how good is the apexi power fc, better than the ecutek software,
pretty new to the whole new ecu thing, i have a ppp, and want to start modding but have been told most things i want to do will involve remapping

 

What year is the car and what model?

 

oh its a year 2000, with the prodrive performance package, i want to go as far as fmic, full decat etc

 

You will better sticking with the standard ecu and getting an ecutek remap, as this will give you the same benefit of the apexi but reatin the safety features of the standard ecu

 

hhmmm,
a lot can be fitted to the car without needing a remap, but a remap makes the most gains from what you have done.
so to get best value you should really look at changing a fair bit first, not essential but you wont see such huge gains (obviously).
advantages/disadvantages have been discussed in great length, but for me, the upshot is apexi and ecutek are similar money in the short term, ecutek from £585 (Group buy price) and apexi from £750 (everyday price)
remapping the ecutek is more expensive I believe, but it could be getting cheaper, apexi can be about £50 and hour, say two hours for a reasonable tweak?

I run Apexi, and I love it, but more and more gains are being had by the OEM euc, bob rawle is apparently making amazing figures on his car.
I think the features are much of a muchness, so its down to how often you think you will need a remap, and how close the nearest mapper of each variety is to you, really.

Andy

 

re: safety features.

Apexi isnt self adjusting so you see things like maf failing etc much quicker in my opinion, as it doesnt try to "get around it".
my car also behaves in closed loop much better than it ever did on OEM.
only thing I miss from OEM, diagnostic function.

 

so what can i do to my car without it needing remapping,?

 

full decat, induction kit, tubular manifold and other minor mods

 

filter, decat exhaust, possibly tubular headers, fimc.

basically the MAF sensor will read the volume of air and make the ecu work based in that information (as well as other things!), but you wont get the maximum gains.

a very good friend of mine bolted on a fmic, 3" exhaust, vf22 turbo and made 330 brake!
I dont recommend this at all , but his engine never blew and he ragged the **** off it EVERYWHERE!

(get the fuelling right though)

 

Does the apexi still use all of the sensors ? does it take account for changes in air temperatures ?does the apexi not have some form of diagnostics or allow you access to the OEM diagnostics?

 

it does use all the standard sensors and it does have a menu function were you can check the sensors. i have noticed if the air temp increases the amount of boost available is reduced on the aepxi.

 

The biggest safety feature the OEM ecu has which the Apexi does not is ignition retard. If the MAF does start to fail and you're not watching the gauges then you'll kiss your engine goodbye much quicker than OEM.

Up to now... touch wood, i've not needed this feature but i still wouldn't have minded it on my Apexi.

Tony.

 

Two days ago my MAF failed while the car was at WOT.(running apexi) CEL flashed at once, knock peaked to 20s and the black smoke... I thought it was TPS failure so I contunie to run away. I checked the commander to see the engine data but nothing was wrong. I was also checking the gauges and nothing happened to my engine (I hope) If the MAF fails there is nothing to do. Even the subaru diagnose wouldn't be able to find the faulty of it.

 

display the airflow (MAF vopltage) on the commander, at warm idle the reading should be between 1000mV and 13000mV, anything like 1500 or 1600mV and its a *******.

 

Do they really read high when failing?? A high reading would result in a 'safer' rich and retarded situation as the load would be higher.... or is it just at idle that it reads higher?

Tony.

 

at warm idle afaik, although if you record the peak value maybe it would exceed that as well?

 

If the peak value is higher too then i can't see why the engine would fail (from det). It would provide a false high load value for lower boost which would start to put the ecu in a portion of map which would be considered rich and retarded for that level of boost.

I always thought a failing MAF produced a lower voltage reading (and gradually got lower and lower) so for a given boost the load is lower so it's in a leaner and more advanced part of the map??? But that was on boost, it could be high at idle.... i don't know.

Tony.

 

definately, definately high at idle means not good MAF.
I promise!

normal reading should be between 1000 and 1300mV, a recent sti5 I know of had a shagged MAF and idled at 1500mV

 

I thought the MAF problem was it under reading the air flow so putting in less fuel causing lean running & det. Isn't that what happens when they get oiled up from oiled air filters? The oil coating causes misreadings? If it over read air flow it would over fuel accordingly.

Could be crap of course

 

maybe it reads high on idle but doesnt rise accordingly, so reads low on boost, hence under fuels?