How to Recover/Replace ECU Thread

Since this has happened so often and is scattered through the General Supercharger Thread I figured it was time to make a dedicated thread so it's all in one place. I'm working with a guy and his ECU just bricked, so figured now's a good time to try and condense everything. I'm tagging the guys I know who have gone through this and can maybe chime in with some insight into what they did.

What replacement/equivalent ECU needs to be bought?

What processes can be done to recover a bricked ECU?

I have seen pins can be jumped with a 1k resistor, is that resistor soldered on and installed with the ECU?

@nags @Fastlane47 @e30cabrio @Mdl @helidave

 

To replace the ecu to be plug and play it needs to have exact part number. Same body type and accessories.
Sometimes if its a different year you can handshake the new ecu with pins 4 and 13 from the attachment below. Sometimes it needs to be flashed at dealership.
Not sure about bench flashing with resistor as I didn't do it.

 

The big interest should also be @e30cabrio FFV to non FFV. He did all the fuel line mods and vsv relay mod. He got the non FFV ECU to handshake with the Sequoia converting it FFV to non-FFV. There were a few hiccups and he has hpt tuner. We will need to see if it can be done to a non Supercharged truck.
Edit:
**this post is off topic from the original intent of recovering ecu's. My apologies. **

 

So I did a write up in the general supercharger page a little bit ago, I was the one who bricked the ecu tonight. I see many ecu’s for sale on eBay but not sure which one to get. Better yet I’d like to try and recover mine if possible.

 

You will have to pull your ecu out to see the part number. I posted on the SC thread.

 

I wanted @e30cabrio to list his stuff too. What ECU was swapped to another. His is interesting since the new ECU was substational different than the original. What was needed to run that? Did it plug in and that was the end? What hand shake procedure was needed if any?

 

You can search on car-part.com for specific used ecu's. I would recommend calling the yard to confirm the part number before ordering, cause sometimes they list what ECU the VIN says the truck should have, not what it actually has.

 

He had the same year range that Toyota parts said was for his model minus the FFV tuning. He was able to handshake it with the above method. Pining 4 and 13 on obd. Driver door open for some reason...

 

I can tell you that I bricked mine because I am not a patient person, I kept clicking the file load button. Once the file started to load 8 more pages popped up to load the same file and disrupted the original. Completely my fault. I did my replacement ECM from Ebay, so far so good.

 

Matt Smith held my hand through the process. We bought an ECU on eBay with the same part number and then had to match the VIN via Techstream. I believe part of that was to ensure I wouldn't need to buy additional HP Tuner credits.

 

I think that’s what I will have to do because I will need the truck for next week. So I’ll go home after work and pull the ecu, get the part number and start searching for one

 

Yes. That's the part to avoid paying 4 more credits, getting the VIN to match.

 

Where are you guys getting your tech stream from? I know a legit version is very expensive, I’ll need to do the same thing with my VIN

 

Just quoting this here for future reference

 

They have a 2-day subscription for like $70. You'd still need to get a cable somewhere.

 

I did see that, there seems to be a few cables people are using. You know which one I would need to do a VIN swap?

 

I havent messed with techstream in a while, so hopefully someone with more recent experience will chime in. The official toyota supported cables are expensive. The tactrix openport 2.0, like VFtuner uses, is supposed to work with techstream. The cheap ones on Amazon and ebay claim to work, but it's hit-or-miss.

 

Found this.
http://blog.obdii365.com/2022/07/13/mini-vci-vs-openport-for-toyota-techstream/

 

I’m happy to report that I got my ecu unbricked using the method D3Performance sent to me. I had to remove the ecu from the truck, wire up the pins that needed wired and same for the dongle from D3 and then added a 12V power source to power the ecu. I then used their software to recover my stock file and reloaded their tune back on. I will wait to use HPtuners at a different time. I took a few pictures of the mess of wires I had but in the end it all worked. I used very small heat shrink tubing to go over the wires and pins to keep them in place and not short anything out.

 

That's awesome!

When I was testing my 2018 Sequoia cluster in my truck I used this (for future bricked ECUs needing to do this)

$9 iKKEGOL 16 Pin J1962 OBD2 OBD-II Male Connector to Open Plug Wire, OBD Diagnostic Extension Cable Pigtail for DIY (60cm 24" inch, 2ft)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07F16GPMB?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

This is awesome information!
It's great how we all come together to solve problems and collaborate on what works and what doesnt..
Pure awesomeness!!

 

Just ordered to have in my special tool box with the procedure printed out.

 

I wonder if that process only works on the newer ecus that the resistor trick doesn't work on. Didn't they change the board in 2018 or 19?

 

It will be nice to know which years each protocol for recovery. I'll keep some extra stuff in case someone local needs help.
Good question. Maybe reach out to D3...or if anyone else can give details.

 

I must have reading issues or mixed up my meds today. Ha
Still glad you got it unbricked... So did you @Abell207 already have a D3 tune that they help you out with?

 

I had bought their pro tuning software a few years back and have been tuning with them. I’m sure that’s the only reason why they gave me the method of recovery because I had the software to do it.

 

Yes I talked to Matt from VFtuning and he said that resistor doesn’t work on the newer ecu’s. Not sure what year stopped that method. He also wanted me to buy his software to recover mine but I reached out to D3 to see what they could do for recoveries.

 

By software,you mean their own tuning program like HPTuner? If so, does HPT have a similar feature? I also have the VF tuner dongle that came with my SC, wonder if that can also be used later on in case of any ECU issues.

 

I totally missed that in your earlier post. Thought they gave you the way to recover without proprietary software.
But if one can't find an used ECU and dealer cost is pretty steep then this could be a way.
Wonder if we all asked HPT for a recovery program if they could write one. Mention the availability of D3performance and VF tuning programs.

 

Yes just like HPtuners. I did get a message back from a ticket I opened with HPtuners on my bricked ecu and they wanted the info log and a debug file that it creates when flashing. So it seemed like they wanted to look into why it crashed.