NefMoto

Hey all im new to this i have just been reading up about it for about 4 hours haha and im looking into doing this for my 2000 audi a4 1.8t but i guess i just have a couple of main questions,

I just wanted to make sure that all the steps will work the same, i have kwp2000 installed but wanted to know if i can run this with the basic vag cable from ebay?

What exactly does the flashing do? does it simply make it so you can read the ecu and extract the bin files? I want to pull my stock bin files to look them over and analyze everything. I am new to this and im not quite ready to start messing with them but i do have tuner pro downloaded ready to go.

On s4wiki it seems that the xdf file they recommend is strictly for the s4 m7.1, what would i use for my ecu and this is for turning the tunerpro files into actual bin files? correct me if im wrong im still trying to figure this all out.

What exactly are checksums? i know that i need ecux for this or vagcom but thought i would ask what they are.

 Thanks for all the info guys this is awesome I was just thinking to myself lasnight that there is no way there isn't away around paying for a tune and then i ran across this haha.

***I haven't even flashed anything yet... I'm still researching also, so take my answers (at least they're answers) with caution***

Flashing- yes for reading your .bin, but also to write modified .bins

XDF (DAMOS) files - these are definition files. I don't think that they do anything more than translate nonsense computer babble for you. As an example, say the "maximum engine speed (RPM)" field in TunerPro... The name "maximum engine speed" as the name of the field is all thanks to the xdf file, because it's real name in the computer is like KXFJDLK. Without this you wouldn't know what you were changing. The definition file has to be pretty specific though, because "KXFJDLK" on another ECU may not be "engine speed" but would still show up as "engine speed" in TunerPro and the program (or you) would never know the difference.

Checksums- The ECM stores information in multiple locations, and will reference these locations while doing stuff. When you use TunerPro, and you change something, it may only change one of these multiple locations. Then when you fire up the car and it references the new information and it doesn't match with what the other locations are reading, it gets pis$ed and may stop working. So correcting checksums is making sure that all locations are reading the same value when the computer references them. Also ECUx and VAG-COM are not used for this, they are used for datalogging while tuning.

Wow thanks that really cleared some stuff up, so if im correct you have to write the xdf file yourself right? i have a 2000 a4 1.8t and it doesn't look like anyone has done this yet. I thought it just came out in german and you had to translate it? but its actually in numbers and etc? how to i go about unscrambling all this thanks in advance

Well anyone who has a clue about this 1.8T XDF file ? no answers ?

What most people do is find a WinOLS OLS DAMOS file that is close to the car they want to work on. Then they spend a while searching through the data to figure out where the data has moved around between the OLS file they have and the car they want to work on. Then they translate the information into an XDF file.

Most tuners use WinOLS, and that is why there are no XDF files.

Well, again, I wouldn't take my advice as solid truth, but I think that all of the ME7.xx ECUs all have the same map locations, and if that is true then an .xdf file from any ME7 should work. Below is a link (thanks to NotoriousVR) that has a .xdf from an S4 that would work. It also has the .bin in there too and I believe TunerPro, so you can play with TunerPro since you have both the files.

http://www.vaglinks.com/Downloads/S4_tuning.rar (http://www.vaglinks.com/Downloads/S4_tuning.rar)

**Again, I have not tuned anything yet, I'm still looking stuff up before I try it. I only ~2% know what I'm talking about***

I would definiately wait for someone to confirm/reject my thoughts on this though before tuning your car with it. I'm just using it to try to warm up to TunerPro, I have no idea if it will work, but if so, now you have it.

All ME7 don't necessarily have the same map locations, most all of them are different. Even with the same ECU part #, you will find differences in software version that have some pretty decent differences in map locations. Unless you have two files that are from the same part # box and also have the same software version, I wouldn't make any assumptions about map locations, or even about base settings.

This is not true. Some are in similar locations but vary with software versions.

Every ME7 ECU has the same software architecture and essentially the same engine control system. Different engines are controlled by the same system by configuring the maps, variables, etc differently to enable and disable different systems and set parameters for how the different systems work.

But, every ECU has a different software release on it. This is to fix bugs, and slightly customize the different systems of the ME7 for each engine. What this means is that every software release for each ECU type has different memory addresses for the different maps and variables.

For instance, a 2001.5 Audi S4 Mbox has different memory addresses for it's maps, than a 2002 Audi S4 Tbox. When Audi updated the software from M to T the changes in the code shifted all of the data around. So there are variations in what addresses everything is at, even though the same types of data are there/

Well, crap. I was thinking the "M" was "M"E7. I should have known it wasn't that easy. So now I have to figure out which one I have. This is terible news, since I was looking forward to not having to mess with trying to find these maps, it sounds rough.

Is there a way to get WinOLS to compare 2 different file's maps and find similar ones? I'm assuming many of the maps are similar. Then using the .xdf of the one you know to have an educated guess on the other ones? That would make things a lot easier I think, but I haven't gotten that good with WinOLS yet... but can the program even do that? I thought I read someone doing something similar.

I suppose I'll have to start reading the reverse engineering stuff...

Finding maps, is the time intensive part of tuning, and is why a lot of people don't tune their cars.

User "spen" has been working on a program to find maps and variables in a file based on another file.

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