Firstly, reading back over this it reads to me (even as the poster) that some of my posts are negative - That's nit my intention. I'n trying to remain unbiased having used a few different aftermarket ECUs, none of which were MS.
Maybe I'm being a little devil's advocate
With that out :
gslender wrote:All aftermarket ECUs are pretty much designed for off road/track use. I'd go as far as saying that racing is the primary reason these ECUs are being used for, as such, things like AC idle up/CEL illumination for faults/advanced CL PID idle etc are things that very few if any race engines need.
In light of this, you should be thinking that it isn't always true that a plug-n-play harness and base map/tune will support anything more than starting the engine and getting you to the Dyno.
Again, I think this is hard to quantify. Many aftermarket ECUs advertise the fact they have been used to pass emissions on XYZ car - to me that's a good suggestion they are marketing to people other than race car owners. I concede most people who modify aren't chasing better economy, rather they want better performance - Performance is often a compromise, so perhaps that's why not many people complain about their ECU?
gslender wrote:This is why I'm keen to hear from people who are actually prepared to share the true costs and effort involved with configuring their MX5 SE and are prepared to talk openly about how those extra items were accommodated - eg. how does the idle cope when you yank on the steering wheel and the steering pump dips the RPM... in the stock engine, it would barely be noticeable - but for an ECU configured for steady state warmup PWM idle, the engine would noticeably dip and hunt until the idle stabilises again. What about turning on AC, Fans, Lights etc... how does the idle perform? What about the CEL and other O2 closed loop fuel trim - how is that being accomplished?
I was surprised to hear the haltech in the wasn't quite spot on - It's funny that it appears there is a tuner who knows how to fix it but a personal issue with that tuner means the issue may not be resolved, to me that's a bit like the MS situation where the only expert on them seems to be you G!
gslender wrote:I know how to configure and this all can be done on the MS2 and MS3 ECUs - what about all the others and who did them?
This is my point, you're one dude supporting the whole deal and as far as I know it's a hobby rather than an official gig or money making venture for you. That's great and it's genuininely good we have someone like you around to keep challenging the norm and helping people out, but when you can't quite get it, or have better things to spend your time on things can be not so great - Look at the recent guy who bought one and had issues and even with your help and Dann's has decided to not bother with it>?
gslender wrote:If you have a base-map from a Haltech or Adaptronic, that can be read by downloading the tuning software (or a text file) I'd be keen to look at it. I doubt they have anything setup for those things above I mention. Anyone keen to share?
G
Nice idea, I still love PNP adapters cause I've seen them work well in MX5s, RX7s and WRXs time and time again, but the validity of a true PNP solution will also rest with what mods have been done to the engine - Accepting this is somewhat of a moot point if we are talking about back to back comparo on a stock SE.
All of this said, my NB idle hunts and carries on worse on a stock ECU with no mods than any of the three NAs with aftermarket ECUs I've owned. Could be the lack of attention I pay it though...
For a what ECU topic there's some good info in here. You're development with MS has certainly brought some interesting and enlightening conversation to the forums in a few topics
