Hey guys, search the forum and couldn't find anything about bricking an ECU or how to fix it.

So here's what happened. I got a cable off a guy with the license, he was nice enough to send me the tuned ROM from his ECU to me as well. My car being 04 and his 05 the ECUs are different, to boot I know the part numbers are different even within the years. Long story short I figured I could copy his maps into my rom and try to run it. Well that was a big "no-no" apparently. In fact the car loaded the ROM and then wouldn't start. Just cranked over. So I figured I could run the "back to stock" ROM and reset everything. That's the issue, the ECU refused to communicate with the Uprev software.

I unplugged the battery for an hour and returned and tried to run the procedure to recover a partially flashed ECU. Nothing.

I left it unplugged overnight and came out to it this morning and tried to the same thing...again, nothing.

So I took a deep breath, looked on eBay and found an ECU with the same part number and ordered it, overnight unfortunately since I only have this as my DD. $200 later and I'll have it tomorrow morning. I'm hoping I can mail the ECU to Uprev and have them fix this mess. It's bad enough the license is on the ECU. If it's bricked, there's a chance I can lose my license as well as my ECU.

My question is if anyone's had any luck with recovering bricked ECUs before? Also are there tell-tale signs? The car will crank but won't start. I didn't hear the fuel pump priming, the fans click on and off by themselves while the car is in the ON position. I read NASIOC forums and most people said the car wouldn't even crank. If mine is cranking, does that mean there's still some chance the ECU is salvageable?

UPDATE: Since there was no response back to my previous post I went ahead and ordered a new ECU. I was lucky to find one on eBay for $130 + $70 overnight shipping. $200 later, I got it on my door step at 8am. Since the car was disconnected I safely removed the old, installed the new and turned on the car. It fired up immediately.

This is where there's more issues! This morning 8/22/14 I got in, tried to turn it on and it simply cranked. Same issue as before. This time the fans weren't randomly turning on and off. I could hear the pump priming. I'm not sure what happened between last night and this morning, but something is obviously wrong!

I checked my fuses and they all look good. I cannot seem to find anything wrong. I plugged in my code scanner to ensure there was communication, there was. I got a P1065 which is:

- ECM Harness power supply circuit is open or shorted
- ECM Harness ground supply circuit is open or shorted
- ECM may be faulty

I cleared the code and tried again. I assumed the code was from the previous ECU which got bricked. Not sure where the problem might lie, hopefully it's merely a fuse or something.

With that said I had it towed to a local shop because I don't have the energy to deal with this mess. In the meantime though, has anyone had issues with a new ECU after installation? Like has it done anything funny? Did you have to take it to the dealership? Anything? This is rather unusual and I can't get any information out of the dealer because they say they need to do reprogram it or something or another. In my experience, sometimes the immobilizer will kick in, however even so. I've got a Viper starter kit installed, the lock and unlock functions remain unchanged, also when I hit the "Start" button on the remote, it will send a signal and the car will crank and fail. Please I need people to respond with ANY kind of constructive input. This is going to drive me nuts!

All this mess was started AFTER I got Uprev onto the car, that's when everything went downhill. Since then I've spent $500 on the cable and license, $200 on a new ECU, now the cost of the tow and potential repairs. It doesn't help that I can't get a hold of anyone at UpRev. I've called and left messages and no response.

Sorry to hear what happened to you.
You just paid for a training course in

"Never try to fix anything that isn't broke"

You have a ten year old vehicle. What did you expect to accomplish in attempting to load questionable software from a vehicle not like yours?
Who knows if the Viper has anything to do with your starting problem?
I think at this point have the vehicle towed to the dealer.
You are already out over $1000.00
Get an estimate from the dealer.
If the estimate is too high perhaps a trade in on a used or even new might work for you.
Over 40 years ago a valve broke and fell into my 66 VW Beedle. I had it towed to the local VW dealer.
The repair was costly and made no economic sense. The dealer offered me $500.00 as is towards a trade in
I traded it in for a brand new 69 VW that had a sticker price of $2050.00 So for a $1500 outlay I had a brand new car.

I suggest that you consider the same and remember never try to fix anything that isn't broke.

Good luck to you

Telcoman

You have to get the keys reprogrammed for the new ECU. So hopefully you had the vehicle towed to an Infiniti dealership.

Why didn't you just call UpRev before ordering another ECU. I'm sure they could have provided you a solution considering it is their product.

Thanks, unfortunately I've never run into this issue before with any of my cars so I had no idea it had to be towed to a dealer. I had it towed to a local mechanic who just shrugged and said "I have no idea" because he doesn't deal with any "modified vehicles". There are no real shops that are familiar with modified or even lowered cars in my area, its a small town and there are no gear heads here unless they are classic cars.

The issue wasn't "fixing something not broken" but rather getting more power out of a well built car. Yes she's 10 years old, but under 100K miles, I've got plans for this car and quite honestly I've not seen a more reasonable option for tuning software anywhere else. Given that most other programs and hardware is indeed questionable due to compatibility issues. Considering the car is only programmed for ~250 hp, that's far from enough for me. I'd be happy with ~300 hp with a good balance of components, I'm not asking for what many other younger owners ask for, 500+ hp, that's unrealistic.

What bothers me is just that there's no real support to this issue because I seem to be the first documented case of a bricked ECU after using UpRev. The ROM in question was from an 05 G35 with similar mods. Given that I understand how to tune maps, I've worked on my own in the past, I had no problem in changing some parameters. This issue was something to do with the software itself and the lack of copying the entire ECU data onto my computer. Regardless, I don't blame anyone except myself for this.

$250 later for a tow and I'm still waiting for the Nissan to look at it Monday.

Unfortunately with UpRev there's no way to get a hold of anyone 99% of the time. I called them 7-8 times in one day at regular intervals to try to get a hold of Omar in support. Unfortunately unless I kept calling, I wouldn't hear back. When he finally did pick up I told him the story, I emailed him all the details, I included all the maps in question. I sent my ECU and cord to him on Wednesday, and come to find out that Friday came around and there was no delivery. God Bless USPS for not being able to locate my tracking number in their system. It came directly FROM the receipt, and they cannot find it.

At the end of the day, yes it's an expensive mistake. However any car is an expensive venture. I'm not as concerned about the cost (money is only money), I'm more concerned about the lack of support available on this matter. It took several days for anyone to mention the ECU needs to be programmed, and more importantly there was no documentation online (Google) that I could find that mentioned this procedure.

It's not an issue of trading in the car, if you have the means to fix it, then do. If it's beyond cost effective repair, then that's another issue. I invested blood, sweat, and tears into this car and it was the last joint effort I had with my father before he passed two years ago. It'd be a shame to let this go, I'd rather spend money and run it into the ground when the frame rots before I get rid of it.