More likely than not, this is going to be one of those after hours, under the table deals. You waltz into the dealership, walk into the garage and ask one of the guys wearing the greasy coveralls about doing the job for $50 and a date with your friend's sister . Then, you tell your friends that if they want to do it, to call the dealership and ask to talk to so-and-so. Anyhow, later tonight I will call my friend that I called yesterday and see if he got any leads.

 

If you can find a Mazda tech who can and will do it. Great.

Now, later when you go to do other mods like intake, exhaust, etc, you are supposed to removed the negative battery terminal to "reset" the ECU so it can relearn and make adjustment s for the new air intake, fuel, whatever.

If you have the ECU flashed and then remove the negative terminal, will that reset the ECU to the P5 curve or go back to the MP3 curve?

Just curious.

 

I was thinking the same thing, but if you reflash the ECU and then reset it, it will still be the MP3 curves. It won't lose the MP3 programming unless it is reflashed back to Protege(5) specs.

 

It will retain base settings if the battery goes dead or is disconnected. Probably the only thing it will lose is idle strategy which will relearn after a few minutes of driving.

 

This kicks much ***. I have a homie who works for the Mazda body shop in my hometown, and he's pretty tight with most the people there. I'm havin him look into it to see if he can hook sumthin up for me.

 

I don't think that it would be possible.

The reason this whole mod would be made possible is that fact that the engine in the MP3 is the same engine the 2.0L Proteges and P5's use. The difference in HP comes from the different ECU programming that advances the timing and uses a 91 octane fuel map. Pretty much you are taking the 87 octane tuned instructions on your 2.0L Pro/Pro5 and you are reprogramming it for 91 octane.

Since the 1.6L is a totally different engine (smaller) you could run the risk of serious damage if you try to run it as a 2.0L MP3 as it may have different timing and fuel maps and engine management.

 

The reason that your code will not disappear from the ECU when you reset it is that flash memory does not require power to keep its information. The information that the car figures out for itself is stored in some memory similar to the RAM in a computer, it clears itself out whenever power is lost. Clearing the ECU forces the car to look itself over again, figure out whats going on, and retune itself for your specific engine. It does all this pretty much constantly anyway but it speeds the process A LOT to get rid of the values it has stored. Kind of like if you have 50 numbers that average out to 25 and you add one number valued 20 it won't affect that average a whole lot which is what your computer is working off of in the first place.

And you do not want to transfer ECU systems between two entirely different engines, although the MP3's programming might work with the 1.8L (very questionable, probably wouldn't work worth a damn, and might not be possible in the first place).

 

There are 3 mazda dealerships in my area and i am finding time to call them all. Would this work for a probe w/ the 2.0 ? My little brother would love to do this also.
I will keep you posted

 

I have two problems with this theory:

1) The 2.0L installed in the Protege sedans and Protege5 are equipped with VTCS, which is controlled by the ECU. The MP3 does not have this. The MP3 also has a higher redline and rev-limiter. There are just too many slight differences that may cause problems... the MP3 is also installed with a knock sensor to detect lower octane fuel and retard timing. The regular 2.0L doesn't have this. Basically, the two ECUs are looking for different inputs from different sensors that the two engines don't share. I don't think 10hp is worth the hassle and complication. You probably can't even feel the difference anyways.

2) If a dealership tech did this and word got out, he'll definitely be out of a job. Plus, the dealership would face pretty ugly fines imposed by the DoT, EPA, and state governments. A dealership nor any of its employees nor any owners are allowed to modify important emmissions equipment such as the ECU. Mazda only built 1,500 MP3s for a reason. If they would have built 1,501, they would have had to go through the entire emissions certification process. Even the prototypes were destroyed to ensure only 1,500 were built.

 

Of course, one nice thing about software is that it is usually pretty easy to crack the code. Take the MP3 and 2.0L ECU's together, compare the code, code it like you would a computer's BIOS. I just don't think the chip is modular enough to do this.

Good point about the MP3 though. Probably wouldn't work with our 2.0L. So we would almost definitely have to do some cracking.

 

Here's the deal. I checked with my dealer today and they said this:

The computers are different part numbers, but they can control the same things as they both have the same pin outs. The MP3 doesn't have VTCS, but if it did the ECU could be programmed to control it. It just doesn't use the function. The ES, LX, and P5 ECU's most definately CAN be reflashed to MP3 specs but the dealers can't do this because it is a modification to an emission control system. They have a laptop that is specifically for reprogramming and checking ECU's with a touch sensitive screen that links up to the main Mazda USA site. They can only reflash to the OEM specs however due to EPA regs.

But it's nice to know that our computers can be reflashed at any rate. Just need to find someone with the right software to do it. Maybe we need to look for an unscrupulous tech to do this after hours or take the computer home. Oh well, don't want to get anyone fired!

I've spoken with a couple places that have replaced an ES ECU with an MP3 ECU just to test it, and said that you definately can feel a difference. It's kind of an expensive upgrade though as it costs the better part of a stand alone. I'm curious to see what M2 performance does to reprogram the ECU. They say that they are going to offer both normally aspirated ECU calibrations as well as FI calibrations for ECU upgrades.

 

I thought the 2.0L engine for the '01s and up had knock sensors???

 

Researching anything pertaining to Mazda is nearly impossible... It's getting better, but Mazda is still a nobody out there.

I thought the 2.0L had a knock sensor, but I got blasted by someone who works for Mazda for posting wrong information in another board.

Many MP3 owners I have talked to say their rev limiter cuts in at 7,000rpm, not the 6,500rpm that the 2.0L does.

Either way, reflashing a standard 2.0L ECU with the MP3's ECU is probably just leading to trouble.

 

I see, this is probably why the first post talks about having to have an actual MP3 present. It is to trick the Mazda's USA site into thinking that they are reprogramming an MP3 when in fact they are reprogramming your car...

 

have you run your car up to the rev limiter? it is almost always higher than the redline in all cars. i have a 2001 es with the 2.0 liter engine, and my limiter cuts in at 7000 rpm, but my redline on the tach is at 6500 rpm. there is a big difference between the redline and the rev limiter.