Lazz83

Good day mates,

Wondering if it is possible to source a new Genuine MB C43, ECU to have it tuned for my C43 Sedan.

I have purchased many ECU's in the past for various other vehicles when I thought they were going bad.

Wouldn't this be the ideal solution for people who want to tune there cars and not put up red flags at the dealer when they bring in their cars for service? I mean just swap out the new tuned ECU for the original stock unit.

Look I have the 4yr service plan so say I brought the car in for service and they found out the car was tuned, waabammm they would red flag the car and void the warranty, also void it from being traded into an MB dealership in the future. Now who needs that type of crap especially when my MB authorized dealer installs & warranties Renntech on all new MB cars.

Oh and who cares if MB service can tell the ECU has been un-plugged, mine was already unplugged by MB service and updated for the Fuel Pump/ transmission update and I must say they did a ****ty, sloppy job putting it back in- not tucking the harness wires back in correctly.

Any feedback on this?

This would be a way better option than any piggyback methinks.

And oh yes for the tuned guys reading this, if you get caught your F***ked it has already happened to members of this board. MB will shun you

munis

This is the only safe way to get your car tuned. Go to a 3rd party workshop, get the parts department to ring MB parts and order you one. Then go to a 3rd party SCN coder and get the ECU coded (married) to your car. Done. Now you have two ECUs at hand. Keep the original one save. Tune the new one.

Wish I knew about this before my car got flagged.

Whatever you do, do not send it to AMR though.

Lazz83

So basically that sounds pretty much impossible. What third party mechanic shop is going to order an ECU for you, secondly what is with this SCN coder? is this in Canada or USA because I never had to have an ECU married to a car in the past. I mean why should it matter, they should all be identical.

I know MB parts suppliers online that will send me an ECU... with just the part number provided- parts is parts

Your telling me that an ECU out of another MB C43 won't work?

Down the road I am sure and perhaps even today one of these ECU's will be available on eBay or at a salvage yard online. I personally now of several even ones on this board that were totaled.

What is wrong with AMR, they seem nice so far?? Should I not employee their services? I am looking at EC as well they put down some wild wheel horsepower numbers.

Lazz83

Oh really, then whats with marrying the ECU to the car. I never did this with American or Japanese vehicles and change an ECU or two in my day.

munis

Lazz let me explain this a bit better. I always wanted two stock ECUs at hand as according to my recent experience with Mercedes, it is the safest way of tuning these new AMGs if you do not have any tuner close to you. So I started looking into this a little bit. This is very much possible, it is just there are some technicalities.

Our cars have an immobilizer as a separate control unit, so when the ECU is installed for the first time and SCN coded to the car, the ECU locks to that particular immobilizer within the first 15 minutes of installation. Once this is done, the only way you can unlock these ECUs is by virginizing it. Virginizing the ECU in normal terms means wiping the hard drive, and it is done by installing something that is called the virginizing file. Virginizing files have not been made yet for our ECUs, at least not to my knowledge. So your only option is to buy a brand new ECU from Mercedes. Now Mercedes Parts Dept. in general will sell you a brand new ECU, but would not install (SCN Code) it to your car without taking back your original ECU in return, as Mercedes classifies the ECU as a TRP (Theft Related Part), and their corporate guideline states that a customer can never have 2 units of the same TRP (except your key FOB).

So your only option is to buy the ECU from a parts department and then go to a third party SCN coder to get it installed to your car. Then you will have two separate units of ECU both linked to your car and should technically work.

About AMR, there are 7 guys I know of in total whose car's go into limp mode with their tune including mine. And they have absolutely zero clues about why it happens. I got their tune spending 2000 dollars only to return my car to stock because my car kept going into limp mode again and again. And now they would not even return my money. Now I am back to stock, my car has 0 issues. My suggestion is get any tune except theirs, and I am speaking as a former customer.

DVision44

I was gonna keep my AMR tuned ECU from my wrecked c43 but unfortunately I was informed it would not work in the new one.

loungn14

We do it for people all the time. The above info is correct. Just send us your ecu and the spare and we can send back two working ecus (one stock one tuned)

Lazz83

This is an excellent option sir, thank you much!

Lazz83

Munis, I appreciate your detailed explanation.

Thanks for taking the time

loungn14

People get them from various sources, from dealer connections to junked cars etc.

We will clone the new ecu free with retail tune purchase

unr1

sean1.8t

Can you get a new/blank ECU coded AFTER you have already tuned your original ECU?

sean1.8t

Keep in mind that MB cannot void your warranty across the board for evidence of a tune either past or present. They must prove that the issue at hand could have been, or likely was, caused by the modification. As in, if you had a turbo fail, transmission blow, or a rod/piston failed, then you're pretty much screwed. But if you had other random problems like a failed Coolant Temp Sensor, sunroof stopped working, a brake caliper seized, or anything else that have nothing to do with increased boost and power, you'll likely be fine. They might will try to deny you, but they know the burden of proof is on them and precedence for these scenarios is not on their side so they will honor it.

Narry

Just run a piggyback like the BMS Stage1, pickup a ton of power, and then when you go in remove it in literally under 2 minutes.

sean1.8t

Ah, another amazingly helpful and insightful comment from CFG. Always one to offer helpful, on-topic information to further a thread's discussion. So much douche, so little care.

munis

munis

Amg2017

Let's dial back our odometer while we are at it.

Lazz83

If MB discovers you had your car tuned they will instantly void the warranty on the spot no matter the mileage, it happened to someone on the board already.

Lazz83

Well I know that MB can't update this ECU through the OBDII port like most American cars, so I had my ECU updated twice already by MB and the seal was broken, so how are they going to find out? They had to take the ECU out of the car (evidence by the Sh*ty job they did putting it back and tucking the wires in properly. So it is my hypothesis that they had to open the ECU both times to perform these updates, thus the seal is no longer intact in any way shape or form. Its a busted virgin so to speak and yes I had a few back in the day, lol

Also full tune is far superior to a piggy back and you don't have to mess with all of the setting like sport, race, race + plus like on the Racechip I like that. I also like the fact that they are tuning everything to lessen the turbo lag and optimize performance across the power band- just needed to make that clear- and the power is much greater also, astounding in fact.

ItalianJoe1

Of course we update the M/E via the OBD2 port, there's no reason to take it out of the car.

The fact that every ECU ordered from MB has to be ordered by VIN means you can't really hide it, even if you get it coded and tuned by an outside shop, they will know you have a new M/E for whatever reason.

The M/E logs mileage, along with the other modules that do so. So if you drive your car for 10k miles with your tuned one, then something breaks and you stick the stock one in, there will be a huge mileage discrepancy. That looks worse than anything else for warranty voiding purposes. Mileage tampering is an easy excuse to void the warranty. A tune actually isn't, and would only be powertrain related.

Lazz83

Thanks for the answer- but I can tell you they definitely took mine out of the car, I could tell that it was removed.

I guess that Sh*t cans my idea of getting a second ECU

ItalianJoe1

Well there's no way for us to flash it removed from the car. So there may have been another reason, but the update was done with in plugged into the car.

Lazz83

Yea, that's really weird because I looked under the hood after I got the car back and the harness connector wires were out of the looms and just pushed down by the hood closing- so someone touched the ECU somehow.

munis

This is not true. I dunno about the old ones but the new ME does not track mileage. Mileage is kept track of by a separate control module that is powered by the auxilary battery.

They probably removed it for the starter fuse recall. They just had to remove the ECU for it. No one opened the ECU housing and no seal was broken, that I can bet my life on. Also every single update I ever did was done through the OBD II port, I saw the tech do it myself, so I have no idea where heard this from that that MB has to open the ECU to update it.