488 GTB Needed New ECU After I Sent the Car to Eurocharged | FerrariChat

488 GTB Needed New ECU After I Sent the Car to Eurocharged

Discussion in '458 Italia/488/F8' started by weidake, Oct 19, 2020.

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  1. weidake

    weidake Rookie

    Jul 16, 2020
    22
    Houston
    Full Name:
    David ke
    I sent my 2016 Ferrari 488 GTB to Eurocharged Houston on October 5th for a Dyno tune since I installed Capristo sport cats and Xpipe about a week ago. On October 6th Phil from Euro Charged informed me that my 488 went in to Theft mode and would not start so Euro charged towed my 488 to Ferrari Houston for repair. After about a week Ferrari Houston told me that my ECU was completely wiped and can not communication with the computer, so my car needed a brand new Ecu. I do have to pay for parts and labors due to modification. And apparently this was not the end of the repair. FH informed me about 2 weeks later my TCU will be reprogrammed as well which all I can do was to consent to the additional repair. Car was ready for pick up after 2 and half weeks of down time and a total repair bill little over $5K which i had to pay out of pocket of course. When I dropped off my 488 at Euro Charged the car is fully functional and only had a CEL related to O2 sensor which on my repair bill it clearly stated.
    Now I'm contacting Euro Charged to reimburse my repair bill. Euro Charged wanted to start with getting my old ECU to inspect. Euro Charged claimed that they did not do anything to the ECU but to take it off and installed it back on. I do think Euro Charged should take care of the bill regardless because the 488 was at their possession when she broke down.
    I will keep you guys posted on the story. I will drop of my old ECU to euro charged as they demanded.
     
    greg328, mdrums and pdxjim488 like this.
  2. SECRET

    SECRET Formula Junior
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    May 19, 2007
    934
    Get a Capristo OBD Wizard and call it a day for now


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  3. Natkingcolebasket69

    Natkingcolebasket69 F1 World Champ

    Never had an issue with eurocharged. Phil is the man


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  4. weidake

    weidake Rookie

    Jul 16, 2020
    22
    Houston
    Full Name:
    David ke
    Probably what I’m going to do now
     
  5. weidake

    weidake Rookie

    Jul 16, 2020
    22
    Houston
    Full Name:
    David ke
    #5 weidake, Oct 19, 2020
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2020
    EC got a lot of recommendations when I was deciding whom to use for tuning my 488. Phil is a real nice guy. Not the outcome we hoped for but don’t think it is fair for me to pick up the entire 5k repair bill either.
     
  6. Natkingcolebasket69

    Natkingcolebasket69 F1 World Champ

    No it’s not!he did my FF just q couple months ago! Hope u can work it out with them!


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  7. Shark01

    Shark01 F1 Veteran

    Jun 25, 2005
    5,687
    Re-programming an ECU isn’t risk free. My Porsche Turbo also had its ECU wiped when I was doing the download. The company FVD sent me a new one which I used for several years and was happy with.
     
  8. weidake

    weidake Rookie

    Jul 16, 2020
    22
    Houston
    Full Name:
    David ke
    exactly! When I tuned my r8 v10 I had a similar situation and the tuner bought me a new ecu with no question asked
     
  9. weidake

    weidake Rookie

    Jul 16, 2020
    22
    Houston
    Full Name:
    David ke
    Trying to work our a deal with eurocharged and found this post on their Instagram. Clearly my car and I did not request an e85 tune when I dropped my car off. Hmmm..... Image Unavailable, Please Login
     
  10. Ruffinit

    Ruffinit Rookie

    Dec 15, 2013
    38
    Chicago
    Full Name:
    Shir
    So they flashed it to e85 without ur consent and then ecu got wiped out? If so they need to pay...fwiw I have used euro charged for my amg GTS years ago and was not impressed w anything! (Service, Tune, etc)
     
  11. Natkingcolebasket69

    Natkingcolebasket69 F1 World Champ

    How so ? Did cl65,s63,2020 g550 and my ff and all was done within 24 hours with noticeable gains at my end


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  12. Ruffinit

    Ruffinit Rookie

    Dec 15, 2013
    38
    Chicago
    Full Name:
    Shir
    Yeah the gains was there but for me the drivability changed and I contacted them few days after install and no response/refund was granted..I thought the car drove rough and very jerky and slightly unpredictable especially off the line etc..as in the power delivery was not in line with throttle input...this was my experience..I have ecu tunes many cars from other places and had no issues (911tt,Mclaren 570,Aventador etc)
     
  13. Natkingcolebasket69

    Natkingcolebasket69 F1 World Champ

    Interesting !


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  14. RayJohns

    RayJohns F1 Veteran
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    May 21, 2006
    7,398
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    Ray
    Sorry to hear of your misfortune there.

    I don't have much experience reprogramming Ferrari ECU's, but back in the day I did used to reprogram EPROMS and burn PROMS and things like that. You do have to be very careful during some stages of reprogramming, because if anything goes off track, sometimes there is just lot a lot of recourse.

    I don't know Eurocharged first hand (never even heard of them before). I would hope that they did not plug or unplug the ECU while the battery was connected to the car; perhaps you can check on that. I mean, even when I unplug the ECU from my pickup truck, I always make sure to disconnect the battery.

    The fact that they mentioned it when into Theft mode is sort of interesting. That makes me wonder if something was downloaded with the wrong information and/or if perhaps there is some backup battery in another control unit which was able to see that the ECU had been removed and put back on during some span of time or something.

    When I had to do work on my 360's alarm circuit board, I remember there was a dedicated battery on that circuit board, which prevented thieves from simply disconnecting the main battery and defeating the alarm system, etc.

    Ray
     
  15. weidake

    weidake Rookie

    Jul 16, 2020
    22
    Houston
    Full Name:
    David ke
    they said it was another customers 488, and I have no solid proof that they did it on mine。 but the fact that all 3 pictures they posted were my 488 made things interesting. Btw, The post was deleted right after I asked about it.
     
  16. weidake

    weidake Rookie

    Jul 16, 2020
    22
    Houston
    Full Name:
    David ke
    Thanks Ray! This actually help me understand the situation a lot better. I think it is very likely they removed the ecu while battery is plugged. I read somewhere that battery issue will cause 458/488 to trigger the alarm. And removing and plug back the ecu may just cause more drama.
     
    RayJohns likes this.
  17. Natkingcolebasket69

    Natkingcolebasket69 F1 World Champ

    I would doubt this - when they send u the instructions for remote flashing they send lengthy instructions not to do this . It’s not the first 488 they are doing.
    Any reasons u didn’t do it via the remote service ? It’s how I did mine.


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  18. IloveGT

    IloveGT Formula 3
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    Oct 17, 2015
    2,419
    busted. I will not pay a cent.
     
  19. RayJohns

    RayJohns F1 Veteran
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    May 21, 2006
    7,398
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    Ray
    So you think they might have used your car to test some other parts, which you hadn't asked them to install? If that is the case, that's really out of bounds if you ask me.

    You have to be really careful. As the Italians say, the fish stinks from the head down. The first real life example I ever saw of that was my first ever computer job here in Monterey. There was this guy named Rick, who had a computer store called Legacy Computers. He was a real slim-ball. I don't know if he's still alive, but I highly doubt it. He was a little fat guy and totally dishonest. He knew just enough about selling computers to have a computer repair / sales operation, but mind you, this was back in 1984 when you didn't know too know all that much to be involved in selling hardware.

    Anyway, he was dishonest as the day was long. He had this guy named Kevin who did most of his dirty work. I only worked there for about 2-3 months, before moving to another company to do relational database development. But while I was at Legacy computer, I saw some crazy stuff. I was only 18 at the time, so the world was still relatively new to me. But I remember this Rick guy had a habit of removing customers' hardware from their computers when they brought it in. A customer would bring their computer in for repair and then he would remove their high quality (i.e. expensive) upgrade boards and stick in cheap generic stuff. Then he'd turn around and sell the expensive boards in the display case. I remember another time, KayPro computer sent them 20 or 25 computers and the UPS driver forgot to get signatures (or something along those lines) and they claimed they never received the delivery. Meanwhile, the computers were hidden up in the attic when the KayPro rep came by to see what the heck had happened to all their hardware.

    I might have some of the facts off a bit (since it was over 30 years ago), but the main point is that you have to be very careful turning over your expensive merchandise to some of these people in the world. A lot of them are either dishonest or incompetent or both.

    Always be on your toes.

    Ray
     
  20. RayJohns

    RayJohns F1 Veteran
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    May 21, 2006
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    The other thing is that when you kill the power to the car, there can still be residual power stored up in some of the capacitors and whatnot. This theoretically could continue to power the ECU at some level for a few minutes. If someone were to remove the battery power and then immediately yank out the ECU, it's quite possible it would still register as having been removed. I don't know the specifics of how the network system or alarm system functions on the Ferrari, but I sort of doubt that just unplugging the battery totally defeats the alarm system which monitors the car.

    Ray
     
  21. weidake

    weidake Rookie

    Jul 16, 2020
    22
    Houston
    Full Name:
    David ke


    Eurocharged headquarter is 20 miles away from my house and they waved the labor removing and reinstalling ecu so I just handed them the key
     
  22. RayJohns

    RayJohns F1 Veteran
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    May 21, 2006
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