ECU REFLASH ON tHE XV. WORTH IT?

We have a motorcycle trailer so it is seriously light but the XV has to go down to 2nd gear on the highway to go up inclines. From a motor that is advertised as having 110kw and 196Nm torque that is ridiculous.
Has anyone had a reflash done that will give it better low/mid. I suspect the mega lean afr's common to everything thanks to the inane European requirements.
If so who is good in wide bay or Brisbane area.

100% yes.

The new tunes hold onto closed loop AFR's (Lean) for far too long,
the Ign timing is all over the place

Send an Email to Matt (ThrottleHappy Tuning)
iamhappy46@gmail.com

But here's an example of teh gains from MRT
ECU tune only

I sent the business a message on facebook. Thanks.

Anyone know what that dip in the curves is at 3400rpm. It looks like an intake resonance problem. A product of the several side chambers perhaps?

That's the funky Toyota Direct Injection (D4S) at work
It has both Direct injection and Port Injection that work together

When you actually drive it, it just feels a little flat, and not like it stops.

Matt (ThrottleHappy) has a lot of very happy customers, both NA & turbo, I'm sure you'll be very happy with the results.

You notice when you are towing a lot. And our trailer is a ultralight motorcycle camper trailer.

NachaLuva said:

Matt (ThrottleHappy) has a lot of very happy customers, both NA & turbo, I'm sure you'll be very happy with the results.

Click to expand...

and more than a few un-happy customers.
Not here to troll, just want to make sure gregjet sees both sides of the coin.
Do not trust review sites (e.g Facebook) where only the positives remain and negatives can be deleted.
Google it, there's info out there

^ I have also seen some posts around by dissatisfied customers, Lefty.

Always good to go into these things with open eyes.

Personally, I would take ANYTHING written on Facebook (and/or other 'social media' ... ) with a grain of salt.

At least on a forum you can ask people detailed questions. On some sites (this one, for example ... ) most members spend far more time reading than they do posting IME - and I watch what's going on here with pretty much an eagle eye ...

Some days there may be 20-30 or more members on line over the day, yet not a single post by any of them - all just reading. There is a lot of good content here, from many knowledgeable people over many years. Cannot say the same for most sites!

Agreed RB, too many FB mechanics & experts lol. While not everything said on a forum should be taken as fact, it is usually a lot more reliable.

Lefty, that's very true. In speaking to a number of people who have had his tunes or have known the story behind the failures, there is always some background engine issue that wasn't addressed by the owner first. He doesn't do repairs or maintenance, it's up to the owner to make sure the engine is healthy, he just does the tune. And remember, during a tune, the engine gets pushed hard.

As the guys on OzFoz say, you play, you pay! :biggrin:

The engine is pushed no harder during a tune than any other day you drive it.
ALL tuners have cars go bang during or after a tune.
You gotta pay to play.

My H6 lib was transformed after Matt's tune.
I've also loaded a dozen other tunes for his customers at no benefit for myself.
I've studied them all and would have no issues using them again.

I've also used local tuners with good results on other cars and literally just finished a flash tune on my Diesel Fozz with Crispmods.

I talk to a lot of tuners before deciding who to use.
Some have bigger strengths and more experience on certain ECU'S or cars than others.

Also to remember when reading reviews
The empty vessel makes the most noise.

I have had a lot of ecu and post ecu retunes done over the years. Have had only one questionable one on my BMW motorcycle and there may have been a process done by me post tune that screwed things accidently. My Prado 2001 2.7L 4cyl petrol was chipped in Mackay. It transformed the car and was so superior to std ones for the rest of it's life , it wasn't funny. I swear it was a better power and torque spread than the 6cyl. Only other thing was a set of headers and flowed exhaust.
Yes I will shop around and he may not even come here. I would prefer to go to a place with a dyno and get it individually tuned, though I am not sure that is necessary with modern multisensor ecu's. Once a engine profile is established the motor/ecu can now attempt to "normalize" the motor to the ECU profile.
Either way I am only looking to primarily have the AFR fixed , particularly in low/mid. I am not after a race car. In theory it should make the engine, particularly the valves, live longer not shorter.

A good tune will definitely prolong the life of an engine, esp a Subaru turbo engine, known for detonation with a stock tune & failed ringlands. Yours will benefit too.

Matt doesn't do e-tunes, he road tunes, almost as good as a dyno tune. He tailors it to your individual car & driving requirements. If its an auto, he can also tune the TCU for better shifting.

^^ what he said

I had my tune as an E-Tune from Matt, just the fact that Hobart is the longest 400km from Melbourne.
i.e I do the file flashing and logging, send him the logs and he tweaks to suit.
then emails back the file and I upload and test.

The best part was he had owned an Gen4 H6 6Speed liberty so had already done hundreds of hours of R&D on his own car.
so the first file was 99% right, the rest was just changing things to how I wanted them.

Also FYI.

I had the Diesel tuned by Chris from Crispmods on Saturday, He does petrol engines too
Look him up on Ebay, Facebook, etc.

It's completely different vehicle.
Much more torque everywhere, smoother delivery and all round happier.
Blocked off the EGR so that will help keep the insides of the engine much cleaner and healthier.

We only addded 1psi more boost, but by allowing the engine to consume the fuel that it wants and raising the torque/ smoke limiters a little it just works properly.
we can't push it much harder until I remove the DPF otherwise you end up compromising the DPF and putting too much pressure on the turbo, etc

His claim on the Diesel of the base tune is 88Nm more torque and +20kw more power
And I have to agree with those figures on the bum dyno and 3rd gear pulls

Robbks said:

His claim on the Diesel of the base tune is 88Nm more torque and +20kw more power
And I have to agree with those figures on the bum dyno and 3rd gear pulls

Click to expand...

Thats a great improvement on peak figures plus I'm sure it has a much better spread of power too

If I got the actual advertised power and torque for the XV I suspect I would be happy enough. The Subaru exec who OK'ed the spec lies for the xv should be taken out and dismantled with a blunt knife. I will NEVER trust anything actually said but Subaru again.
Found a ECUwest dealer locally ( well they are in the dealer list of ECUWest) . I might check them out. ECUWest did my Yammaha MT07 reflash when I was attempting to delams it.

OK folks after much phone, town and email tag I finally got Throttle happy tune when I was in Brisbane to help someone move house and Matt was there. I had been told by a performance place in Bundy that there was nothing wrong with the fuelling. Really didn't believe it.
I had driven down with 2 people and an empty trailer.
On the highway I was getting about 8.8 to 10 L/100km and hade to change down to 3rd in quite a few places to be able to maintain speed on the highway with the trailer.
Tune was V3 I think he said.
After the tune with no trailer notice the complete difference in smoothness of both acc and constant throttle. Acc was substantially better. NO PINGING ANYWHERE with the 95 in the fuel tank. The shudder at low reves when letting the clutch out which I thought was the clutch itself, is gone. On the way back driving in Brisbane traffic I got 64l/100km AVERAGE. I have NEVER got that before even on the open road.
On the way home to Bundaberg, we went the back way ( via Esk, Nango, Biggenden etc.) Again empty trailer ( see below).
I could acc UP the hills in 4th and the cruise control would often stay on in 6th to go over rises that would switch it off previously . Fuel economy was 8.8L/100km so better to about the same.Filled with 91 to see if any difference. NO PINGING!!!! still completely smooth. Matt had said I should be able to run 91 no problems and this confirmed it even with the extra load.
Drove it with no trailer yesterday and it was a revelation. This is what it should have felt like in the first place. It's no STI but I wasn't expecting it to be. It does however drive smooth and powerfully and this little black duck is very pleased.Fuel economy with 91 is a bit problematic unloaded though as I am still getting 8.8l/100km without the trailer. I will change back to 95 next fill.
I now like my car much more. Will be interested to see how it handles the sand.

The trailer was supposed to have a XV bumper panel front and back for the return journey, but both vendors proved problematic. One I couldn't contact at all all week nor on the weekend and the other I contacted , said I would be there on Sunday morning and he said OK. Then rang again on Sunday and couldn't get him and he rang back in the afternoon after we had left Bris. So anyone who has a spare front and/or rear XV bumper panel I need them to make new composite panels if you want to sell them.

PS He needs a new laptop. His current one needs a proprietary power supply to be able to plug into the car's power but they are ridiculously expensive. So it runs on reduced power and is really slow ( still has a spinny disc as well I think) and takes quite a while to boot, run the program, interrogate and download so be patient, it's worth it.

Gidday Greg

Glad that it's worked out well for you :biggrin:.

The nil change in fuel economy could well be due to the difference in roads via Esk (etc), rather than straight down the Bruce Highway. Just a thought. The road back to Bundy via the inland route is significantly different in most ways from the Bruce H'way.

Tell TH to look up Better Batts for a car PS for his laptop. I have one, and it was not very expensive (~$50, from memory). My IBM laptop has to charge at around 16V and 4+ amps. It works very well. The one I got comes with adapters that allow it to charge a wide variety of devices, voltages and amps. They also sell good batteries for many portable devices.

Glad you did it mate.
nothing worse being disappointed and jaded with a product/ company because of poor system implementation.

Subaru's programming engineers fail to realise that engines need fuel to make power.
and when you give them fuel, you don't have to work the engine as hard.

Over time you may find that you would like the throttle to behave a little differently, and Matt is always happy to tweak for you.
I had mine set to be less responsive for about the first 20% of pedal movement,
This allows finer throttle control and less stress on the clutch, especially when dragging a trailer around, as the engine won't rev up as far for small pedal movements

TH's computer is a HP. It uses a stupid proprietary Power supply that an ordinary PS won't work on. Dell may still do the same and Compaq used to as well. It is specifically designed to deliver a power form that unless it is the right wave will cease to recognize it and work incorrectly. Good reason to NOT buy HP.

Robbks,
The throttle is now superb. Direct engine feedback from input . That's the way I like it. The clutch is now completely controlable. I don't pull very heavily laden trailers so clutch action isn't as difficult to control and I like a harder bottom end of the throttle response anyway especially in the dirt. One of the advantage of only driving with no shoes is throttle sensitivity.