How to tell if ECU is locked

[Barnesy]

I am finally picking up my car tomorrow from the mechanic after 1year 10months. When talking to him he mentioned locking ECUs I asked him not to lock mine I don’t want it locked. I own the ECU I paid for the tune therefor own it too.

My question is how do I tell if my ECU has been locked???

Cheers

[Scott C]

When you connect to the ecu you'd see "Password Protection Activated" in the top right corner of the window and you won't see any values in any of your tables or settings.

[motomattx]

That would be hard for me to swallow, I like to be able to make adjustments here and there when I get the car out, but I do understand why someone would want to, I guess "protect" what they consider intellectual work, although it wouldn't be all that hard to datalog the car on a dyno and fill in the blanks as to what the timing map and fuel map actually are anyway.

[928sg]

I know a guy that recently sold his car because the shop that tuned it, locked the ecu and he didn't want to ship it 1500 miles every time it needed a small tweak.   Shop was holding him hostage on his own car.    He wasn't technical and refused to be in that situation.   I wish that as an owner I could set a master password that would override anything else on the ecu to negate this kind of stuff.

This is my largest source of stress about getting my car tuned.

[Adamw]

8 hours ago, 928sg said:

I know a guy that recently sold his car because the shop that tuned it, locked the ecu and he didn't want to ship it 1500 miles every time it needed a small tweak.   Shop was holding him hostage on his own car.    He wasn't technical and refused to be in that situation.   I wish that as an owner I could set a master password that would override anything else on the ecu to negate this kind of stuff.

This is my largest source of stress about getting my car tuned.

If a tuner password protects the tune, it doesnt "hold you hostage", you can simply load an unprotected map in over the top and do whatever you want.  If it still worries you then discuss with your tuner before you give him the job.  

[mike gc8]

so that means, if the current map is locked. i can go to an other tuner and he can make a new map. just can see or edit the existing map?

so you dont have to factory reset the ecu to get a new unprotected map?

 

 

[Adamw]

Correct, the tuner can load a new map in himself and be completely free to do whatever he wants with it.  You can even save the old password protected map and load it back in at a later date if you ever wanted to put it back to how it was.