MTE back in the UK.

Originally Posted by pyaap

Indeed, that is the crux of the matter which I believe Don was trying to re-inforce. Given you have an interest, and do a fair bit of reading around all the various fora about ECU upgrades, but still did not know that RICA employ these methods, I think it is fair to say that there may be other forum members who also do not know what is involved in selected ECU upgrades. For the reasons which you have described, I do wonder whether companies who employ such tuning methods would openly disclose and warn customers about the potential risks involved.

FYI, RICA and ourselves, together with a load of other tuning comanies in the world often employ several methods for reprogramming ECUs. Some ECUs have to be soldered. Some ECUs can be bench flashed. Some ECUs can be programmed via the OBDII port.

We have various tools for reprogramming ECUs, including all those above. So yes we solder ECUs, yes we bech flash ECUs, and yes we flash ECUs via the OBDII port.

For example, for the ME7 car we do not remove the ECU from the car because we flash it through the OBDII port.

However, there are cases where an ME7 ECU would need soldering. For example, if it has been fitted with a protection board by another tuner then it can't be reflashed, therefore the protection board chip has to be removed and replaced with a fresh one, so of course the ECU has to be opened. The fact that we have the facilities to do this safely means that we are far more flexible in what we can achieve in terms of the service we provide. This means that if you have such a device installed in your ECU, then you can't have MTE, but you can have RICA. So by all means carry on making a point of this if you wish.

For those who think soldering is dangerous, ask yourself how on earth the chip was put on the ECU at the factory in the first place - it was soldered !

So, let's stop this nonsense about this being the crux of the matter because it's not. Adam studied electronic engineering and computer science and worked for Lucas Aerospace on engine controllers. So you can rest assured he knows a bit on the subject.

Regards,
Hamish.