Early 2013 models have bad tune?
 

Someone on reddit is claiming that the early 2013 models are problematic due to a problem with the tune (It had to do with hard on/off throttle at WOT), the injector seals would get rekt and eventually the engine would lean out and go boom boom if driven hard.

I'm just wondering if there's any truth to this as my car sees track days and is driven hard once in awhile... It only has 17000KM and if this is a real issue, is there any way to fix it? also, when would the problem start to become evident

Some light reading for you:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38397
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36129
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36008
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2335327

Please note the last line of the TSB before everybody panics!!!!!


http://www.ft86club.com/forums/attac...1&d=1370268009

Just went through the threads and I'm not liking what I'm seeing. I shift at similar numbers on the track every so often. I really don't want to have to replace those seals as it looks like the biggest pain in the ass job ever. I'm unsure if an ecutek tune would fix the issue? I see a lot of info here but everyone saying mostly the same thing.

either OFT or ECUTeck tunes includes fix on this.

Keep in mind those are older posts. The later ECU flashes are said to take care of the problem. Yours may even already be flashed to a newer level.

Is this something that would have been done if the car was taken to the dealership for routine maintenance? Wonder if I should schedule my next oil change there and see if I was reflashed or not.

Depends on your dealer would be my guess. Mine checks such things but from what I understand they are the exception not the rule when it comes to service departments.

@Lorne

As posted above and in countless threads, it's a known issue and a TSB was issued to fix it. Since it's a TSB, go to any dealership (take the TSB # if you want) and they will reflash your ECU. It doesn't have to be a special dealer, any will do it.

3 years later it really didn't impact that many people, sky was falling on the forums for a few months but most cars have and will survive even with the original early tune. Yup, ECUtek and OFT incorporate the fix but won't help if the seals are already damaged.

Ultimately it's diagnosible and fixable before catastrophic failure occurs.

Every dealership I called would not commit to flashing the car, they said they would reflash ONLY if the tech observed idle hunting on a test drive. I decided not to waste my time. It's not always guaranteed.

@Lorne

I wouldn't let Strat's experience keep you from contacting your local dealer and specifically requesting the re-flash. Especially because the issue is well known and documented.

To share my experience from driving at the track, I used to notice a hard stutter as the fuel was cut in and out at redline. But with newer OFT tunes it's much smoother. As I hit redline the fuel isn't fully cut and the RPM's just hold there.

On another note, I generally do try to shift around 7k to 7.2k. Don't like hitting redline, but sometimes your focus is elsewhere!

I just got back from the dealership and while they did reflash the car, I'm unsure if the issue was resolved... On the paperwork it said "idle control and emissions". I plan on getting the ecutek or OFT in the near future anyway so until then, I will just have to take it easy on the car (gonna be hard). Thanks everyone!

That sounds correct, the TSB (I believe it is linked above) made no mention of the change with respect to the DI seals and tables it altered and was described as being a change to the idle and emissions settings.

Probably a move pushed out of fear of it being used as a legitimization of track and autocross usage for the car by Toyota USA.

That may be what the flash was labeled but it would include ALL updates so would address your concern as well as several other tweaks and improvements they made. The car may seem weird for a bit while it relearns everything so don't panic.

The amount of fear mongering you've fallen into is hilarious no offense, the latest tune you received is literally the same fix incorporated into all the latest ecutek and OFT tunes. You can drive as hard as you like now. The DI seal popping issue was a very small group of people that actually got effected.

None taken, I don't really have a whole lot going on right now and my car is pretty important to me. I had heard the early 13's don't like to be supercharged and had a few minor issues but I ignored it chalking it up to minor stuff that wasn't really important to me. After seeing the posts CSG_mike was making on reddit, I did some digging and found all these people freaking out over it. So natural, I freaked out too lol.

OK here is simplified answer

Cars manufactured before early 2013 had an error in the ecu tune in that the transient ignition retard was effectively disabled above 5000.

If your ECU calibration ID is earlier than ZA1JA01C man or ZA1J A01D auto then you have the issue ie 400C/D 700C/D and A00C/D rom id.

Their is a TSB out to update these early roms to a later rom either B01C or B01D these roms have the transient retard fix and a numder of idle fix's as well.

The lack of transient ignition retard is only really an issue if you have poor fuel like say 91 in your area and you drive the car very hard and shift gears at or very close to redline (7400) quite a lot as the error in rom resulted in the transient retard being disabled if rpm was above 5000 on completion of shift when load came back on and you got excessive knock. you could still get the problem on good fuel but its much less likely as it was related to knock encountered on shifting gears at high rpm.

you will know if your direct injectors are stuffed as you will usually get loud popping sounds from intake on acceleration and maybe other weird issues poor idling hesitation etc.

If you get a tune the tuner will/should update your rom to the latest factory calibration compatible with your car which will likely be B01C or B01D although even A01C or A01D is sufficient. So this problem should not be a problem in tuning or supercharging your car as it was related to firmware in the ecu which is easily updated by dealer or tuner or yourself if you buy a tuning device

is the popping something that happens all the time, or just occasionally? I hear something that sounds like a pop in the engine bay every so often (maybe once every other week), but its not regular, nor am I able to repeat it. I am probably being paranoid here, but I hate the thought of being broken down at the side of the road for any reason. And I run exclusively 93 in my car.

usually it would be pretty regular and loud.


you get the odd pop on startup when car is cold that's normal