Is there a reasonable ECU programmer for the 4Runner?

[mjacx]

I would love to cut off the seatbelt reminder alarm.

I told the dealer before I picked my '16 up, I didn't need an audible seat belt alarm. The visual dash warning met the reminder requirement.
I drove away with no audible seat belt reminder alarm. It can be silenced.

Now if I can just figure out a way to silence the key in the ignition reminder when a door is opened, I would be happy.

 

[borfoo3]

Do what you want as of course it's your vehicle. If you want to tune the 4Runner though you need to replace the electronics. Or engine.

Question: Why did you buy a 4Runner instead of something you can mess with? Like a Jeep? Ford? Chevy?

Its still too early in my 4Runners life for an engine swap.. Electronics part I'm still trying to work out with the shops down here, but its proving itself to be quite the challenge without anything short of a complete custom job..

Regarding your question: Have a Jeep ('14 Wrangler 2dr), Just sold the Chevy ('14 2500HD), and Ford trucks out here aren't worth their weight in scrap metal..

Bought the 4Runner because I don't plan on tearing apart the heavy, shiny 2016 Land Cruiser 200 on the dunes just yet.

 

[BlueRidge77]

I told the dealer before I picked my '16 up, I didn't need an audible seat belt alarm. The visual dash warning met the reminder requirement.
I drove away with no audible seat belt reminder alarm. It can be silenced.

Now if I can just figure out a way to silence the key in the ignition reminder when a door is opened, I would be happy.

I'll probably swing by the dealer to get them to do it. I read where some dealers cried "liability"... This is the only thing I need at this time. I would love to have one button push unlock all doors but I think I read that's not possible... but I haven't finished looking into that yet.

 

[1engineer]

I'll probably swing by the dealer to get them to do it. I read where some dealers cried "liability"... This is the only thing I need at this time. I would love to have one button push unlock all doors but I think I read that's not possible... but I haven't finished looking into that yet.

What pissed me off is there is no way for the operator to control the lock actuation. Sure, you can set it for speed or shift position but that's all. I want my doors to lock/unlock when I press the button, regardless of how fast I am going or what gear I am in. The dealer took care of than in about two seconds.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

This! I believe this is what the original poster meant to address. Having just sold a Jeep with an AEV lift the Procal was a nice tool to calibrate the speedo for larger tires, or adjust my TPMS warning light so that it didn't come on when I chose to run lower pressures than the factory setting.

If you're looking to "correct" the speedometer, the only really viable way is to use something like a "Speedohealer."

I use one in my 4th gen to correct the 14.5% variance from going to 35's. The only issue is that this only really calibrates the VSS (Vehicle Speed Signal) from the Skid Control ECU to the Combination Meter (all other modules for the most part get their VSS data from the Combination Meter via network communication). This will not adjust the ABS Wheel Speed Sensor Input or internal calculation made by the Skid Control ECU; so you can't correct the inherent desire of the VSC/TRAC systems not liking bigger tires.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/178078-speedohealer-v4-4th-gen.html

 

[phx4rnr]

funny, this thread was started, and a couple days later, this pops up on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/TuningTechFS/photos/pcb.1589066031138830/1589065847805515/?type=3&theater

 

[Scharfschütze]

funny, this thread was started, and a couple days later, this pops up on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/TuningTechFS/photos/pcb.1589066031138830/1589065847805515/?type=3&theater

BUMP. I am tempted to try Frank Smith's tune. I have his tune for my 2006 M3 CSL conversion and they do top notch tuning for the BMW world. I'd trust him on the t4r. Anyone tried it on the forum yet??? Its 795 for a remote tune, meaning they send you a cable and software to upload yourself.

 

[1engineer]

BUMP. I am tempted to try Frank Smith's tune. I have his tune for my 2006 M3 CSL conversion and they do top notch tuning for the BMW world. I'd trust him on the t4r. Anyone tried it on the forum yet??? Its 795 for a remote tune, meaning they send you a cable and software to upload yourself.

It's your money but again, nobody in the world has hacked the Toyota ECU. They haven't either.

I will say that if you run 93 octane (a requirement for this "tune") for a few thousand miles, and you continue to do so forever, then you can pick up those gains WITHOUT any tune.

 

[Scharfschütze]

It's your money but again, nobody in the world has hacked the Toyota ECU. They haven't either.



I will say that if you run 93 octane (a requirement for this "tune") for a few thousand miles, and you continue to do so forever, then you can pick up those gains WITHOUT any tune.

How do you know Frank hasn't cracked the code? He is doing an ECU flash not a piggy back so it would appear that's not accurate. Now they are showing their gains on their dyno so you could question it, sure. But how do you know that so absolutely? I reached out to my contact at TTFS since I have a relationship with them to see what else I can learn about it.

 

[MTN4RNR]

How many 4Runners go to the garage for problems?

 

[Muzzle of Bees]

I will add that it is a race to keep up as well. People naturally think that the latest technologies benefit them, when in reality they do not. If you went to dealer A and they show you something with all the silly gadgets people get giddy. Now dealer B has a great, reliable vehicle, but it is less technical.
Which would sell more?

People keep buying Microsoft products despite its horrible flaws.

 

[1engineer]

How do you know Frank hasn't cracked the code? He is doing an ECU flash not a piggy back so it would appear that's not accurate. Now they are showing their gains on their dyno so you could question it, sure. But how do you know that so absolutely? I reached out to my contact at TTFS since I have a relationship with them to see what else I can learn about it.

I would say they are changing the timing parameters is all. Again, your 4Runner will do that automatically (and you will see the gains) if you start running 93 through it. It will just take a few thousand miles. Quit running 93 and it goes back.

I say he hasn't done it because he is still working. Whoever finally cracks the Toyota ECU will instantly become wealthy and won't have to work again ever. Nobody has yet.

 

[Rynooo]

I would say they are changing the timing parameters is all. Again, your 4Runner will do that automatically (and you will see the gains) if you start running 93 through it. It will just take a few thousand miles. Quit running 93 and it goes back.

I say he hasn't done it because he is still working. Whoever finally cracks the Toyota ECU will instantly become wealthy and won't have to work again ever. Nobody has yet.

This. Also, the proven way to get big gains from an NA engine is forced induction. Without a blower or turbo you just don't have that much to work with.

 

[1engineer]

Dude, lol you know you are one of the very few cool guys in the Bay area right?

 

[Jetboy]

There are some promising results from the IS350 tuners - but as I understand it the best they have been able to do is self select certain maps that are already pre-loaded on the ECU. It's not actually doing any new tuning in the sense of writing new code for new mapping. I'm not an ECU expert however.

If I were trying to tune a Toyota engine I'd use a piggy back ECU that interrupts both input and output signals. It would take a fair amount of data logging to even break down the algorithms used, but it surely could be done eventually. Maybe the data would show an easy solution. Maybe not. Then you could choose to modify the input or out put signals or both to achieve the optimal "tune".

Then what? What do you think you'll gain from tuning? You can run lean and sacrifice engine life for a few more hp and lose the proper functioning of the catalytic converters. You can increase the rpm range and sacrifice engine life for more power. With a 4.0L v6 there's just not that much power to go get. Maybe 30hp at best. And practically all of it will come at high rpms. Who drives their 4runner at 6000rpms? Show me 30hp at 2,000rpms and I'm in. 30hp at 5500rpms - who cares? It's meaningless paper power.

Tuning the shift logic would lead to better gains in daily driving performance. But it's hard to sell because you can't see a red line vs blue line on a dyno printout.

Question for tuners: if Toyota allowed you to tune your 4runner BUT in doing so it locks you out of ever returning to OEM tune so you can't hide your tune from either Toyota or a future buyer - would you do it? As I understand it - that's what Ford is now doing with diesels. You can tune them, but you can't go back. You can reset the maps, but the dealer can always identify a tuned engine so no warranty, and a buyer can check on it as well. In my opinion a big part of the high resale is reliability. I would require a SIGNIFICANT price drop to buy a used car with a history of tuning. So I'm very much in favor of having a trap door built in that you cannot reset once it's been tuned. Would you still tune it?

 

[mmike87]

My Mustangs ECU allowed you to go back to the factory tune if you saved a copy of it beforehand. However, there was and always would be a permanent flag set in the ECU to indicate that it had been tuned so even if you reverted to the factory tune they would still know it was tuned at some point.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[MTN4RNR]

Dude, lol you know you are one of the very few cool guys in the Bay area right?

Ha, well thanks. I meant more that my 4R is currently one of the few with a mechanical issue thanks to the mystery oil leak. Thus I had to go to the Toyota dealership with my problems :nono:

 

[1engineer]

Ha, well thanks. I meant more that my 4R is currently one of the few with a mechanical issue thanks to the mystery oil leak. Thus I had to go to the Toyota dealership with my problems :nono:

Yeah i know. Nothing wrong with most dealerships though. Just need to be nice. Always be nice...

 

[Jetboy]

I just wanted to follow up with a little cold water...

I did a rough calculation that at 100% thermal efficiency and 100% volumetric efficiency and perfect air/fuel stoich ratio and perfect 100% burn a 4.0L 4 stroke engine could produce around 1300hp at 4,000rpms. 1,650hp at 5000rpms. 4,400rpms is likely very close to the peak volumetric efficiency of the 1GR. (peak tq = peak efficiency typically). Assuming still unrealistically generous, but more realistic 80% volumetric efficiency at 5000rpms and 25% thermal efficiency, the best any tuner could hope to squeeze out of the 1GR is about 325hp. Possibly a peak of around 350hp at 5500rpms before efficiency really crashes. That's ignoring all of the physical limitations of this particular engine that will make those numbers hard to reach.

So... the point is that a tune is never going to provide significant improvements in driveability at midrange rpms. At very best it'll improve power by 10%, but even that is pretty unlikely. NA gasoline engines are pretty close to the limits of efficiency already. The only realistic ways to get more power is to increase RPMs (pointless in this case IMO), or increase volumetric efficiency (impossible with tuning), increase thermal efficiency (probably impossible without leaning afr), or add forced induction. So... think very hard about whether you wish to spend your money on a tune unless there's a very good demonstration of added power without leaning out the air/fuel mix (engine life) or increasing rpms to increase the hp on paper that we'll never use.

 

[Rynooo]

There are some promising results from the IS350 tuners - but as I understand it the best they have been able to do is self select certain maps that are already pre-loaded on the ECU.

Also, the IS350 is a turbo engine. All turbo engines come from the factory with a conservative tune, something akin to 10.0 AFR (with the turbo car I owned), for longevity and safety. You see huge gains when you lean that out to 11.3!