2G Bought car with 2.5 dsm link--Need advice

[dpok69]

Just bought a built 99 eclipse. It has a 6 bolt, bored .020 over, 20g turbo, 280 cams, 1000cc injectors, Maft blow through setup, and a dsmlink 2.5

Forgive me if I sound like such a noob. Today the car's battery and alternator went bad. After I changed them two and idled the car, the check engine light came on.

Did the tune get erased? I bought the car without the programming cable. The seller was supposed to email me a copy of the tune. I did not know the cable would be such a hassle to get since I was out of the dsm scene for more than 13 years. I may be able to convince the seller's brother to put the copy of the tune back in if it is erased.

What advice can you guys give me?

 

[boosted_ego6985]

Do what ya have to and get the guy to put the tune back in the car because if I remember reading right the 2.5 loses tune if power is cut which sucks ass. Also your right trying to get ahold of one of the transfer cables is like trying to have a super model for a wife, it's not impossible but for most of us it may as well be . Well finding the cable and getting it may not be quite as hard. Anyways I'm pretty sure your gonna need to have the tune transfered back into the car for it to be right again. Good luck

 

[dpok69]

Thank you,

I think i will have to make a call then to the seller then.

I saw a device at autozone that supposed to backup the computers memory in case of a power loss. It connects to the cigarette lighter and then connects to the diagnostic port. The salesperson said it will work if the ecu is designed in a way to accept the backup voltage from the diagnostic port.

So hopefully I will be able to get the tune back in and use the Autozone device to prevent this from happening again.

 

[boosted_ego6985]

I don't see how that's gonna work for backing up the ecu if it plugs into the cigarette lighter unless it has its own power supply I mean after all the lighter is powered with the battery so if there isn't one what would be the purpose? Sorry if I'm wrong about it but anyways I'd try to find myself that cable and get it then get a copy of the tune it has and store it on a flash drive or something so that you have it whenever it may be needed such as now. It's worth the investment if you plan on keeping the link. Good luck.

 

[Clinical]

Invest in the newer style cable anyway, the old cable is sucky and doesn't work on half of todays modern laptops.
It's only $60
Pick up a cheap laptop if you don't already have one, you can get a late 90's / early 2000's laptop for like $40
Read up on DSMLink forums, it shouldn't be to hard to tune it again yourself in a worst case scenario.
Once you realize how to dial in injectors, and find out what AFR's and timing you should be running for your fuel setup, it becomes easy as cake to tune.

And no the backup wont work, I'll tell you that now - it would work for something that is done entirely pre-set with a device like an SCT tuner on a Mustang for example. Your typical Autozone guy has NO idea what a 'tune' for a dsm for example really is.

Some people say you can't 'lose' your tune however I've had it happen. My talon had its battery disconnected for about a week while I was working on it, I got it back together took it out and got on it and it bogged and ran a flat 10.0 air/fuel, so was probably more around 9.0 or something. My tune completely vanished. Luckily I still had an older version of my tune saved and it took me about 5 minutes to get it back to par and if I remember right I ended up tuning it better than before.

 

[dpok69]

The ecu memory saver has an internal battery that gets charged to thru the cigarette lighter. When the battery gets disconnected the backup battery kicks on to keep the memory. I have to do more research to find out if it works on our cars.

Where do they sell this new dsmlink cable? The information on forums is overwhelming. From my research, I thought they do not sell the cable alone anymore and I would need to upgrade to the newer dsm link after getting serial info off of the chip on my car. I could do $60 bucks.

I had my battery disconnected for only two days, I have only idled the car so far, and the check engine light came on. While changing the alternator, there was a wire on top of the power steering pump which I pulled off. bad mistake, it looks like that wire was never meant to be pulled off. I had to silicone it back into place. Maybe thats what caused the check engine light?

I will be test driving it tomorrow before I make the call to the seller. I guess you can tell if the tune is lost if the car starts acting funny under boost.

I really appreciate your help guys. Since getting the car, I have not been able to run it around much because I feel it will leave me stranded somewhere. I am trying to work out all the kinks in the car.

I will post a pic of the car soon.

 

[Clinical]

ECMTuning, Inc.

You're wanting the OBD1 / OBD2 USB cable $55
You do not need to upgrade software..
2.5 in my eyes is still much simpler and easier to use than 3.0.

Personally I actually know more how to use v3 because I started with it on my talon, however just from viewing 2.5 on my laser and using it a couple times - even though I don't know my way around it as well as v3 yet, it already is obviously a lot simpler and easier to read.

 

[dpok69]

Thanks alot for the info. It seems for that cable i would have to contact them by phone or email, since they removed the option to order that particular cable. Nothing is easy huh?

 

[Clinical]

Yep just give them a call, I'm sure it'll still be an easy process.
They're a great company and really good to their customers, they'll get you set up I'm sure

 

[cookmeup272]

That wire you are talking about on the power steering pump is just to let the car know that the power steering is activating.

 

[JDR7919]

With 2.5 when you lose battery power it defaults to whatever settings are on your eprom. Example you now have 1000cc injectors but your default is setup for 550cc your car will not run till you are able to correct your dead time and global.
Assuming they did not make any changes you would have the same tune.

 

[dpok69]

Bad luck!

I contacted ecm tuning through email and they informed me that the obd2 connection is the dsmlink and they will not sell it to me. I drove the car around and it seemed to be stuttering after 2000 rpm.

I would have not bought the car if I had known this.

 

[Clinical]

If i were in your shoes heres what I'd do, although if I had money I'd just buy a new DSMLink..

However in your shoes I'd just go to dsmchips.com and order a stage 3 chip, fill out the information there and make sure it's all correct for your car.
Their chips are REALLY good.

and theres no such thing as losing your tune with one of those, unless you pull the chip out of course.
They're pretty cheap too for everything they do.

 

[dpok69]

Thank you for that option. I did not know I could do that.

 

[Clinical]

Thank you for that option. I did not know I could do that.

np.

I ran one in my talon at 15psi and switched to DSMLink when going to 22psi, but I should of just left the chip in.. my tuning was no better than what it would of done, my talon was making roughly 300-320whp. I've seen cars run the DSMchips to 350+whp - and more although after that I'd get an SAFC for fine tuning

 

[dpok69]

Hey guys thanx for your help. I went to the sellers brother and had him put back the tune. Car is running fine now, except now the clutch is slipping under boost.

Here are the pics of the car: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/newbie-forum/384582-heres-my-built-99-eclipse-gs-t.html#post152359963