Help with OFT: Intermittent errors while writing to ECU

[_search]

Hello everyone, I've done my best to use the search button on this but haven't been able to find someone having the same issue I experienced.

Car is a 2013 BRZ, has only ever been tuned with the OFT by me. About a year ago I flashed to Stage 1 with out any issues. Recently after installing a JDL UEL I of course wanted to upgrade to Stage 2. Car was off, plugged in the OFT, selected write and was prompted to "key on and confirm" I did, the process started and then I got a message that "an error occurred while writing to the ECU. Please try again.", I tried a second time and got the same error. Then I tried to flash back to stock, same thing.

Next I disconnected everything from the car, and connected the OFT to Open Flash Monitor and updated the firmware, went back outside and started the process again. This time before I tried writing I checked that the real time data monitoring was working and it was so there was some sort of connection to the ECU. So, I tried writing again and received the same error two more times.

However here is when things got interesting, on a whim I tried a third time and the tune went through. I had moved how I was holding the OFT so I just froze and held it in place as best I could while the tune wrote, I was terrified of it failing half way through. Mercifully it did not and the car is running with out any issues.

The thing is now I'd like to try the new v4 oft tunes but I am super worried about the same thing happening and not getting a happy ending this time.

Anyone experienced something similar or have any idea of what is going on? Thanks so much in advance.

[steve99]

Most likely the obd cable or your cars obd port.

Start a logging session then wiggle cable and see if it drops out of connection

[Baron_T]

I had this problem. My solution was to take a small pair of needle-nose pliers and very carefully twist each pin on the OFT's OBD connector about 1/12 to 1/8 of a turn. Be careful to keep the pins straight; just twist them each a bit. Doing so makes the contacts in the car's socket a bit more effective.

[FRSBRZGT86FAN]

Originally Posted by _search

Hello everyone, I've done my best to use the search button on this but haven't been able to find someone having the same issue I experienced.

Car is a 2013 BRZ, has only ever been tuned with the OFT by me. About a year ago I flashed to Stage 1 with out any issues. Recently after installing a JDL UEL I of course wanted to upgrade to Stage 2. Car was off, plugged in the OFT, selected write and was prompted to "key on and confirm" I did, the process started and then I got a message that "an error occurred while writing to the ECU. Please try again.", I tried a second time and got the same error. Then I tried to flash back to stock, same thing.

Next I disconnected everything from the car, and connected the OFT to Open Flash Monitor and updated the firmware, went back outside and started the process again. This time before I tried writing I checked that the real time data monitoring was working and it was so there was some sort of connection to the ECU. So, I tried writing again and received the same error two more times.

However here is when things got interesting, on a whim I tried a third time and the tune went through. I had moved how I was holding the OFT so I just froze and held it in place as best I could while the tune wrote, I was terrified of it failing half way through. Mercifully it did not and the car is running with out any issues.

The thing is now I'd like to try the new v4 oft tunes but I am super worried about the same thing happening and not getting a happy ending this time.

Anyone experienced something similar or have any idea of what is going on? Thanks so much in advance.

Originally Posted by Baron_T

I had this problem. My solution was to take a small pair of needle-nose pliers and very carefully twist each pin on the OFT's OBD connector about 1/12 to 1/8 of a turn. Be careful to keep the pins straight; just twist them each a bit. Doing so makes the contacts in the car's socket a bit more effective.

Yep Barons idea works for that. I believe earlier cars like 2013-2014 had wiring issues with the OBD-II ports

[_search]

Thanks so much for the answers! I'll give this a try this weekend