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Author Topic: APH ECU swap - looking for some expert advise.  (Read 9090 times)
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« on: August 22, 2020, 05:01:50 AM »

Hi, I'll try to make as much sense as possible here, but sorry in advance if there will be some BS.
Anyway, I don't know if it is out of boredom or because maybe I haven't suffered enough in life I have started to tweak around with my wife's Beetle. It's a MY2000 New Beetle running an APH engine. So far it has got a T21 Frankenturbo, exhaust manifold, catless 3" exhaust, front mount custom intercooler with some extra cooling access in the bumper, Bosch green giant 440ccm injectors and a 70mm MAF, upgraded fuel pump. And a big brake kit, full poly bushes set and aluminium subframe bushes with Bilstein coilovers.
Like you see, total waste of time and money  Grin, but she loves driving it and she tells me a couple of times a week how she smoked someone at the lights or in a fast corner. Pretty sure the other person had no idea that they were racing her  Grin

Anyway, the ECU is somewhat set up, but just for daily use, the engine isn't being pushed hard at all as there isn't a proper Damos file found for this ECU, several people have checked already. So far my friend Frederick (he is also on this forum but i am unaware what his user is here) has setup the tune as well as he has been able to, doing it pretty much blind.
I'd like to push the engine with it's current upgrades close to what it can handle, to optimize all the upgrades, unfortunately it seems that can not be done with the APH ECU.
So guys, I am asking for your help. To which ECU should I swap to? What would be the easiest to get, which has a proper explination file available and would require the least amount of work done on the wiring - repining the ECU socket and so on.

I know many of you have experience with it and I am told there should be topics about it here, I have searched but haven't found good ones. It might also be because I really suck at searching for stuff, sorry about that.

If it seems like I am a total NOOB then don't worry, you are right. I don't know much about how stock ECU's work and how their tunes are done. But I do know cars and many aftermarket ECU's, my daily job is in depth vehicle electrical and diagnostic work with some aftermarket ECU dyno tunes, some Revo tunes and so on.

I will be very grateful for any info You can share with me. And if someone has a spare ECU suitable for this use then I would like to purchase it.

Current ECU details are PN 3B0907557R, BOSCH number 0261208003, ME7.5

I know a lot of this info is unnecessary, but you never know what small detail makes a difference.

(My next plans are to replace the TB for a slightly bigger one, also swap the intake manifold and to upgrade the intake cam. WHY? Why not. I want it to be a very fun city driving bug. I am not looking for high power, but anything to improve low end and midrage power. But these are just ideas and I haven't done indepth research yet how all these changes work together and/or if there are cheaper upgrades at these power levels.)


To anyone who has made it all through to this line here - thank you so much for giving me your time and being interested at least enough to read through all this. To any one willing to help, thank you very much  Smiley
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« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2020, 05:21:03 AM »

Well that ecu part number is from a passat with the alt engine code...
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« Reply #2 on: August 22, 2020, 05:46:45 AM »

You are right.
I've never checked. We did have a mishap once when rewriting the tune that the ECU got damage. I then sent it to an electronics shop in the hopes of them getting some info off the ECU. Maybe I got the wrong one back or the wrong cover on it. Or maybe someone already did something before me.
Cause when it fried I replaced the ECU with another one, just wrote the soft on it which they managed to get off it and disabled the immo.

Maybe the PN is then 06A906032 and BOSCH nr 0261206507.

These are the only other numbers I've taken down for myself  a long time ago.

(there's always something, never easy straight forward thing)
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justinvw2646
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« Reply #3 on: August 22, 2020, 09:33:50 AM »

You didn’t mention doing rods in your list of upgrades. I would strongly urge you to do rods before pushing the turbo. I broke a rod with a very equivalent turbo on a “stock rod safe” tune. Drove that car for about 5,000 miles before it let go on me. And when it happened I was pulling out into traffic at maybe 1/2 throttle and 3,000 rpms. Do rods man, it’s not if they will break it’s when.
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« Reply #4 on: August 22, 2020, 09:37:44 AM »

More on point to your questions....if memory serves me correctly APH is narrowband....with continued mods I think it would be worth your while to wideband conversion and switch to an AWP ecm. There are some really good definition files out there for the AWP ecms
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« Reply #5 on: August 22, 2020, 10:15:58 AM »

Yes, that is true that I haven't done rods yet. I know it is a case of when not If.
But I am that sort of person where I like to do several things then. Not just rods, but why not stroke it also then, once doing that, should also Port the heads, bigger valves etc. You see how it is going. I think I would be happier If it blows up, then it needs doing  Grin
Anyway, for the moment the plan is to get it running on an ECU which can be tuned nicely. Altough it is currently driven daily and it drives good, I'd like it to be tuned properly and for it to drive without the current hickups. A proper ECU setup is needed anyway, so that's why I am looking into that right now.
Not at all that you have a bad suggestions or that I am not listening to it. I am, but right now I do not have money for more than research anyway, best case, I can afford the correct ECU setup and get it running a little nicer than currently.

AWP you say? Thank you very much for that info. Anything more you can share? Like, do you know the PN or Bosch number for this one, to make it very easy for me to find one and/or do you know would there be any wiring involved in this swap.

PS! My APH is wideband, yes it is, precat sensor is a typical 5wire wideband sensor.
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« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2020, 10:49:57 AM »

Nice that its already wideband. I am currently running HS software on a LP part number ecm. If you have a boot mode setup that works you can get froggy with cross flashing to different part numbers. If it is not compatible worst I have personally experienced is a bricked ECU that I was able to flash again in Bootmode to restore it to the previous flash that worked. My bootmode setup, while not pretty does work. I ordered a galetto cable off walmart.com. Took an old dell desktop power supply out of a desktop for power and ground supply and then ECU connectors from the junkyard. Saved me 3 or 4 times now from stuff happening while flashing.
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« Reply #7 on: August 22, 2020, 11:01:07 AM »

I have the chinese KESS and Ktag tools. The "accident" was completely human error. Trying to rush things quickly, was way too confident and got some wires mixed when connecting to the ECU. I usually triple check stuff myself   Grin
Anyway, shi* happens.
Sorry for the complete dullness now, but what's the difference on the HS soft compared to the LP one?
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justinvw2646
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« Reply #8 on: August 22, 2020, 11:05:16 AM »

Had a better XDF Smiley My file is the 5120 community thread. Somewhere in the depths of this foruM I at one point had found someone that posted they had done the necessary ASM modifications to go 5120. I don’t know IDA so I took that file and reverted all Maps back to stock except the 5120 division stuff and posted it asking for someone smarter than me to confirm it was correct and it was....so get some rods and go E85 on 5120....car rips compared to 93
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« Reply #9 on: August 22, 2020, 11:30:43 AM »

Now you lost me. Like I said, the internal logics of a stock ECU are not something I know. I need a bit more english from you to understand what you ment, sorry.
E85 unfortunately isn't sold in me current region. Best I can do IS add water/methanol injection later on.
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justinvw2646
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« Reply #10 on: August 22, 2020, 12:21:56 PM »

Sorry, long story short the difference in HS vs LP/PL was simply the availability of a very well done definition file for tunerpro.
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« Reply #11 on: August 22, 2020, 12:29:03 PM »

Also if you haven’t run across it yet Nyet’s tuning page is full of everything you need to learn the basics and then some of tuning your car yourself. https://s4wiki.com/wiki/Tuning
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« Reply #12 on: August 22, 2020, 12:39:42 PM »

Sorry, long story short the difference in HS vs LP/PL was simply the availability of a very well done definition file for tunerpro.

Ahhaa. Ok, got you. Thanks for that info. Altough I think I'd rather swap out the ECU just because I think it is a "safer" option for me. As I would keep the current running ECU somewhere oma drawers and would be able to always swap it back if it Ever needed for some reason. Also slightly scared of bricking it. Because my wife would hurt me a lot if I have to take her car off the road again for more than a day or two. So it's actually more self preservation tbh Cheesy
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« Reply #13 on: August 22, 2020, 12:40:41 PM »

Also if you haven’t run across it yet Nyet’s tuning page is full of everything you need to learn the basics and then some of tuning your car yourself. https://s4wiki.com/wiki/Tuning
Ok, that'svery handy to know, thank you. Will get into that once I have this ECU question answered.
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« Reply #14 on: August 22, 2020, 03:52:35 PM »

I should probably sticky that here.

It is here though:

http://nefariousmotorsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=9013.0title=
« Last Edit: August 22, 2020, 03:54:53 PM by nyet » Logged

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Do not PM me technical questions! Please, ask all questions on the forums! Doing so will ensure the next person with the same issue gets the opportunity to learn from your ex
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