Second Hand Edits

[bugster70]

There are now a few second hand flash tuner boxes coming onto the market, but there seems to be a huge gap in knowledge about what needs to be done, or indeed what can be done. I know I had a bit of a runaround trying to get to the bottom of what I needed to do and, having been through that process, thought some of you may be interested to hear what I found out.

Firstly, and most importantly, if it has been used on another car, it WILL NEED TO BE UNLOCKED before it can work on your own vehicle. I understand that many people think that if the box is flashed back to standard (ie. the factory tune is loaded back into the original vehicle) that it could simply just be plugged into another car. This is most definitely not the case!! Once it is used on a vehicle, it becomes VIN locked to that vehicle.

Now here's the cracker. If the factory tune has been reloaded into the original car before selling the box, then you can either send the box back to CAPA for unlocking, or any Edit tuner can do this for you. Simple. However, if the person selling the box decided to keep the custom tune in their car and sold you the box without reloading their factory tune, EVEN CAPA CANNOT UNLOCK IT! It will need to be sent back to SCT in the USA to be completely reprogrammed! So, if you're buying one second hand, make damn sure it has been 'reset' buy the owner!

The other things to remember are that, once the box is unlocked and you're ready to use it on your car, you need to make sure the tunes are suitable. For example, if the previous tunes were for a manual XR6T, they WILL NOT WORK on an auto XR6T. If the box has simply been unlocked and returned, without being reflashed with appropriate tunes, you could be asking for trouble.

Also, when the box is unlocked and used on another car, the box 'loses' one of its five lives (ie. you can only use it on 5 different vehicles before it needs to be sent back to SCT for complete reprogramming). You can, however, upload and download as many maps as you like on the same car. You can even reflash the box with custom tunes, as long as it's used on the same vehicle you're fine.

Wow, this is a long post, but I'm not quite done yet! CAPA have apparently now got much better, updated 8psi and 10psi maps for their flash tuners. They are supposed to be far superior to the old tunes, but I cannot say for sure whether the new 10psi map has addressed all the surging problems many users of the older 10psi map were experiencing. If you are getting a second hand box, it'd be worthwhile getting these updated tunes anyway, unless of course you're going straight for a custom tune.

As for the unlocking process, CAPA can unlock the box but retain tunes in the box if you so wish. The box I have has what is apparently a very good custom 12psi map in it (you need to make sure it's for the same car, ie. auto, manual, whatever). I rang the Edit tuner who supplied that custom tune to make sure he was happy for me to keep his tune and, to his credit, he was. So CAPA can apparently unlock the box for me, keep that custom 12psi map in the box, but reflash the other two programs with their latest 8psi and 10psi maps.

Finally, I asked my local tuner what he'd charge to unlock the box and reload the latest maps. He wanted to run it on the dyno and charge me $300-350!! I rang CAPA and their cost for unlcoking and reflashing the box is a much more reasonable $75 (plus $15 return postage via Australian Air Express)!

Sorry it's been such a long post, but I thought it was worth sharing that info with those in the same position as me. Hope it's been of some help to at least a few of you.

[Bain]

Thanks for the info!

I had been contemplating buying one 2nd hand.. Think ill stick with a brand spanker when I decide to go with one.

[turbomuz]

I agree, unless previous owners sell at a significant discount (which they are not) it's better to just buy new and avoid the hassles.

Great post Bugster - cheers.

[bugster70]

Yeah, I hear where you guys are coming from - buying new certainly eliminates any hassle factor, but you do pay a slight premium for that. I'm not flush with cash so investigated second hand units for a while. I got mine for a good discount off new ($700 actually) and it was bought off a fellow forum member. And I must say that the guy I bought it off has been nothing but helpful and honest - he is even refunding me the $90 charge CAPA are imposing for unlocking/reflashing and returning the box to me once he found out that I couldn't simply plug it into my car and expect it to work!

Can't wait to get it back and try it out on my T!!

[vibe ute]

Great post Bugster, that will make the process of buying a second hand Flash Tuner much easier for others. Just slightly off topic, but what brand of exhaust is that on your Z1000 and where did you get the lower fairing?

Cheers

Steve

[SavageF6]

Yeah, think I'll get mine from someone I know, or brand new. Thanks for the lowdown!

[xr6 typhoon]

I've seen the flash tuners goin for $950 or 2 or more for $900 each so they have come down significantly in the last couple of months.

[bugster70]

Great post Bugster, that will make the process of buying a second hand Flash Tuner much easier for others. Just slightly off topic, but what brand of exhaust is that on your Z1000 and where did you get the lower fairing?

Cheers

Steve

Thanks Steve, just wanted to save others the hassle I went through as I know there is still a lot of misunderstanding about this out there.

The pipes are made by Ixil (and they sound bloody awesome if I do say so myself!) and the belly pan is by MBD, which I bought from Wild Hair Accessories in the USA.

[vibe ute]

Thanks Bugster, I'll check it out. Are they 4 into 2, or 4 into 1.

Steve

[bugster70]

They're 4 into 2's and, as far as I know, currently the only undertail pipes available for the Z1000. You've obviously got one of these bikes too? I had a few issues with my Ixils actually, if you wanna know more or discuss anything further, feel free to drop me a PM mate.