[charlescrown]

Hello. I have an I30 CRDI and have ventured into tuning. My question is the ECU plug and play. Can I use a second hand ECU? The reason is I want to keep my original std till I determine if what I am doing is correct. I know that many modern ECU's need to be programmed to suit the individual car but I cant find any info telling me what is needed for the I30.

[Dazzler]

My understanding is that it is not. Apparently quite hard to work with by all accounts!

[CraigB]

They cant be tuned via the OBD port, security preventions will shut down your ECU

The ECU would need to be removed and programed directly to the mainboard.

Since you have a turbo diesel your best option is to use a RaceChip unit which is plug and play and cheaper than attempting a custom tune, you didn't tell us exactly which i30 model you have so you'll need to pick your vehicle from here Chiptuning for Hyundai i30 ? RaceChip Chiptuning

[charlescrown]

Thanks for the advice. I thought it could be done via OBD2. I can download the file but looks like I can't upload the new one. I do know the checksum needs correcting which the software can do but didn't know it wasn't possible. How then do they do update flashes?

[CraigB]

Hyundai have the security codes to do the flashes, unfortunately "for us" the Bosch OBD Hyundai security preventions haven't been cracked yet.

Some groups in the US and EU are making very slow progress tinkering with the ECU's but it's not cracked yet and could still take 1-2 or more years.

Only way to do it is via direct connection to the mainboard at this time and even then it is very limited to what can be done because every file has a code number and to find the specific file you want you need to know the code number so it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

[charlescrown]

Having done some more research I found you can read the bin and also write via OBD2 port but you can only work with half the bin for some reason. Yes directly off the board looks like the only way but I am prepared to try this. Buy a second hand ECU and replace the bin file with the one from my ECU hoping it has the security data. If it works then I can make some changes to boost and fuel pressure and if it doesn't work well I will end up with an expensive brick for my money and gained some knowledge. Any thought or advice? Am I kidding myself or is there a chance it may work.

[CraigB]

You can always try I suppose, I paid a specialist performance centre whom do these types of things everyday and use several coding groups from around the world...even they were dumbfounded at the complexity of these ECU's.

I virtually spoke to every specialist performance tuning group I could find and all said there is no way to tune these cars via the OBD port, I ended up going with RPW as they've worked with Hyundai's and Mitsubishi's since the early days but they were still limited in what they could find/decode.

Even going the 3rd party ECU route would have been a nightmare at this stage in time as things like the electronic steering and such wont pair up yet, they're still a year behind in solving them.

Much easier to just go with the RaceChip imo as they've already done the hard yards on the diesels but if you've got the talent and don't mind stuffing an ECU if it fails then by all means give it your best shot , keep us informed on your progress

[Asterix]

If you want to use a second ECU while playing around with the original I believe you need to have the immobiliser paired with the ECU. I would be surprised if others than Hyundai can do that for you, well unless expensive OBD equipment is at hand..

[charlescrown]

Thanks for the encouragement. Well the Hyundai bin file is 2048kb which is very large compared to my Holden VR which is only 64kb and that contains security and auto transmission data so my guess is I have the whole file. At this stage I am not game to try and modify and reflash being the wife's car you can imagine the grief I will have to go through if it doesn't work. I will get a second hand ECU next week and see if I can transfer my ECU data into it and if it works I will go from there. I have never worked with Bosch ECU's before but from what I see VW using the same ECU (Bosch EDC16 I hope) is very easy to flash via OBD port. I has summised that with the Euro5 and American standard for compulsory reflash capabilities having been around for some time Hyundai would be at that point but looks like I might be wrong. Will let you know how I go.

[ibrokeit]

This sounds interesting (though it is for the diesel) - hacking with embedded systems.

May I ask which year the i30 is?

[charlescrown]

Its a 2008. I will try to give it a go next week. Will let everyone know what happens.

[CraigB]

You should be right with a 2008 model, 2009 was when they brought in the ECU's with additional security parameters.