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Stuck on vacation - who makes cat delete flash?

742 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  Tomvw
The day before we left for vacation, I took the car to the dealer to have a new key programmed, and for an alignment. Several hundred miles into our drive, I started experiencing misfires, and getting catalyst performance below threshold, and O2 Sensor #2 out of spec. MIL codes. I have a downtube, and no cat/o2 sensor 2, and the ECU Software Flash on the chip I had removed those codes. Somehow, my flash was overwritten. I limped the car to the APR headquarters in Alabama, and the folks there were kind enough to get me going again (sans $550), as they said my ECU did not show in their database as having their software. Car runs well with APR, no more codes, but idles at 750rpm, which is not a high enough idle when the AC, Radio, Phones plugged in, GPS, satellite radio, headlights are all on - drains the battery in about 2-3 minutes of sitting at a light. I'd like to find out what the original software was - I always though it was APR, but the previous owner was the one who did the work on it.

My question - what other companies have flashes for a B5 2003 Passat 1.8T Wagon that have a cat-delete/O2 #2 delete option (ie, remove the thresholds for catalyst and catalyst O2 sensor)?

What I know:

1) It was programmed through the ECU port, there was no "module" installed
2) APR didn't have VIN in their database, and they said there was no "module" installed.
3) GIAC, as a California company, can't do the cat-delete/testpipe option
4) I don't think it was Revo
5) Car vin is not in the Unitronics database
6) I don't think it's Neuspeed - isn't that just a module?

Any assistance with finding out what the original software on the car was would be hugely appreciated!

Many thanks in advance!
TJ Tryon
2003 Passat 1.8T Wagon
2011 GTI
1973 Porsche 914
1995 BMW 318i (race car)
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Well. I can guarantee you, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that your original software, before being overwritten at the dealership, was not APR (BTDT). Please share the dealership name if you would. :hmmm:

I also find it a bit odd that APR is once again doing drive-in/while-you-wait ECU modifications at their Opelika facility. I tried last October, and was told I'd need to leave an ECU (that already had 1 bar software installed) with them and they'd mail it back after the Immo defeat was complete. Uhm, no...I couldn't trust that specific ECU to be modified and shipped back without issue...even by APR (too many potential SNAFUs if an ECU Immobilizer defeat isn't completed and proven in the car on the same day). So much for same-day customer service.

Must've been Unitronic or semi-private (k0mpresd ;)) as no other company I know of will go anywhere near any emissions-related readiness code overwrite activities after the whole VW Dieselgate emissions fiasco.
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