ECUTEK Tunin and NJ State Inspeciton

[MilitoGFC]

I had racing headers installed about 4 years ago. This obviously threw in a check engine light. I had the car tuned with ECUTEK to shut off the check engine light. I went for inspections today and they said they can't get a reading at all from the ECU. I have a $35 scanner tool that I use and it works fine. Any idea why they won't get a reading? Are there any issues with ECUTEK? The tuner says he no longer uses ECUTEK and uses Cobb now. Due to many issues with ECUTEK but nothing that would cause this to happen at inspections. Can someone help me with this?

[pgranberg11]

I've had this happen on a car that wasn't tuned, but maybe same thing applies here. I had a cheap scanner that would work just fine, but I would fail inspection every time for some reason. No idea why. Turns out it was my battery, it wouldn't give the machine it was plugging into enough juice. The people basically said they couldn't connect and couldn't read the ecu... when I went back before my last time, i noticed the car in front of me that their lights dimmed as soon as it was plugged in and that made me thought maybe my battery was bad. I ended up replacing my battery went back and passed... don't know if it works for you, but it's worth a shot. good luck

[MilitoGFC]

Thanks buddy but I had my battery replaced 4 months ago. So I'm running on a new battery.

[BuffDriver]

Originally Posted by MilitoGFC

Thanks buddy but I had my battery replaced 4 months ago. So I'm running on a new battery.

FYI:
New(ish) battery does not necessarily mean it is delivering full voltage.
Short trips after starting depletion can cause a weak battery over many cycles. I have had this problem several times and because of my driving situation I have to put the battery on a charger for an hour once a month then no problems. I too failed inspection last year, went home and charged battery and then passed.

And because of the short trips that are the majority of my daily driving, I have found I have to put the car on charger before I use my OFT and flash a tune or during the middle of the flash the screen just goes white and it stops. Unplugged, charged, restarted and downloaded fine.

[phrosty]

When I went for IL emissions, I also got something along the lines of "we can't talk to the computer" -- which was annoying as I did my own scan just the night earlier. I came to understand that it wasn't returning a failed result but literally just not returning any data at all.

Turns out the pins in our OBD2 ports very easily get bent out of shape. They couldn't get a connection. Replacing the part (entire under-dash electrical harness) would be something like $1500, so I went to a shop and had them re-pin the connector for me. Passed emissions the next day.

[Spuds]

I'm pretty sure if you are just resetting the codes it takes a certain amount of miles before the obd reports the ready signal. In Maryland, that's enough to make them reject the test and make you do it again later.

[steve99]

Ecutek brzedit oft or tactrix tuning wont effect the ability to run basic diagnostics and readyness checks on ecu. Some systems ie ecutek and brzedit block the ability to read and write the ecu rom area but doags will work fine.

Note tunes disavle the cel codes but they DO NOT force readyness checks to pass.

Just cause you have no cel light does not mean readness will pass, it wont if you hace disables rear 02 or run catless header

[BuffDriver]

Originally Posted by steve99

Ecutek brzedit oft or tactrix tuning wont effect the ability to run basic diagnostics and readyness checks on ecu. Some systems ie ecutek and brzedit block the ability to read and write the ecu rom area but doags will work fine.

Note tunes disavle the cel codes but they DO NOT force readyness checks to pass.

Just cause you have no cel light does not mean readness will pass, it wont if you hace disables rear 02 or run catless header

The best world would be having a catted header, a good custom tune that delivers good performance with an air/fuel ratio that was emissions friendly and no codes or disabled O2 sensors.

Or perhaps the real world would require one tune for performance and a second tune only for the once a year emissions test... Load, let it learn, test n pass then re-load the REAL daily driver / trackin tune! {And of course the original tune to load when taking it to the dealership. Which 'might' be the emissions test one? I guess it would depend on one's car mods?}

[steve99]

Originally Posted by BuffDriver

The best world would be having a catted header, a good custom tune that delivers good performance with an air/fuel ratio that was emissions friendly and no codes or disabled O2 sensors.

Or perhaps the real world would require one tune for performance and a second tune only for the once a year emissions test... Load, let it learn, test n pass then re-load the REAL daily driver / trackin tune! {And of course the original tune to load when taking it to the dealership. Which 'might' be the emissions test one? I guess it would depend on one's car mods?}

Yeah if you can run a catted header and not disable any codes it should pass

[BuffDriver]

One trick guys around here sometimes try to pass an inspection is to mix 1/2 gal paint store toluene in with 10 gal gasoline and drive for 50 miles... don't know what or why 'chemically' it does but I've personally seen guys pass doing that on old junkers.

I do know back when I was a kid the racers used toluene as an octane booster and more ran more advanced timing. And plugs were REAL clean too!

I wonder what some amount of Toluene (10 %?) and E85 would do? Mummmmm... homemade race fuel. But could be time for that old meme: "Danger!! Danger Will Robinson!!!"