"airborne's" Ecu
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Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,377
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From: Minnetonka, MN
Vehicle: 2001 Hyundai Tiburon
Well as many of you know, I was basically the test subject for the ECU swap that has basically become unofficially known as "Airborne's." The reason I put that in quotes is becuase I have a lot of bad things to say about this ECU, and some of it has no relation to Airborne at all. With that in mind, here we go, this could get long:
Right off the bat I want to say that this ECU has been nothing but trouble for me and that I would really not recommend it to anyone until they can get the problems that I have spent a TON of money on trying to solve. I recieved the ECU in early May if i remember correctly, and got to work at installing it immediately. All of my turbo stuff had been installed so i was really only waiting on the computer. Me and my mechanic installed it exactly to the specifications that the makers had instructed, and low and behold!!! nothing happened.
Now back when this happened, Airborne was still fairly easy to get ahold of, and he really was trying to help me get this figured out. Unfortunately, everytime I would try something different, he would tell his shop the results, and they would basically tell him to tell me to try more random crap. Not only was this very inefficient, but it was kind of a waste of time. The underlying problem was that his shop, the people who made this ECU, really didnt have a clue what the problem was. It basically came down to my mechanic going trough every wire of the wiring harness to try and figure out what the hell was wrong with the thing, and since this ECU is not only not a factory part, but almost one of a kind, we had no referece to go off of. One wire at a time through that damn wiring harness and he finally found a thing or two wrong, we would fix them, and it still wouldnt work. As you can probably imagine, this was very time consuming, and even though Im friends with the shop, time = money.... a LOT of money.
Eventually we found out this. They had straight out told us to wire a couple of things wrong, the ECU never sent a signal to the fuel pump relay at all, and one of the wires they told us to use as a ground wasnt grounding good enough. to make it even more obnoxious, becuase of how they had told us to wire it, a couple things were screwy that shouldnt have been and vise versa. basically it was a huge pain in the ass, and we had to go over everything all over again each time we correct something. We eventially got the car running by fixing their own wiring diagram, running a new completely separate line to the fuel pump, and adding a new ground wire. the car finally ran, just a month and a half after it should have...
At first it seemed wonderful, the car drove great, basically like stock, and pulled great too. At the time I was only around 5lbs of boost. The only problem was that it idled around 2200rpm!!! It still would to this day had we not put a restrictor in the idle air bypass. No matter how long we let it idle, the ecu would never drop it down. We also noticed that it just seemed to lack power at the top of the rpm range, but we basically shrugged that off and thought maybe the turbo was already too inefficient.
The other thing i noticed right away in the humid minnesota summers is that the A/C no longer worked. Spent a long time diagnosing that only to find that it had nothing to do with the A/C system itself, the ECU once again just wasnt sending a signal out to it. Just like the fuel pump issue. Well with the help of a buddy of mine we completely rewired my A/C through all the pressure switches and whatnot. Luckily, all that was free... By this time I had realized that the tuning had to be bad... it just didnt pull how it should, and most obviously, it reeked of gas. also, people had reported seeing a bit of smoke out the exhaust, and said that also smelled like fuel. not happy. Well folks, wideband time.
<u>Without moving the car</u>
On startup w/ engine warm, idle with restrictor @ 1200rpm: innitial at 13.6 dropping to 12.0
2000rpm no engine load: 11.8
Blip of throttle: maxxed out the gauge <11
<u>While driving, no boost</u>
At "0" vaccuum accelerating: 14.4-14.6
Cruise at 2200rpm 5th gear 10in vac: 13.4-13.7
Decelleration/no throttle: 17+
<u>Boosting</u>
Half throttle w/ any boost: 12.2 and lower
WOT: maxxed rich <11
So basically, as you can see, its running pig rich all across the board. The only time it is not is around "0" boost/vac.
Well becuase of the nature of this ecu, I can not adjust things myself, which is why many of you didnt purchase it. So we decided to plug in the Genisis diagnostic tool and see where things may be going wrong. Well, although I was told that the computer could be read by such devices, it certainly cannot. The only thing we can get off the ecu are codes from CELs. we were hoping for a data stream to see if a sensor is messed up or what. no luck
I dont know how many people were interested in buying this or have been talked to about buying it, but heres a couple of things that make me very unhappy.
This was marketed to me as THE perfect ecu. Every question i had about it i was told not to worry about, becuase it was guarenteed to work perfectly. I should have known things were weird when the $600 i was told it cost magically turned into $1000. but, even then, i was convinced that even tho it was priced more, id save money and hassle by not having to get it tuned...
It was supposed to be plug and play, little effort, and just a few wires to hook up. I already explained what a nightmare that turned into. just all the little things, but i got over them and just kept forking out more and more money. but then the ONE thing that really mattered... the tune that i was GUARENTEED to be perfect... is so far from perfect that its almost rediculous.
The computer will not give out the info we need and I was told it would give. I had even asked about this specifically when I found out i coudnt make adjustments to the tune itself just incase something like this happened....
At this point my $600 ecu has turned into a somewhere over $2000 but i actually just lost track around that point ecu, and it still doesnt work. I feel so ripped off you couldnt even begin to understand... and thats not even getting into how angry it makes me...
I am completely broke and out of options. I have pmed airborne, but he is no where to be found, and I am deparately asking you guys for help. Does anyone have any ideas how i can fix this?!?
Would a SAFC have the same problem subtracting fuel as it does adding it? also keep in mind this is a 2003 ecu. unfortunately either way at this point i cant afford an safc either...
My mechanic said theres something you can do to "trick" the map sensor into reading differently and therefore leaning it out a bit, but he says some ecu's will not put up with it at all. anyone know anything about that?
or please if you have any other ideas let me know. My only other option is taking it all out and starting over with something else... which isnt much of an option becuase i have no more money and theres no way im going to get a dime back for this, and i doubt theyll send me a new one either.
save me from this nightmare.... please HELP!!! 02.gif
Right off the bat I want to say that this ECU has been nothing but trouble for me and that I would really not recommend it to anyone until they can get the problems that I have spent a TON of money on trying to solve. I recieved the ECU in early May if i remember correctly, and got to work at installing it immediately. All of my turbo stuff had been installed so i was really only waiting on the computer. Me and my mechanic installed it exactly to the specifications that the makers had instructed, and low and behold!!! nothing happened.
Now back when this happened, Airborne was still fairly easy to get ahold of, and he really was trying to help me get this figured out. Unfortunately, everytime I would try something different, he would tell his shop the results, and they would basically tell him to tell me to try more random crap. Not only was this very inefficient, but it was kind of a waste of time. The underlying problem was that his shop, the people who made this ECU, really didnt have a clue what the problem was. It basically came down to my mechanic going trough every wire of the wiring harness to try and figure out what the hell was wrong with the thing, and since this ECU is not only not a factory part, but almost one of a kind, we had no referece to go off of. One wire at a time through that damn wiring harness and he finally found a thing or two wrong, we would fix them, and it still wouldnt work. As you can probably imagine, this was very time consuming, and even though Im friends with the shop, time = money.... a LOT of money.
Eventually we found out this. They had straight out told us to wire a couple of things wrong, the ECU never sent a signal to the fuel pump relay at all, and one of the wires they told us to use as a ground wasnt grounding good enough. to make it even more obnoxious, becuase of how they had told us to wire it, a couple things were screwy that shouldnt have been and vise versa. basically it was a huge pain in the ass, and we had to go over everything all over again each time we correct something. We eventially got the car running by fixing their own wiring diagram, running a new completely separate line to the fuel pump, and adding a new ground wire. the car finally ran, just a month and a half after it should have...
At first it seemed wonderful, the car drove great, basically like stock, and pulled great too. At the time I was only around 5lbs of boost. The only problem was that it idled around 2200rpm!!! It still would to this day had we not put a restrictor in the idle air bypass. No matter how long we let it idle, the ecu would never drop it down. We also noticed that it just seemed to lack power at the top of the rpm range, but we basically shrugged that off and thought maybe the turbo was already too inefficient.
The other thing i noticed right away in the humid minnesota summers is that the A/C no longer worked. Spent a long time diagnosing that only to find that it had nothing to do with the A/C system itself, the ECU once again just wasnt sending a signal out to it. Just like the fuel pump issue. Well with the help of a buddy of mine we completely rewired my A/C through all the pressure switches and whatnot. Luckily, all that was free... By this time I had realized that the tuning had to be bad... it just didnt pull how it should, and most obviously, it reeked of gas. also, people had reported seeing a bit of smoke out the exhaust, and said that also smelled like fuel. not happy. Well folks, wideband time.
<u>Without moving the car</u>
On startup w/ engine warm, idle with restrictor @ 1200rpm: innitial at 13.6 dropping to 12.0
2000rpm no engine load: 11.8
Blip of throttle: maxxed out the gauge <11
<u>While driving, no boost</u>
At "0" vaccuum accelerating: 14.4-14.6
Cruise at 2200rpm 5th gear 10in vac: 13.4-13.7
Decelleration/no throttle: 17+
<u>Boosting</u>
Half throttle w/ any boost: 12.2 and lower
WOT: maxxed rich <11
So basically, as you can see, its running pig rich all across the board. The only time it is not is around "0" boost/vac.
Well becuase of the nature of this ecu, I can not adjust things myself, which is why many of you didnt purchase it. So we decided to plug in the Genisis diagnostic tool and see where things may be going wrong. Well, although I was told that the computer could be read by such devices, it certainly cannot. The only thing we can get off the ecu are codes from CELs. we were hoping for a data stream to see if a sensor is messed up or what. no luck
I dont know how many people were interested in buying this or have been talked to about buying it, but heres a couple of things that make me very unhappy.
This was marketed to me as THE perfect ecu. Every question i had about it i was told not to worry about, becuase it was guarenteed to work perfectly. I should have known things were weird when the $600 i was told it cost magically turned into $1000. but, even then, i was convinced that even tho it was priced more, id save money and hassle by not having to get it tuned...
It was supposed to be plug and play, little effort, and just a few wires to hook up. I already explained what a nightmare that turned into. just all the little things, but i got over them and just kept forking out more and more money. but then the ONE thing that really mattered... the tune that i was GUARENTEED to be perfect... is so far from perfect that its almost rediculous.
The computer will not give out the info we need and I was told it would give. I had even asked about this specifically when I found out i coudnt make adjustments to the tune itself just incase something like this happened....
At this point my $600 ecu has turned into a somewhere over $2000 but i actually just lost track around that point ecu, and it still doesnt work. I feel so ripped off you couldnt even begin to understand... and thats not even getting into how angry it makes me...
I am completely broke and out of options. I have pmed airborne, but he is no where to be found, and I am deparately asking you guys for help. Does anyone have any ideas how i can fix this?!?
Would a SAFC have the same problem subtracting fuel as it does adding it? also keep in mind this is a 2003 ecu. unfortunately either way at this point i cant afford an safc either...
My mechanic said theres something you can do to "trick" the map sensor into reading differently and therefore leaning it out a bit, but he says some ecu's will not put up with it at all. anyone know anything about that?
or please if you have any other ideas let me know. My only other option is taking it all out and starting over with something else... which isnt much of an option becuase i have no more money and theres no way im going to get a dime back for this, and i doubt theyll send me a new one either.
save me from this nightmare.... please HELP!!! 02.gif
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 7,799
Likes: 0
Vehicle: 2001 Hyundai Tiburon
that was a long read. wow man, i couldnt have guessed you would see any problems like this. and i though the prs4 was a headache. i wonder if it has something to do with the fact that its a 2003 ecu. i mean i know it was a straight swap with some wiring (supposedly) but maybe there is some different wiring that noone thought to check. i dont know what to tell ya man. it sucks that now your going to need a piggyback just to get your "already tuned" ecu to work how it should have in the first place
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 4,334
Likes: 0
From: Tampa/St Petersburg
Vehicle: Turbocharged 2001 Hyundai Tiburon
Wow man that totally blows. I considered Airbornes ecu but it seemed a little too good to be true. guess i was right.
for the money you paid you could have went standalone and saved money, or dual rail and saved even more money
Airborne's gonna have some problems selling his kit now eh? esspecially since he kinda bailed on you.
Its hard to say scrap it, since you put so much money into it. And its not any easier to say, try this to fix the tune, since your already broke.
for the money you paid you could have went standalone and saved money, or dual rail and saved even more money
Airborne's gonna have some problems selling his kit now eh? esspecially since he kinda bailed on you.
Its hard to say scrap it, since you put so much money into it. And its not any easier to say, try this to fix the tune, since your already broke.
Banned
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
damn man.. that suxors.. i was about to buy this damn thing too, and scrap my emanage/dual fuel rail setup.. but now mine sounds like the perfect setup.. im sorry its causing you soo much trouble.. but now that i think of it, even if it was 600, a piggyback would be needed to 'fine' tune it, and it would be ~900 in the end..
really sorry bro, but i have no ideas on how to help you.. i thought there was someone in the states with a working airborne ECU?
really sorry bro, but i have no ideas on how to help you.. i thought there was someone in the states with a working airborne ECU?
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 2,357
Likes: 0
Vehicle: 1997 Hyundai Fx Coupe
That really sucks mate. I was seriously considering the cams & n/a reflash but now there is no way I'd fork out for it.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing I know but as soon as the price went up by 67% you should've pulled the pin. That's no way to do business.
The other thing is I can't imagine why or how a GK ECU would be any better for tuning an RD. The motor might be near identical but there are loads of ancilliaries being run of the ECU aswell.
I hope Airborne can get his shop to send you a new ECU that works properly bro: I can't see why they wouldn't take theirs back if they can re-tune them so easily.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing I know but as soon as the price went up by 67% you should've pulled the pin. That's no way to do business.
The other thing is I can't imagine why or how a GK ECU would be any better for tuning an RD. The motor might be near identical but there are loads of ancilliaries being run of the ECU aswell.
I hope Airborne can get his shop to send you a new ECU that works properly bro: I can't see why they wouldn't take theirs back if they can re-tune them so easily.
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 7,799
Likes: 0
Vehicle: 2001 Hyundai Tiburon
socks that was a gk. hence my post thinking that could have a whole lot to do with it. his car is running perfect because its the same ecu jsut remapped. that can really be the only explanation since his car is running great and tibminns is running like shit. i dont know what else to say
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,553
Likes: 0
Vehicle: 2001 Hyundai Tiburon
That really sucks. Im glad I didnt end up getting that ECU.
Why dont you try standalone? for all that money you spent youve could have got a Haltech. If not a standalone then try the smt6 with the dual fuel rail.
It sucks about what happened and I def. know the feeling.
Why dont you try standalone? for all that money you spent youve could have got a Haltech. If not a standalone then try the smt6 with the dual fuel rail.
It sucks about what happened and I def. know the feeling.
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 5,155
Likes: 0
From: Eau Claire, WI
Vehicle: 97 Tib
Wow.....I feel bad just reading that, if I were you I would be so pissed off man.
Weren't there several people before you who said that they installed it successfully?
Is there someone who can get ahold of Airborne? Madjon?
goodluck dude
Weren't there several people before you who said that they installed it successfully?
Is there someone who can get ahold of Airborne? Madjon?
goodluck dude
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 4,244
Likes: 0
From: Ashland, KY
Vehicle: 2001/Hyundai/Tiburon
WOW! that really really sucks, and I was actively trying to track down airborne for like a month to buy that and he never showed.
I guess you can't report them to the bbb since their in korea huh....
edit: maybe airborne will show to defend himself/his friends but to me it really sounds like they just sent you a stock gk ecu, or a fried one, and left you high and dry.
I guess you can't report them to the bbb since their in korea huh....
edit: maybe airborne will show to defend himself/his friends but to me it really sounds like they just sent you a stock gk ecu, or a fried one, and left you high and dry.