is it a good idea to reset the ecu now and then ? if so how often and why ? i have no faults and allways run v power in her,just read that a reset is good idea if bad fuell is used or is this crap ?

 

No need to keep resetting unless, like you say, a bad batch of stale or low octane fuel has been through the engine.

It resets the coarse IAM ign timing to the "middle" position, and if it then subsequently "enjoys" the present fuel's octane, it will quickly give you optimum ign timing (power), and hopefully ALL of the maximum available ign advance.

You should arrive at this point after about 20-30mins of mixed driving (i.e. varying loads placed on the engine).

It's just a quick way of 'forcing' the ECU to get to the optimum ign adv point after bad/low octane fuel earlier (rather than waiting for it to do it "under it's own steam", from a bad fill...) - so you can enjoy the power/performance sooner.

So before you do a reset, get the fuel low and then fill up with your favoured fuel (make sure it's at least the same RON rating that you got mapped on, obviously! - preferably the same brand too). This way you won't be 'wasting' the ECU's learning.


It's the equivalent of you having learnt totally the wrong facts on a particualr subject (from being on SN?! ), and then getting your memory erased, and thus starting to learn again from scratch with no recollection/influence from the 'bad' facts you learnt originally! lol (Weren't the ****'s hot on this sort of ****? )

 

The ecu learns for a reason ie to protect itself but if you have had to put poor quality fuel in it is sometimes worth doing a reset to clear the learning if you are then putting proper fuel in. You shouldn't need to though as it will learn the ignition timing that the new fuel needs pretty quickly.

Doing the quick learning you have to be sure that the map is right and fuel trims are right. Easy enough to get the IAM to 16 (or 1 in a drive by wire car) within a few hundred metres.

The ecu will reset to whatever value the mapper has asked it to reset to. Some leave as std (ie midway 8 or 0.5) and some raise this IAM reset value.

 

That's interesting - didn't realise it could happen that quickly.

 

sometimes less

 

Sometimes takes ages too, depends on the car I've found.

 

There are a couple of 1D map tables that dictate how long it takes and also the minimum timing in the advance table it needs to be in when counting down the time.

Interestingly this isnt in ecutek software.