Thought I'd start off a new thread following on from the 'performance mods' thread, as the Steve W chips have now arrived ! I just met Richard and got mine (thanks once again for sorting it all out mate !), despite the USPS's best efforts to make things difficult for us.
I'll be putting the chip in this evening and have a couple of long-ish varied drives to do over the weekend so will report back on Monday with my verdict.
In the meantime, in the name of entertainment (and a cautionary tale) I thought I'd share with you the nightmare I had getting the ECU out of my car in order to replace the chip.
Removal should be easy enough in theory, it is situated under the passenger's seat (driver's in my case) and held in place by four 10mm nuts. If you raise the seat to full height and put it right to the back of the slider you can just access the nuts provided you have a deep 10mm socket - I thought I did but haven't ! I tried every combination of sockets, extensions, universal joints, pliers etc I could think of. Eventually I managed to get the front nuts off by using the open ended 10mm spanner in the Porsche tool kit. I should add I was trying to do all of this dangling half in the car half on the pavement in the pitch dark with a mini-maglite (from my keyring, and with a duff battery) between my teeth ! I was able to reach the rear nuts by pushing the seat right forward and climbing into the back. The cavity under the seat squab gave me enough clearance so that I could get a 10mm socket and ratchet extension on to them.
With the nuts off the fun really began. Over time the steel stud, washer and nut had reacted with the aluminium base plate of the ECU to corrode it firmly in place. No amount of tuggling or wiggling would free it. I had to resort to brute force and the use of yet more inappropriate tools. I managed to wedge a flathead screwdriver under the edge of the base plate, using it and the end of my torque wrench (only heavy thing to hand !) as a hammer and chisel. I then just levered the thing up until the washers literally popped off. In the process I've managed to bend the edges of the base plate a bit. I just hope I've not damaged the components inside !
Anyway the ECU is now in bits on my kitchen table awaiting reassembly with the new chip, which I think should be rather easier ! the moral of the lesson is that a job is much easier if you have the correct tools. What should have taken me about 15 minutes ended up taking about an hour and a half and a lot of swearing ! Richard and Anil (and anyone else for that matter), don't even start this unless you have a deep 10mm socket and 1/4 inch drive ratchet - it is really fiddly to get at.
I hope it's all been worthwhile (I have a strong suspicion it will have been judging by the positive reports I've seen elsewhere). I will report back ........................
Jamie
I'll be putting the chip in this evening and have a couple of long-ish varied drives to do over the weekend so will report back on Monday with my verdict.
In the meantime, in the name of entertainment (and a cautionary tale) I thought I'd share with you the nightmare I had getting the ECU out of my car in order to replace the chip.
Removal should be easy enough in theory, it is situated under the passenger's seat (driver's in my case) and held in place by four 10mm nuts. If you raise the seat to full height and put it right to the back of the slider you can just access the nuts provided you have a deep 10mm socket - I thought I did but haven't ! I tried every combination of sockets, extensions, universal joints, pliers etc I could think of. Eventually I managed to get the front nuts off by using the open ended 10mm spanner in the Porsche tool kit. I should add I was trying to do all of this dangling half in the car half on the pavement in the pitch dark with a mini-maglite (from my keyring, and with a duff battery) between my teeth ! I was able to reach the rear nuts by pushing the seat right forward and climbing into the back. The cavity under the seat squab gave me enough clearance so that I could get a 10mm socket and ratchet extension on to them.
With the nuts off the fun really began. Over time the steel stud, washer and nut had reacted with the aluminium base plate of the ECU to corrode it firmly in place. No amount of tuggling or wiggling would free it. I had to resort to brute force and the use of yet more inappropriate tools. I managed to wedge a flathead screwdriver under the edge of the base plate, using it and the end of my torque wrench (only heavy thing to hand !) as a hammer and chisel. I then just levered the thing up until the washers literally popped off. In the process I've managed to bend the edges of the base plate a bit. I just hope I've not damaged the components inside !
Anyway the ECU is now in bits on my kitchen table awaiting reassembly with the new chip, which I think should be rather easier ! the moral of the lesson is that a job is much easier if you have the correct tools. What should have taken me about 15 minutes ended up taking about an hour and a half and a lot of swearing ! Richard and Anil (and anyone else for that matter), don't even start this unless you have a deep 10mm socket and 1/4 inch drive ratchet - it is really fiddly to get at.
I hope it's all been worthwhile (I have a strong suspicion it will have been judging by the positive reports I've seen elsewhere). I will report back ........................
Jamie
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