Prelude with wiped ECU

[Markin]

Hello,

First off I´m a noob, my name´s Mark and I am an English guy living in Spain. I currently drive an EG Honda Civic, but as with most things would like something with more power. Anyway, I have seen a 98 Prelude 2.2 Vti for sale at a realy good price with pretty low kilometres (+-80,000Km). So why don´t I just buy it I hear you cry. Apparently the place selling it says simply that the ECU has been deprogrammed (wiped) and that´s why it is cheap. So my question is how easy/expensive would it be to sort this problem out? If the ECU is OK but simply hasn´t got the software loaded anymore is it an easy fix? If the ECU is fried, is that a pain in the balls and expensive?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Sorry but I don´t have any more info regarding the fault.

Cheers

Mark

[spiffyguido]

It would probably be easiest to just see if you can get a new ECU for the car on eBay that hasn't been wiped. If the ECU is dead, it's probably been damaged.

Some of the ECUs made by Honda are listed in our wiki: http://www.preludedriver.com/wiki/index.php5?title=ECU

Otherwise, you can get a list from PGMFI.org that should tell you what ECU you need to look for. Make sure that you get one that matches the transmission that you have. Automatic ECUs don't mate up to manual transmissions and vice-versa.

[Markin]

Thanks for the quick reply. It is much appreciated.

You say the easiest would be to buy another ECU, but won´t that be problematic? I seem to remember having seen on other forums that if you change the ECU then you have to change the ignition barrel, locks etc. due to the coded keys and the immobiliser in the ECU. IS that right?

[spiffyguido]

Hmmm...you're probably right. I had forgotten about the these security features. I'm too used to working on the older ludes that don't have such features.

There must be a way around this issue. People are able to run aftermarket ECUs (such as AEM), and I don't believe they have these issues. There must be a workaround.