fuel filter, so the car is up to date on maintenance.

Fast forward to last week.

I went back to the shop where I got the APR tune and they tried reflashing it again, and it made no difference. They flashed it again with a single 93 octane program and that still didn't do anything. After flashing and driving, a VAG-COM scan will report error messages for other car modules communicating with the ECU. It seems as though the problem with my APR ECU tune on my 4.2 allroad is that the ECU is not flashing correctly.

The shop spoke with APR several times and APR is convinced their software is fine, but something is weird with my car. The only solution they have at this point is to solder in a EMCS module (the old fashioned 'chipping' way) and that should fix it. I haven't really heard of anyone needing to do this on our cars. I'm not sure if I want to do that, as I don't need a tune, I just thought it would be cool to have and relatively straightforward. However, this is already becoming way more of a project than it should be.

Should I have the shop solder in a EMCS module to the ECU and try that, or just cut my losses and get my money back? I don't think I want them to mess with the ECU. Does anyone have any other theories on why this is not working?

[Calimus]

I've heard of issues on rare occasion with APR on the A6 platform. Sometimes it won't take through the OBDII port. I also was told that with tip cars, there isn't always enough ECU mem spare for all of the various switching modes that APR offers. When mine was done, the PO just shipped APR the ECU and they shipped it back to him. Now it only has the 93o program so it's all go all the time. I'm hoping this year to drive over to APR HQ since it's not that far and at least add the stock program as well so I can switch to that on occasion.

Sending them the ECU if you can spare the downtime might not be a bad option. I've been to there HQ before and they have an awesome setup. We got the full tour when we took my wifes beetle there to be chipped. Also, I'm sure they will talk to you directly if you give them a call, maybe see what they have to say without the other shop translating.

[dave_graham]

my BEL 2.7TT would not accept a softtune from JFonz....ECM hardlocked and had to be flashed at the dealership.

d

[JustMtnB44]

Currently, my car seems to be stuck in a mode close to stock but with even slightly less performance, as evidenced by a before and after dyno run.

At this point, both myself and the shop are concerned that the shop won't even be able to flash it back to stock correctly. If the car won't accept an APR tune through their software, then it likely won't accept a stock tune through their software either. There is just some communication issue here, even though the APR flash loader says it is working fine.

The shop wants to solder in the module to the ECU and try that. That would hopefully allow me to both get the APR tune working, and stop getting the ECU communication errors in the VAG-COM log.

The only other option is flash it back to stock, which will likely still be this mode I am currently in, and get my money back. But then I would need to have the dealer flash it back to stock (like dave_graham) likely at additional cost, to actually get it working 100% properly again.

Why I haven't I learned my lesson yet to stop messing with things that aren't broken!

[dannyn424]

Why not get ur mny back and get jhm tune...

[JustMtnB44]

JHM does not specifically offer a tune for the allroad 4.2, and if I was local to them I would be interested in having them figure something out but since I am not it's not really feasible. I think the real issue now is I may not be able to get any flash to work on my ECU as is. Maybe if I have the dealer flash it back to stock first, but even then there may just be some issue with my car getting a tune. Or it's possible that the shop just screwed it up the first time, and that has caused problems re-flashing it.

[bengone1]

Is there a possibility the car was tuned before you owned it? A handful of tuners lock the ECU from being port flashed even when you return it to the stock program. This is to prevent piracy. If this is the case, your ECU can be directly programmed by removing the ECU from the car opening it up and hooking directly to the EEPROM. Obviously not something you could do but most actual tuners have this capability. Personally I would check compression and log the car with VCDS and see if you find any inconsistencies with timing or fuel trim.

-Ben