Subaru Select Monitor 3 Test With Accessport...finally!!!!

Now before i get in to this, I just want to clarify once and for all the whole point of this. Rumor has it that the new subaru diagnostic tool, the SSM3, can detect an acessprt reflash and will not allow operation and diagnostics. Due to this people fear that thri warrantee claims will be denied and thus must unmarry the AP before visiting the dealer. I had a chance this past saturday to see If this was actually true.

 

Now im sure that using some of the more advanced features of the SSM3 will show signs of the AP reflash but the whole point of this test is to see if the tech will be tipped off to a reflash without knowing first thats its there to begin with while doing the usual diagnostic routines. This is exactly what I did. I told my friend (a subaru tech at my old dealership) to hook it up to my car and go through the diagnostic test and see if it came up with anything funny or if it failed. He ran an "all systems diagnostic" test which scans all the cars different modules including the ECU and then ran a direct test ont he ECU for codes and funtionality. These are the test that any tech would do when diag'ing the car. And the result is....PASSED! The SSM3 did not dectect anything out of the ordinary at all. For the record, I have a stage 2 TDC tune+ headers and a TMIC realtime map flashed over that. So because of this result, i have come up with a set of rules to help you determine if you need to unmarry your AP Before a dealer visit.

The ONLY time you need to unmarry your AP before a dealer visit is if you have an engine performance problem or a concern direclty releted to your ECU. YOU dont have to unmarry it if you have a CEL since most of the time CELs are due to faulty sensors. Use the read CEL function before you go to determine if its just a bad sensor or if its a lean code or a misfire or somthing more serious. Other than that dont worry about having an AP. They wont even know you have it, unless your are a jerk and tell them.

Have fun.

So to clearify, you did not revert to stock, and SSM3 didn't see anything suspicious?

 

I think the key question was if you revert to stock and flash ECU with Cobb supplied stock map (not your original one), can they detect that if they try to? There was some talk about calibration id or something being not properly set even after flashing back to stock map.

 

This is most important, since if one has a serious problem with engine/ECU, one may want to flash to stock map and be sure they can't find traces of Cobb AP reflashes, which could be the basis for refusing warranty claim.

I did not revert to stock for this test. Thats the whole point. Dealers will not check CAL ID when diagnosing a car, and they wont get any errors or limited functionality when runing the SSM3 tests. Everything is A-OK. DONT BE SCARED, you dont have to revert to stock unless you have the issues i stated above.

They wont even know you have it, unless your are a jerk and tell them.

 

like the member with a funny spoiler or hood scoop?

sweet

I did not revert to stock for this test. Thats the whole point. Dealers will not check CAL ID when diagnosing a car, and they wont get any errors or limited functionality when runing the SSM3 tests. Everything is A-OK. DONT BE SCARED, you dont have to revert to stock unless you have the issues i stated above.

 

I got your point. My question was different - if I have issues, I may want to revert to stock. Will they be able to tell (if they check that CAL ID, whatever it really is) I *DID* ever reflash the ECU?

Super info, thanx for the extra effort.......

Thanks for clearing this issue up for everyone man.

I dont know why everyone is so concerned with CAL ID. 99.9999% of the time the tech is just checking codes, looking at sensor inputs and outputs, and running the system tests on the car to determine the problem. After working as a tech at a dealer for over 3 years, i have never seen anyone check the CAL ID.

Thanks, WT!

I dont know why everyone is so concerned with CAL ID. 99.9999% of the time the tech is just checking codes, looking at sensor inputs and outputs, and running the system tests on the car to determine the problem. After working as a tech at a dealer for over 3 years, i have never seen anyone check the CAL ID.

 

This is not about being concerned, rather about being fully informed.

 

I'd like to know. Say, something in transmisson or engine breaks, you reflash to stock, go to the dealer, then they remember you are the one annoying customer that was bringing all these print outs from legacygt.com (about console not being aligned and what not), so they suspect you mod heck out of your car, so they check cal id to verify that, and bam - they catch you and say hasta la vista warranty, baby.

Thanks man!!!

 

Great job!!!

 

Flavio Zanetti

Boston, MA

Thanks for the info; I wasn't aware that anyone claimed that the Select Monitor couldn't connect or diagnose a car that had been flased with an AP.

 

This is not about being concerned, rather about being fully informed.

 

I'd like to know. Say, something in transmisson or engine breaks, you reflash to stock, go to the dealer, then they remember you are the one annoying customer that was bringing all these print outs from legacygt.com (about console not being aligned and what not), so they suspect you mod heck out of your car, so they check cal id to verify that, and bam - they catch you and say hasta la vista warranty, baby.

 

 

then they will void a claim based on the mods you did, not because of the ecu reflash. your physical mods will void a claim much faster then a suspicious CAL ID that they prolly wont even go so far as to check. Also im pretty certin that the majority of the techs wont check the CAL ID let alone even know what a CAL ID is. If you are stage 1 and hard stuff breaks, odds are you wont have any problems.

 

If your dealer is that suspicious of you, then go to another dealer.

And one more note - whitetiger did the test with his TDC map. I don't know this stuff, but how can we be sure that off-the-shelf Cobb map would allow SSM3 to work as well? Either someone checks that with Cobb map or if TDC guys could chime in about this...

IT WILL WORK. a reflash is a reflash. the TDC map was made using the COBB protuner software. the same software that cobb uses to make their maps. the actual content of the map is meaningless to this test.

then they will void a claim based on the mods you did, not because of the ecu reflash. your physical mods will void a claim much faster then a suspicious CAL ID that they prolly wont even go so far as to check. Also im pretty certin that the majority of the techs wont check the CAL ID let alone even know what a CAL ID is. If you are stage 1 and hard stuff breaks, odds are you wont have any problems.

 

If your dealer is that suspicious of you, then go to another dealer.

OMG. I don't need to go to another dealer, because nothing broke and I didn't flash my ECU, either. I am just trying to ask few questions to an expert you are...

 

So you are saying that yeah, CAL ID will be different and IF they know what's that, and IF they want to check, they can tell a reflash was done?

 

In other words, the bottom line question is REALLY simple:

 

If I revert to Cobb stock map and if I put back all stock parts, CAN (not may) ANYONE PROVE my car was modded?

 

Possible answers (pick one):

 

1. Yes

2. No

3. Don't know

 

And, by the way, as everyone else I very much appreciate your effort to try SSM3 with modded car.

IT WILL WORK. a reflash is a reflash. the TDC map was made using the COBB protuner software. the same software that cobb uses to make their maps. the actual content of the map is meaningless to this test.

 

Well, assuming ECU is a programmable computer (I am not ECU expert, I am a computer scientist, though) the above does not need to be neccessarily true...

The bottom line question is REALLY simple:

 

If I revert to Cobb stock map and if I put back all stock parts, CAN ANYONE PROVE my car was modded?

 

Possible answers (pick one):

 

1. Yes

2. No

3. Don't know

 

 

Yes (but it depends on the AP you have and the exact ID of the map that was originally in your car).

Yes (but it depends on the AP you have and the exact ID of the map that was originally in your car).

 

Thank you. I am just wondering then why Cobb didn't include an option to download the original factory map so one would be able to put it back.

Whitetiger FTW!

Very cool info! Thanks!

I've been having problems with rough idling for a few weeks. The CEL finally came on this weekend. Checked it with the AP, is gave me a cyl. 1 missfire code. Most posts say these are usually an injector, plug, or wire problem. Should I unmarry the AP before I take it in? What would you guys do?

 

(AP stage 1, 93 map)

Anything can be proven. even if the ecu had the original cal id back in it after reverting to stock, they could still bust your chops and send the ecu out and the could see if it had been reflashed at all at any time. WIll they do that...NO. Will they check your CAL ID if you have tran or engine failure? 99.99999% of the time..NO. It doesnt matter if the revert to stock left a trace of itself in the ecu. Unless the ecu gives errors to the tech during regular diag, which ive proven it wont, there wont be any reason to check it, and i bet even if he did, he wouldnt know what it should be with out alot of unnecessary time spent researching it.

I've been having problems with rough idling for a few weeks. The CEL finally came on this weekend. Checked it with the AP, is gave me a cyl. 1 missfire code. Most posts say these are usually an injector, plug, or wire problem. Should I unmarry the AP before I take it in? What would you guys do?

 

(AP stage 1, 93 map)

 

As i said in my original post, yes you should revert to stock if you have engine performance problems. If you have a misfire, you shouldnt be running a performance map anyways. If you dont they wont detect your flash anyways, but id revet as a safety precaution, not as a warrantee precaution.