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Can you tell if your ECU was previously tuned?

4855 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  20159thgen
I purchased my 13 SI coupe over a year ago and the car has never felt like my girlfriends identical 13 si coupe. It feels really sluggish and I’m %90 sure the previous owner modified the car and reverted back to stock everything before he traded the car in. My girlfriends car is very noticeably more powerful and both are all stock. I live in Texas where it’s always hot as balls. Now, I know cars love colder air but now that a cold front has come in my car feels HUGELY different, more like how my girls car feels when temperatures are hot out, which in my opinion is how it should feel all the time. I suspect maybe he had the car tuned with whatever mods he was running and now that the car is back to stock it just isn’t feeling like it should unless it’s cold out. How can I tell if the ECU has been tuned? I’ve tried disconnecting my battery to “reset” the ECU but it didn’t really make a difference. Would doing that get rid of whatever tune it had? This has been bugging me so bad, my car just doesn’t feel nearly as good as my girls si and both have about the same mileage. I really appreciate any help I can get because i’ve Tried everything I could possibly think of. Injection cleaner, new air filter, new spark plugs. I recently added a Takeda CAI and did get noticeable gains but yet her car is STILL more powerful than mine
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Have you thought about doing a compression check? How do the plugs look? What is the mileage difference between the vehicles? What is your total miles? Valve adjustment time? Fuel filter?
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I purchased my 13 SI coupe over a year ago and the car has never felt like my girlfriends identical 13 si coupe. It feels really sluggish and I?m %90 sure the previous owner modified the car and reverted back to stock everything before he traded the car in. My girlfriends car is very noticeably more powerful and both are all stock. I live in Texas where it?s always hot as balls. Now, I know cars love colder air but now that a cold front has come in my car feels HUGELY different, more like how my girls car feels when temperatures are hot out, which in my opinion is how it should feel all the time. I suspect maybe he had the car tuned with whatever mods he was running and now that the car is back to stock it just isn?t feeling like it should unless it?s cold out. How can I tell if the ECU has been tuned? I?ve tried disconnecting my battery to ?reset? the ECU but it didn?t really make a difference. Would doing that get rid of whatever tune it had? This has been bugging me so bad, my car just doesn?t feel nearly as good as my girls si and both have about the same mileage. I really appreciate any help I can get because i?ve Tried everything I could possibly think of. Injection cleaner, new air filter, new spark plugs. I recently added a Takeda CAI and did get noticeable gains but yet her car is STILL more powerful than mine
The battery will not reset the ECU.
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If I am not mistaken the oil life thing doesn’t read anymore when having a custom tune. I don’t use it on either my 8th gen or 9th gen but I noticed it never went down on my 8th gen. Never goes below 100% oil life. Will have to look if flashpro for my 9th gen does it too.
If I am not mistaken the oil life thing doesn’t read anymore when having a custom tune. I don’t use it on either my 8th gen or 9th gen but I noticed it never went down on my 8th gen. Never goes below 100% oil life. Will have to look if flashpro for my 9th gen does it too.
Im tuned with Vit and the oil meter still works fine on my FG4.5.
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Im tuned with Vit and the oil meter still works fine on my FG4.5.
Me too. Although I never trusted it too much.
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If tuned with Hondata, if you press the down arrow on the Cruise control pad, you should see the tachometer show Air/Fuel. This was a feature that was added in an update, so it depends how old the tune is.

From Hondata.com:
On some vehicles the Cruise Control 'Set' button can be used to show the current lambda on the tachometer. The display is in air-fuel ratio x 1000 offset by 10,000. eg 14.7:1 = 4700 rpm, 13.2:1 = 3200 rpm

In order for the lambda to be shown the Cruise Control 'Main' switch should be off and the clutch not depressed.
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First off, I appreciate everyone’s responses. I have not run a compression test although I don’t suspect compression to be an issue since the car idles fine and smooth. Me and my girlfriend do run the same exact cat back exhaust and she thinks that the two still sound a little different than each other. Due to my past experience with my s2000 the car sounded a bit different after having the head rebuilt with new valves and having them set to spec and everything so a valve adjustment and inspection will be on my list to get done soon. I would also like to check the fuel filter since you mentioned that. I would also like to add that the real power loss seems to occur under heavy acceleration and is really noticeable in the higher rpm range. The other si does feel like it has more low end torque as well and once you’re in the higher range in my car, it feels really weak and I can feel very small “power surges.” Or inconsistencies in power (best way I can describe it) Where’s is the fuel filter located on this thing? That will be the next thing I check I guess. And if I were to find that the vehicle has some kind of tune done to it, how can I go back to the factory tune?
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First off, I appreciate everyone’s responses. I have not run a compression test although I don’t suspect compression to be an issue since the car idles fine and smooth. Me and my girlfriend do run the same exact cat back exhaust and she thinks that the two still sound a little different than each other. Due to my past experience with my s2000 the car sounded a bit different after having the head rebuilt with new valves and having them set to spec and everything so a valve adjustment and inspection will be on my list to get done soon. I would also like to check the fuel filter since you mentioned that. I would also like to add that the real power loss seems to occur under heavy acceleration and is really noticeable in the higher rpm range. The other si does feel like it has more low end torque as well and once you’re in the higher range in my car, it feels really weak and I can feel very small “power surges.” Or inconsistencies in power (best way I can describe it) Where’s is the fuel filter located on this thing? That will be the next thing I check I guess. And if I were to find that the vehicle has some kind of tune done to it, how can I go back to the factory tune?
Check your vtec solenoid mine was clogged and it was giving me the same problem who ever owned my car before me didn't really keep up with maintenance
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