No ECU dump available.. No buy??

[drevil]

looking at out of town vehicle, (far far out of town) and owner has no ECU dump available, nearest dealer to him is 5 hours away.
Claims never seen a track.

Buy a car without ECU dump ever???or insane?


Also, are factory recalls on oil issues etc ever an item that expires? he hasn't done these.

[agirls]

Recalls do not expire and only *just* came out so you can get it fixed yourself. An ecu dump does not tell you the condition of a car. If you do not trust your own inspection, have a mechanic check out the car.

[drevil]

Originally Posted by agirls

Recalls do not expire and only *just* came out so you can get it fixed yourself. An ecu dump does not tell you the condition of a car. If you do not trust your own inspection, have a mechanic check out the car.

Who would you have look at it if it is located five hours from dealer several hour flight from me?


Any other dealership that could look /see???

[addertooth]

If you tell the members of this forum what city the car is in, you might be able to get one of the experienced Lotus gear heads in the area to take a peek for you.

[agirls]

^That. Plus, it is a common Toyota drive train. Any decent mechanic can check out the engine and other wear items such as brakes. You can ask a member here to take a peak or see if anyone knows the car on the forum or ask for a mechanic recommendation local to the car. These are the hassles of buying a non local car.

[jds62f]

Bought mine without one. How do you think people buy other used cars? An ECU dump doesn't really tell you that much. It will tell you two things cut and dry:

1> If the car has been overrev'd
2> How many standing starts its had

Outside of that, everything is usually up to interpretation. This is a SPORTS CAR, expect that its been driven like one. Give it a good inspection yourself or with some help and be happy!

Originally Posted by drevil

looking at out of town vehicle, (far far out of town) and owner has no ECU dump available, nearest dealer to him is 5 hours away.
Claims never seen a track.

Buy a car without ECU dump ever???or insane?


Also, are factory recalls on oil issues etc ever an item that expires? he hasn't done these.

[Tom_Hughes]

I have a dealer scan tool that I can rent and ship to you or him to get the ECU dump.

[Drew09]

Bought mine without it.

[Tom_Hughes]

Originally Posted by jds62f

Bought mine without one. How do you think people buy other used cars? An ECU dump doesn't really tell you that much. It will tell you two things cut and dry:

1> If the car has been overrev'd
2> How many standing starts its had

Outside of that, everything is usually up to interpretation. This is a SPORTS CAR, expect that its been driven like one. Give it a good inspection yourself or with some help and be happy!

It also logs unusual conditions, e.g., lean, knock, how much timing pulling.

I drove around on the street to debug a problem after getting an engine replaced under warrenty that kept throwing an engine code that a bit ambigous. Turns out they left the NA fuel injections shipped with the engine, rather than replacing with slightly larger Exige S fuel injectors. Two dealerships, CharlieX and others tried to figure that one out. Finally a mechanic at Lotus Newport noticed that the fuel injections didn't look correct for a SC Exige.

Scan tool was helpful to log the problem and dispatch reports to dealers, Dave Simkin, Lotus UK, etc.

[drevil]

Car is in Houma Louisiana
Any members around there?

Otherwise who should I have do a PPI? Toyota?

[ee.engineer]

i would suggest a PPI just for peace of mind, but if they reflashed their ECU, then flashed it back to stock, it also won't have any real data.

[jds62f]

You're confusing the dealer tool with the ECU dump the OP is talking about. Its limited to the items I identified, along with run time at various RPM ranges, coolant temperatures at top speeds, etc. I'm sure the tool logs lean conditions, knock, timing, etc, but you won't get any of that in the report he's asking about.

Example here: ECU dump. How much and what Info?

Originally Posted by Tom_Hughes

It also logs unusual conditions, e.g., lean, knock, how much timing pulling.

I drove around on the street to debug a problem after getting an engine replaced under warrenty that kept throwing an engine code that a bit ambigous. Turns out they left the NA fuel injections shipped with the engine, rather than replacing with slightly larger Exige S fuel injectors. Two dealerships, CharlieX and others tried to figure that one out. Finally a mechanic at Lotus Newport noticed that the fuel injections didn't look correct for a SC Exige.

Scan tool was helpful to log the problem and dispatch reports to dealers, Dave Simkin, Lotus UK, etc.

[drevil]

In rural louisiana
Ok to have Toyota dealer do PPI??

I know that sounds crazy ..

[agirls]

Start a new thread with the closest city in the title asking for a recommendation/help would be my suggestion.

[drevil]

MILEAGE PROBLEM>>>>??
carfax and autocheck

12/29/09 shows 12,000

3/3/09 shows 14,600
7/20/10 shows 109,000 ! (big jump)?!
current listing shows 21,000?

So,, did dealer doing the oil and filter report it wrong in 7/10 ? should it have read 19,000 ? even still only 2 k miles since 7/20/10?

[addertooth]

Yes, an ECU dump will fully explain the actual milage, you can play with run time hours at a rpms to calculate roughly the milage on a vehicle. Oddest ecu dump I ever saw was a car which was idled an insane amount of time.

[Zukipilot]

Originally Posted by drevil

MILEAGE PROBLEM>>>>??
carfax and autocheck

12/29/09 shows 12,000

3/3/09 shows 14,600
7/20/10 shows 109,000 ! (big jump)?!
current listing shows 21,000?

So,, did dealer doing the oil and filter report it wrong in 7/10 ? should it have read 19,000 ? even still only 2 k miles since 7/20/10?

Probably a typo for 19,000...

[JohnnySniper]

I bought mine without an ECU dump. So far, so good.

[antinym]

ECU dumps are important to dealers to deny warranty claims. Does this car have a warranty? If so, and the warranty is important to you, you may want to get the ECU dump. Otherwise, it's not that important.

[evilfij]

I would not care about an ecu dump on a car out of warranty. If it was badly overreved it is either (1) blown up in a way that would be apparent on a test drive or (2) probably fine and in any event, short of people grabbing second rather than fourth on a track, overrevs are rare.

In addition, a bunch of ECU dumps (including one on my 06) showed a 13k rpm overrev which is a computer error that seems quite common.

For what it is worth, I bought my 07 exige without an ecu dump and I was like 45 minutes from the dealer. I did not even test drive it so I am probably dumb, but whatever.