Bricked ECU

Thanks, Justin. As always, thanks for the help.

 

I asked Zendesk about the two differently named and dated 04A61 files in the vFTuner folder and which one they recommend to use to go STOCK. The guru who answered said “use either one” and “appolgies for including the two files”. I have since deleted the 08/27/2023 file from my folder. I don’t think the vFTuner folk are fully aware of what has happened or might happen if the older dated file is inadvertently used to go back to STOCK. Thanks, @Technique and @JustDSM for hi-lighting this situation and providing a solution.

 

It's not pretty, but here is what I ended up doing. It's not hooked up properly to anything besides my ECU in this pic, but you get the idea.

And these are the cables I used.

$7 ELEGOO 120pcs Multicolored Dupont Wire 40pin Male to Female, 40pin Male to Male, 40pin Female to Female Breadboard Jumper Ribbon Cables Kit Compatible with Arduino Projects

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EV70C78?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1





This is my first harness I tried, using an OBDI adapter I got on Amazon. It wasn't working. Traced the cables with my multimeter to ensure I had them correct, but it kept telling me Cable not detected: Vehicle Detected. So I tossed that thing out and wired it directly as shown in my first pic.

 

Send the receipt to vftuner for reimbursement and your time. Their untested releases are getting annoying.

 

Not surprising seeing that 1.7.5 is the “final” release for “legacy” tuning. It appears that the latest shiny object at vftuner is the WiFlash, 2.0.

 

So, has anyone successfully flashed a tune using 1.75.0 version of VFTuner without any problems?

 

Yes, Our group has flashed quite a few so far with no problems.

 

I’m with KDMAX and yes I have and others. I would keep it always on a battery tender and in supply mode while updating for sure and even on flashing.

The one common denominator at least it appears from reading that a tender wasn’t in use. The second being the stock files were older versions and some seem to believe suspect, YMMV.

 

Good to hear. I didn’t notice the battery charger commonality. That’s something to definitely remember to do.

 

Gotta say, I’ve only been able to get WiFi flasher to actually tune successfully once out of 6 times so far. It bricked a 2nd gen ECU yesterday, and not having the option to force flash is irritating. Having to wait 7hrs for a code was frustrating. I don’t think I’ll use that POS WiFi flasher (actually Bluetooth) ever again.

 

Thank you. We appreciate this information.
Have you received or found any instructions for the WiFlash device yet?

 

Was the recovery successful after you gain access to use force flash? I hope so.

 

Not a whole lot of instructions for it, even after bugging Matt about it. Wi-Fi flash isn’t really Wi-Fi, it’s Bluetooth, so gotta pair it before you unplug it. I’m never using it again because it seems like either there is something wrong with it, or it’s just super unreliable.

 

yes, recovery successful. Used the 1k ohm resistor soldered to the specified ports, reinstalled the ECU, force flashed it with the access code, then removed the resistor and then flashed the tune to the truck all using the legacy dongle.

 

Just adding in here that I have a bricked 04A61 that was just trying to go back to stock. I’m assuming after reading this that I had used the older file. Within the vF folder. Will report back if any sort of apology is made about that… lol.

Because this happened in the evening I have no response from Vftuner support and I am on a very very serious timeline to get this resolved for my customer. I have to find the bench flash cable that I bought from Karl in the hopes that it will successfully flash the ecu back to stock and I don’t lose any more hair out of this.

 

Learn something every day...
A bricked ECU is where a corrupt flash, incompatible operating system/Calibration or failed update has caused the ECU to no longer function correctly, in most circumstances an event like that results in the ECU being unable to communicate to scantools or be reflashed. Once in that state, its about as useful as a brick, hence the name Bricked ECU!

 

Godspeed my guy. Check car-part for a used one near you if you can't get it working again. I was fortunate enough to find one near me for like $170 I think but I did end up recovering my old one via the bench flash method.

 

thanks. I was able to bench flash using a harness. Successful recovery

 

Flashing back to "stock" on the files mentioned above will brick the ECU every time.

These files also retain the encryption so the CVN will not report back to true stock. To safely flash back to stock and have the CVN report true stock use:

04B04 dated 9/22/23
04A61 dated 9/29/23

 

thank you. It would be nice if Mat would warn everyone / fix this instead of each network (or individuals) having to learn the hard way.

@JustDSM i noticed there wasn’t an updated 04B04 on the directory after install of 1.7.5… did you source yours from Mat or was it one verified from over a year ago?