You're spot on sir.Quote:
Originally Posted by Umai Naa!!
I found out from my own experience that basically made us to trade in 3 years old Jeep KJ Cherokee CRD Auto, after Daimler Chrysler issued the recall to do ECU update to solve the automatic transmission problems, I tried to void it as much as I could but when the car broke down with the blown intercooler hose and ended in the dealership they did the update. Basically the update was to replace the torque converter and reprogram ECU - read it as to reduce the power and torque to the wheels. It didn't solve the problems they had (at least in our case, I don't know the others, since we traded it in), it made it worst.
Sometimes the updates are done for the environment to benefit or to help manufacturer to prolong the life of the poorly designed component, so they last at least the warranty period.
I'm glad that none of our VW's we own didn't need the ECU update.
Actually, I recall that when we bought the Touareg, we missed on the slight power upgdade from 165kW to 177kW and better fuel economy by at least 1L/100km, that was introduced from production date, just 1 week after ours was made. In that case it was just simple software updade and despite I have a good relationship with the dealer, we wouldn't get that updade. Just imagine, how many Touaregs were produced on which they could achieve better fuel consumption, saving also the air just doing a simple upgdade. They're not so green, aren't they?
IMO, the problem with such updates that people very often mention is:
1. that unless it saves money to them, they will not do it.
again 1. The safety updates saves them money - less people can sue, if something goes wrong. In this case they call you in for it.
2. The free update that you could get without asking or letting you know, is:
to encrypt the access to the ECM, which means you can't get your ECM easily reflashed via the OBD2 port, which means the ECM has to be taken out of the car and opened, costing you more money and the warranty is voided.
Thanks, I'm sure that the car I bought, was tested and performed well in the time and I'd like to keep it that way. :)
