If the ECU is still a current issue i.e. advertised on our web site, it can be reprogrammed, costs from £85 per unit.

If the ECU is an older model, it is recommended that the ECU be only used for the type of engine it is already programmed for. If you require an older model reprogrammed, costs are from £125 per unit dependant on the age of the ECU. It can cost more for the unit to be reprogrammed than the purchase of new ECU. In addition, if the unit breaks, the older units (e.g. 912-900) are irreparable.

Question: Do you or MBE have any plans to make these ECUs compatible with the Win 7/usb combination?

Answer: Unfortunately we had to stop producing the MBE967 a couple of years ago, although it was a very nice ECU, the components that were used to build it were becoming harder to find. Also serial technology has become obselete as far as computer manufacturers were concerned quite sometime before this so now all our current ECUs use USB to CAN technology. We have one engineer at MBE whose main task is to try to keep up with the updates that Windows carry out on virtually a daily basis to make sure our current technology remains exactly that. It is impossible to do this kind of work with discontinued products.

Question: I need to buy a new laptop, will Easimap 5 work on a Windows 7 machine and will my USB/serial adapter still work. If not what do I need to buy?

Answer: The problem you have is that serial ports have been phased out over a period of time & although you can use USB to serial convertors, each upgrade of Windows (auto-updates) appears to make it worse. This was the reason why we had to stop producing the serial type ECU because it was becoming much harder to get them to communicate with systems that do not want to communicate with this kind of older technology.

Although I still occasionally use Easimap 5 & my current everyday laptop (Dell Latitude D640) uses Windows 7, it will communicate with the MBE967, each update that Windows does it appears to get ever harder for it to do so. Many of the companies that we deal with, who regularly program the MBE serial based ECUs try to maintain an old laptop specifically put aside with a serial port for this purpose.

The other problem you will encounter is that USB to serial convertors can be very flaky when it comes to make & model of laptops i.e. you could have one that works perfectly with one manufacturers model of laptop & not with another model even in the same range, so you may need to try many different makes until you find one that suits your laptop. I normally use a Targus model (quite expensive version), but one of my friends with another model of Dell found the cheapest one would work.

My suggestion would be if you intend on doing very little work with the MBE967 i.e. just checking it then either an old laptop or USB convertor that would allow you to do simple checks. If you have to do major programming take it to one of our recommended rolling roads or you wish to do a lot of work for yourself in the future, consider at some point updating to the current MBE9A4 & wiring harness, which allows you to use USB to CAN.

Response: Thanks for your e-mail, as I suspected it would be down to luck if it worked. Bought a Dell Inspiron M5030, cheapest that Tesco's do, plenty good enough for the use I need one for, £262. Comparing it to the last computer I bought its incredible for the price and it appears to be reasonably fast, just wish it had more than 2gb of ram, only £17 to upgrade at Crucial to 4gb thus it may happen sooner than later. Installed Logworks 2 and Easimap 5, no problems apparent, quite surprised there, expected compatibility issues since they are both old programmes.

Anyway, plugged in my Sewell serial/usb, the one that I bought with my LM1.Downloaded the latest Pilgrim drive, installation appeared to fail first time, reinstalled, appeared OK and tried connecting the LM1. It connected by LM Programmer fine and it downloaded a very short logging file from the LM1 OK, fingers crossed now. Opening Easimap it finds Com 3 thus hopefully it will work OK, too cold to go in the garage and find out at the moment. Seem to remember I had to tweak the settings when I first used the setup in XP thus it may not be sorted yet.

I don't connect to the ECU very often, if it ain't broke don't fix it but it's nice to be able to check the settings once a year and since my old Dell was over 8 years old I think it must be living on borrowed time. If both laptops work I will be delighted. Thanks again.

Question: Hello. I recently went to start my vehicle after 5 months and when turning the ignition on I have a clicking relay for up to 5 seconds. I have changed the relay and the same thing happens. I think the power may have been left on feeding the ECU until the battery went dead. Would this have damaged the ECU?

Answer: It should not have caused any damage by leaving the ignition feed on. On very rare occasions, if people attempt to start their car with a flat battery & a jump pack, the ECU gets confused every time you attempt to start the car. The starter motor takes all the current & the flat battery leaving nothing for the ECU, so the ECU shuts down. As the current spikes & dips during this period, the ECU randomly wakes up & then shuts down again causing it to misfire fuel & charging of the coils. In most cases you simply get wet plugs which makes the problem worse, the plugs then track & will not spark properly. if you remove the plugs & test them, they would appear to work fine even when dry, but under compression in the engine they will not work properly.

You should fully charge your battery or replace it, buy a new set of spark plugs & then attempt to start the engine. The engine should then start correctly. The only potential damage you could have done is cranking with a very flat battery with the ECU in it's confused state, it could have overcharged it's internal amplifiers. The ECU would need to be returned to us for testing & repair at a cost of £150 + VAT, however if the ECU is found to be in perfect working order, there would only be a £90 + VAT testing charge.

Question: I know you can never predict how much extra output you would get from any one ECU or engine, but what would you expect to see on average from a standard 1400cc Vauxhall engine that has a MBE ECU attached to it?

Answer:As you say it's very difficult to predict the likely gains you would get, all I would say is that General Motors & all other production based car manufacturers have a different goal to yours. They are trying to acheive emissions, fuel economy, long engine life & all at low cost, because you are after performance by fitting the MBE allows you to optimise fuelling & ignition to produce the best performance at every speed & load. If you were to change other components, e.g. CAT & exhaust, there are potentially more gains to be acheived & the MBE can be programmed to acheive the best results.

When we used to produce the systems for Opel for the Group N cars (showroom class cars) back in the mid-nineties gains varied between 10 - 20bhp, but it would be impossible to predict what you could expect to see.

Question: I would like to make some alterations to the standard map to improve cold starting (the car struggles to idle when cold). However, I've just realised that my laptop (being fairly current) doesn't have a serial port. Is it possible to connect the ECU to a USB port (and if so can you supply the Farnell parts list) or do you know if the regular serial coiled leads that you supply can be used with a USB to serial adapter?

Answer:If your laptop is not equiped with a serial port you will need to purchase an adaptor with the appropriate software from a computer supplier. This will allow you to convert your USB port to run serial.

Once you have downloaded the software & have everything talking correctly, your ECU will almost certainly ask you for a PIN code, all our Ecus are coded with 1111. I would suggest before you attempt to make any adjustments that you look at the device info, as the throttle bodies & fuel pressure must be correctly set and the settings for this are written within this section.

Most importantly of all, is before you make any adjustments make a copy of the maps stored in the Ecu. This way if you make any mistakes you can restore your original map, if you lose your original copy we would have to make a charge to replace it. You should find sufficent information within the help file to carry out any modifications you think necessary & you should familarise yourself with the system before attempting any changes.

Answer: Unfortunately lambda control is extremely complex. There are at least a dozen parameters that need to be set up. We have carried out extensive testing in trying to develop a sensor that was suitable for programming. Unfortunately every 3 or 4 wire sensor we found became inaccurate, as they got hot. So over the years of developing the software has changed considerably from software version to software version. Eventually we gave up trying to use this type of sensor and are now developing our own lambda sensor controller, for use with the latest 5 wire sensors. Because of this the software over the past couple of years has been slowly modified to accommodate this change. The only other type of sensor system that would work is a system such as a Bosch LA system. But these are in the region of £2,000. We are hoping to produce a system for around the £300 mark that you could use to map your engine on.

So I would advise you to leave the lambda system disabled. If when you have completed the task of getting your engine running, you wish us to map it for you, we can fit one of these lambda systems to the car which will allow you to take the car out driving while the system maps itself. We would be quite happy at the time to show you how this is done, so once our own affordable unit is available, you could use one for yourself.

Answer: Unfortunately, every car model in different countries varies. it depends on what accessories have been fitted by General Motors to your car and can only give you a guide. You would need to check into which systems are controlled by your engines ECU. For example, some cars only have trip computers, this would no longer function. If your car happened to be an automatic, some of the later gearboxes receive information from the engine ECU. Unfortunately, the list is endless and in current and future models, the problems will only get worse.

Answer: The 941 ECU has been discontinued. You will need to use the current MBE9A4. You would need to fit a 60-2 or 36-1 trigger wheel to your Cosworth engine. You can usually use the original Cosworth sensor or we can supply a special one (CRK-SEN5), boost pressure sensor, air temp sensor and a distributorless coil pack (COIL-4). We would normally recommend replacing the water temp sensor, we would use a Bosch version. This keeps things simpler than trying to match your Ford sensor. We would also recommend you use high ohmage injectors i.e. 12 - 14.

Links: MBE9A4 ECU | Crank Sensor | Boost Pressure Sensor | Air temp sensor | Coil pack

Answer: The adaptive control is a memory which stores the corrections and the lambda target value controls the target value that the lambda will attempt to trim to. Now that's the easy part. All the under lying functions that you cannot see are very complicated and up until recently, we have used two types of sensor. The first which is extremely accurate but requires a very complex piece of electronics to give an accurate output (approx. £2,000 - £3,000) has to be calibrated with underlying maps which you cannot see and are far too complicated to explain. The other type of sensor is using the ECUs software to control a fairly cheap sensor. This has been even more complicated due to the inaccuracies in the sensor and trying to accommodate these problems within the MBE ECU (effectively trying to get a £400 ECU to do the job of a £3,000 piece of equipment). But what has happened in the last 6 months to a year, is that a new range of sensors which are far more accurate and cheaper, have been produced. But they need a processor to control them. There are a few systems coming on the market, but most of these are around the £1,000 mark. We are hoping to produce our own system, which we expect to be finished soon. We are hoping the price to be around £300 -£400

Answer: Sorry, we have never produced a manual to go with the ECU. You will need to know what software version you have in the ECU. This is written normally on a chip inside the ECU. If there is no label on any of the chips inside the ECU, you can download Easimap 5 from our web site. There are also instructions on how to produce a lead which you can plug into the 941 connector inside the 941. Easimap 5 is designed to work on 941s and 970s with software versions 941ba*** versions and 970ba***.

If you ECU shows a software version of 941aa***, this was designed for use prior to Easimap 5. You would need to do one of two things. Either use easimap 4 which requires a PC running windows 95 or 98A and no later, or have your ECU upgraded (if it is not too old). To upgrade a 941 to the current spec on hardware and software would cost between £200 - £300 depending on hardware and what you require the ECU to do.

We would need to know the serial number of the ECU which is normally on the outside and the board version which is on the circuit board itself. If you are able to take a digital picture of the inside of the ECU, this would help.

When you have access to the correct software (i.e. the software within the ECU matches the PC software), all the functions that the ECU could carry out at the time will be visible in the software. I would also be able to forward you, a pin out diagram which is relevant to the software version the ECU is capable of running

Question: How do i modify a standard connecting lead from my lap top to the ecu, to enable me to change the rev limit?

Answer: If you use the link below it shows you how to make a mapping lead. The PIN code to our standard maps is "1111".

http://www.sbdev.co.uk/Engine_Management_Systems/ECU/Mapping_Lead_Picture.gif

Do not use a standard Serial Lead as this could corrupt your maps/program, damage the ECU or even the Laptop.