Power Fc Trouble!

[700HP-GTR33]

Hello ,

After reading I can come up with 3 problems and 1 solution.

Not long ago i spoke to a tech in relation to powerfc and was told shipments of powerfc's

landed in Australia that were rejected by the tuners in Japan (Due to problems they encountered there

with them).These units were sold overseas while updates were made for the japs . Dumped here for suckers like ourselfs.(warranties should be cashed on and if problems occur units should be exchanged.

Not just looked at....an Apexi Agent should have a tuner he could send you to .To make sure your car

has the problem...or his unit does..recommending the cost of the fix to your car...or offering free fix and fit of the powerfc(because of the troublesyou had).

There are also certain steps to pluging in the powerfc which apparently takes over 1 hour to perform to allow the unit to tune itself in auto tune mode. Are u following the steps?Although this unit is a plug and play

some savvy is needed to bring it to the auto tune mode.

And lastly,and most unlikely you might have a shonky battery .(Causing fc problems)This is the easiest fix.

The Solution....take it to a tuner who handles these thing and get them to install the f**ker no matter

if he says map tune$800 because if u fool around with this thing....engine might pop or seize.

Hope this might help u.

Good Luck

[paulr33]

i don't agree at all. the unit is plug and play. you can even swap the unit over while the battery is connected. i have done this mulitple times on my ECR33 and its fine. i have never had any issues or known of any out of the box issues.

[BHDave]

Lol

Where does this shit come from?

If the units shipped to aus are rooted then how the hell can a tuner get it running?

[paulr33]

no idea. there is no auto tune mode. its simply a self idle learn procedure and its very easy to perform as an end user

[700HP-GTR33]

Hello again,

My sources on the bad shipments are very good.

Lots of tuners returned there powerfc under warranty to have the new one replaced and credits given

to enable the tune to be performed once again.Dont forget if i was tuning at $180 an hour id

be kicking up a stink to.

Anyway i still believe you need to have a bit of savvy to connect and even attempt to tune the thing.

This is why new zealander and australian power fc distibutors have a plug and tune adaptor made for this unit.This enables interface into a laptop and fine tuning .(hand controllers are useless in fine tune)

The australian version cost the people that tune the unit about $3000 a year to hold the new zealand unit i think last time i heard (some may have seen in skylinesdownunder approx. $700 aus dollars to buy.

I give you this info because i have been in search of a powerfc, the tuner i went to today identified

problems i have at the moment (Tuned standard ecu ,timing mapping etc) due to the tune carried out in Japan for there fuel....this can have some major long term problems which i was unaware of.

They (prior to shipment of the vehicle) have cleaned me out of all the goodies the vehicle had. Turbos etc.

This is why i recommend going to someone who knows, just in case serious damage is done.

So many problems have occured with people dialling up wrong boost levels or trying to map a decent tune.

[BHDave]

I think maybe i should start a poll:

Who bought their power fc off an Australian Distributor in the last 2 years? (Is there even an official distributor?)

I can guarantee that 95% of the member here have bought their fc's individually through online traders who deal direct with apexi or resellers in Japan, and they are posted over. There aren't any bulk shipments, there is no stockpile of dud fc's sitting in the distributors back room, do you think that Apexi are naive enough to think they won't get returns from OS buyers?

You can connect the unit in 10 minutes if you have access to a 10mm spanner and a phillips head screwdriver. I'm not saying that tuning can be performed by anyone but injector correction, maf changes, self learn idle proceedure are all easy to do.

The NZ software you refer to is called datalogit, there's also the official Apexi software (which is in Japanese but still gets used over here). As for fine tuning with hand controllers, well you dont get access to all the features of the fc by using the hand controller, thats common knowledge, but you are still tuning a 20x20 fuel map and a 20x20 ignition map so there should be no difference in the overall tune. It just takes a bit longer with a hand controller as you can't dump in an existing good tune from a car with similar mods and tweak it.

As far as tuning, you're right. There are a lot of people who have killed engines by playing around with their boost settings or tune. But i still think you are being fed a load of shit about dud pfc's. Most problems are down to incorrect wiring and getting the wrong unit for the car (red top/black top SR is a prime example as the power signals are different) and frying it when it's plugged in. The majority of problems that are raised on these forums and others are not to do with the unit itself, rather outside factors, either user playing without knowing what they are doing or existing wiring faults that the stock ecu can live with but the fc can't.

[paulr33]

agree with dave, the manual clearly states how to perform the installation and its a simple step by step. there is no magical street fighter 2 up down left right up down punch punch punch combo to make it in special tune mode or anything. its simply plug and play.

[700HP-GTR33]

agree with dave, the manual clearly states how to perform the installation and its a simple step by step. there is no magical street fighter 2 up down left right up down punch punch punch combo to make it in special tune mode or anything. its simply plug and play.

Hello

I am in the same though as you, and yes agree with all your statements bar one,

The powerfc is not the god of all tuners and sometimes not the best for track tuners nor

drag tuners...Motec and others ae a better option although costs are greatly higher...even triple than

a powerfc...the plug in is only suppose to be able to get it onto a dyno for the real tune,,,,not just plug in and think its tuned..

The power fc is not without manufacturer faults or bad workmanship...buying the unit off the forum members and returning back to japan for a fix is not the way to go....How does this poor guy

Know its not faulty...because someone says it works perfectly....i think the unit never left Australia

I am suprised to here that both of you (paul and dave) seem to think that nothing can go wrong with these units, and that if japan did a pooh it still would be good enough to eat(have a look at all the recall of cars they built.

And to think i though this was an intelligent forum...dahhh

Chat to you all when your not inlove with a piece of electronics...

Edited June 21, 2006 by 700HP-GTR33

[BHDave]

Ahhh, i wonder why i bother some times....

I never said the power fc was the greatest ecu ever made, and if you are one of the unfortunate individuals who doesn't have access to a tuner capable of tuning a power fc then it's probably best that you don't get one of them, rather get something that can be tuned by your tuner. For a street ecu you simply can't go past an fc for price, functionality, ease of install and available capable tuners.

I never said that there weren't manufactuer faults, i disagreed with your assertion that there is a bad batch that apexi has stored solely for the use of overseas buyers, and left it at that. Ofcourse there are going to be faulty units. No ones QA is perfect so some dud's do slip through. You may have noticed i said the majority of problems are due to install, rather than all problems as i do realise that faulty units can and do exist.

On topic for this thread, we are talking about a car that has had an engine swap and runs an rb25 ecu and loom. It is much more likely that there is a fault with the wiring than with the ecu. I have actually carried out this same engine conversion on my own r32 and know from experience that it not a simple job to get the power fc working properly when you are trying to wire it with poor information. I have also carried out a conversion on an s13 with a later model s14 engine and loom and had exactly the same problem as ryno has mentioned here. It wasn't a dead ecu, it was a wiring problem, which i fixed, and now the car runs perfectly.

You know how i know the power fc isn't faulty?

Just plugged my Power FC into a mates car, and it worked fine. Looks like I'm back to trouble shooting my wiring.

I read the thread before responding.

[paulr33]

i agree with dave 100%

[Ryno]

How does this poor guy

Know its not faulty...because someone says it works perfectly....i think the unit never left Australia

This seems to have gone a little off topic, but to clear a few things up...

1. I am 90% sure the unit is not faulty, as I have plugged my unit into a mates R33, and it ran fine.

2. It did leave the country, as it was returned to me directly from Japan.

It does seem that the wiring is at fault somewhere... I plan to pull the loom out of my car in a couple of weeks, and check for any breaks - while double checking everything is wired to the right places.

The auto electrician (that wired in the new engine) had no wiring diagrams to help with splicing in the new loom, and as such did a pretty shocking job, for example:

1. No idle step up with aircon

2. No Cold start

3. No rev up when turning steering wheel

4. No HICAS

5. No VVT

6. No speed limiter (no speed input to ECU)

This Power FC problem is just another thing for me to add to the list.

[BHDave]

Your list is fairly easy to sort, the hard part is figuring which pins go where on the dash plug now that you cant trace it back on the old rb20 loom.

1) Idle step up requires an additional relay added to the loom which is triggered off the ac on trigger wire. This then activates the secondary idle air valve.

2) Cold start would suggest a problem with the water temp sensor as i'm pretty certain the wiring for the sensor shouldn't be touched. The circuit is effectively a signal wire and a common sensor earth both running to the ecu. I'd leave this one until you get the fc in and working and then check the water temp during start up with the hand controller

3) The power steering step up works on the same principal as the air con step up and triggers the same secondary iac valve. I haven't connected it up and have no problems with stalling at idle with the wheel at full lock. If you want it working, add a relay triggered off the plug that is attached to the rack on the passenger side.

4) Hicas needs a speed signal and that's it. It is supplied via your stock r32 speedo (it's actually on the back) and driven by the speedo cable. I suspect if you hook up the speed signal wire to the ecu (which is the problem in no. 6) this one will go away.

5) VCT only needs a power and a signal. Signal will be untouched. So find a switched power for the other side and voila.

Edited June 21, 2006 by BHDave

[Ryno]

Thanks mate,

I've managed to sort out the VVT, and I've removed the HICAS. But you're advice in the other areas should help no end.

I'm planning on buying a RB20 loom so I can trace back everything, and hopefully get it running as close to perfect as possible.

Ryno

[700HP-GTR33]

Thanks mate,

I've managed to sort out the VVT, and I've removed the HICAS. But you're advice in the other areas should help no end.

I'm planning on buying a RB20 loom so I can trace back everything, and hopefully get it running as close to perfect as possible.

Ryno

Good luck Ryno , hope you can trace the problem and rectify it.

Edited June 22, 2006 by 700HP-GTR33

[Ryno]

Hey fellas, good news for me - I've finally solved the problem.

Thanks for all your ideas; they gave me a place to start looking during my two weeks off work.

So who came up with the right answer to the problem?

The winning prize goes to sinistagtst!!! He was correct in that a wire had shorted out... It took a lot of hair pulling, but I found one of the earth wires on the loom had shorted out and needed re-soldiering. With that done, it started up fine.

The Power FC must do some form of a circuitry check when you turn it on, and if everything is not right, it doesn't allow the ECCS relay to close. Instead it just clicks on and off like mad, and doesn't allow the car to start.

Luckily after fixing the problem this morning, Hitman had a free spot this arvo for a tune... The final result - 198.8 rwkw - not bad for the standard turbo at 11 psi! If any of you are looking for a tune, Hitman is a champion, you won't be disappointed.

[Ryno]

Here are the printouts of the final result.

[BHDave]

Nice to hear you got it sorted

[d00dz]

Luckily after fixing the problem this morning, Hitman had a free spot this arvo for a tune... The final result - 198.8 rwkw - not bad for the standard turbo at 11 psi! If any of you are looking for a tune, Hitman is a champion, you won't be disappointed.

Nice! I fixed my PFC issue too Was a blown fuse. Cant wait to get mine tuned at hittman and see what I get

Can I ask what mods you currently have to get what you got? PM me if you dont want to say publicly and Was it a power tune or a complete?

[shonen]

yeah agreed hitman is the best !!

[paulr33]

hi ryno

i would be interested in talking more about your tune. max power is only one aspect of an ecu tune. theres lots more to be gained in the midrange and the important parts of a tune