>>>> Information on using The Flashtool with a flash based PCM <<<<
Since version 1.20 The Flashtool has official support for VX and VY V6 flash PCMs. It is possible to read and write to ANYWHERE in the PCMs memory. This means you can clone PCMs - ie convert a VX into a VY and the vehicle wont even know. All the security tests will still pass
With this though comes a WARNING! While I have tried to test this as much as possible there is always the possibility that something can go wrong with the flash process. If it does then there is a chance that it won’t be recoverable and the flash chip will need to be removed and reprogrammed - I do offer a PCM socketing service
I would strongly encourage doing a few 'Get Bin' tests and saving copies of these - answer NO to clearing the CPU registers when it asks. There is very important info in the EEPROM (see
here ) that is unique to every vehicle. If this gets corrupted and you don’t have a copy even a socketed flash chip won’t help. You won’t be able to start the car and the VIN number won’t match. Before trying to make changes I would advise buying a spare PCM and cloning it, they are really cheap and can always go back to your original PCM.
Cloning a PCM
1) Purchase a spare PCM but do not install it yet
2) Download and open The Flashtool. Under preferences select the com port and from the drop down box select “Flash PCM in vehicle”. Press ok to save the settings
3) Click the “Connect To ECM” button. It will go through a whole heap of things with the final items saying something similar to ..
9:17:29 PM Found VY Flash PCM, BCC: DTCF
9:17:29 PM VIN Of Connected Vehicle: 6G1YK82A23L98xxxx
4) Now you MUST do a few “Get Bin” commands. Don’t do just one, get a few copies. Very important, say no when it asks to clear the internal registers as we need that information later on. Save these as different file names on your PC and keep them safe. If at this point you’re getting data errors or can only sometimes get the entire bin, DO NOT CONTINUE! Ask for help on the forums.
5) At this point you have copies of your original PCM in case you ever need to restore a PCM.
6) Turn everything off, disconnect the battery and install the new PCM
7) Connect to the PCM using The Flashtool. It will go through all the same things as in step 3 and again tell you the details of the device. However at this point you will notice the VIN number won’t be the same and if you tried, the engine won’t start.
8) We need to clone the PCM. Select “Write Bin”. This is the only time you will ever use write bin, DO NOT use this for tuning. When the open file dialog appears, select one of the files you saved earlier. It will write the bin, it takes around 4 minutes. Do not abort or turn the key off, if you do the new PCM will never work again.
9) You will get a popup message about cloning the PCM. You want to answer yes to this.
10) Hopefully you will hear the relays in the car click and a “Binary Write Success!” popup will appear.
11) Try starting the car, it should all work like it did on the original PCM. Use this cloned PCM for any changes and keep the original as your backup.
Tuning changes
I would STRONGLY encourage you to do the above cloning before making changes to a PCM, if not then at the very least do multiple "Get Bin" commands and save the bin files, do not clear the internal register data when it asks.
1) Open The Flashtool and click “Get Bin”. When it asks to clear internal registers select yes. NEVER write this bin if you need to clone a PCM. Clearing the registers is handy if you would like to share your bin with the online community that has helped you. It will now not contain your VIN number and security details.
2) Open TP and with the matching XDF edit the bin with whatever changes you want.
3) Open The Flashtool and click “Write Cal”. DO NOT select write bin, we don’t want to use that as its risky and unnecessary for tuning changes. When the open file dialog appears it will only show cal files so use the drop down box to select bin files. Open the bin file you just edited in TP. It will only write the cal portion, which is the tuning bit.
4) Once the calibration is finished writing a box will appear about an incorrect checksum. Answer yes and when the box appears saying it has failed and to retry answer yes. The checksum of the flash PCM cannot be calculated using the native TP checksum calculator so until a plug-in is written you must write the calibration twice*. After rewriting the calibration with the correct checksum a “Calibration Write Success!” dialog box should appear.
*Note: As of V1.37 there is a Flash PCM Auto Fix Checksum option in the user preferences. This is not enabled by default, selecting it prior to a cal write speeds up the write process. If the checksum has not been fixed in TunerPro, the flashtool will write your new cal with a checksum of FFFF, when finished writing your cal it checksums the PCM and if it does not match (unlikely being FFFF) it will write just the 2 checksum bytes instead of the whole cal segment.
5) Go and test your new tune
Common Problems
I can no longer connect to the PCM and the engine wont start after a write cal: Turn everything off, disconnect the battery or engine fuse for 10 seconds and try again. If you dont fix the checksum the PCM will not reset properly and will be stuck in an unknown state. Make sure you select ok to fix the checksum and retry the write calibration when it asks