the transition from MS to Haltech platinum sport1000
 

So I've been having a problem with my diypnp ms2 built by Braineack. By no means is he responsible for the problems I'm experiencing. It wants to run only 3 cylinders full time. Every now and then after a few reflashes here and there, it might run 4 cylinders for a couple weeks and then it cuts to 3 cylinder mode.

When I refer to 3 cylinder, I mean it will not spark cylinder #1 at all. It has nothing to do with coil packs or wires. Even swapped connectors/wires on the packs and it still decided not fire #1.

I swap in the stock ecu and it immediately fires up all 4 no problem, no hesitation.


So I quit, I'm done and figure I'm about to pull and build my motor. I'm not taking a chance with megasquirt.



Has anyone (very limited search results) had a huge success with haltech 1000's? Are they worth the $1500 because I'm willing to pay it to protect my investment.

Please only respond with experience with this ECU. I have a turbo NB1 (2000)

I see this ECU is not listed in the categories.

Any help or insight would be awesome.

Have you seen this thread? Concealer is still very active here and I'm sure he can weigh in with more info.
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<br />https://www.miataturbo.net/ecus-tuning-54/haltech-platinum-sport-1000-success-story-74185/

I have read that post. Definitely got me all excited for the purchase that I'm probably making tomorrow.

I'll PM since you said he's stop active here. Thank you!

I know you don't want to hear this, but I'll post it anyway:
Switching to a different standalone because you got a potentially faulty MS is like switching to other cars altogether after having 1 problematic miata. You're paying double for exactly zero improvement, in my honest opinion.
And even more importantly, is that you will have pretty much no support, unless you find a haltech tuner in your area who also happens to know miata's. To me, after having tried a TON of different tuning solutions, online/forum/community support is hands down the most important part of any engine management solution.

Again, just my input which you can feel free to ignore. Look at all the people struggling with Hydra after spending $2,000

18psi I respect your input, after all, I used your scheme for the hot side piping in my NB to route it up and then behind the driver headlight.

There's a whole back story to this ( you can read my thread in the megasquirt section: "newb to flashing hardware, requesting........"

The point I'm making is, I had been running the same setup and tune on the diypnp for years!!! It was beyond reliable and out of nowhere, it started doing this (in December for reference).

I tried to troubleshoot everything ignition related first; wires, plugs, coil packs (went all OEM because that what I had been running) along with new OEM injectors, and an alternator. End result.....nothing at all changed. I could pull the plug in cylinder one after hours of driving and you would think it just came out of box......no spark at all.

I had a lot of friends saying "it's that garbage megasquirt, you need to get a real ECU" I defended that for a while because it had been providing me happiness since 2011.

But just for the hell of it, I pulled it off, plugged the stock ECU in along with an intake and the MAF........ Fired right up, no more Subaru sounding Miata and all 4 cylinders were firing just as they should.

I was shocked to say the least. I contacted Braineack and sent it to him to be inspected, He said everything was good, all he did was update my firmware because I was using something from way back when.

I got it back and sure enough, it ran flawlessly again. I thought all my problems were gone. It all ran fine for 3 weeks and then went straight back into the symptoms I described a few paragraphs earlier.

So out of trial and error, I thought a reflash of the firmware would fix it... It did nothing. I let it be for a few weeks and tried again. I did nothing different during the reflash, and it worked! OH JOY! I thought I had fixed it again.

It literally ran fine for exactly 3 weeks AGAIN and faulted back into 3 cylinders........ Luckily I was used to all this, I kept my stock ECU and intake in the trunk and could literally having back on the road within 5 minutes.

This is why I believe either there is some kind of bug in my tune or my actual Megasquirt. I can't go on with this cutting in and cutting out shit.

I've posted my tune and folder in the thread, I've posted logs...... There is no help or support for my situation. I may be the only person in the world that has had this problem with no success in sight.

Sorry for the essay but I want to make it clear why I want to move onto something else. If I could fix this problem....well I'd stay in the megasquirt game but nothing seems to fix anything. I've had the same tune on the car for a while now. Hell when it decided to fault the first time, a laptop had not even been hooked into it for months because it was that solid.


-Rick

The Haltech was awesome for me, and i believe Vteckiller2000 liked it pretty well, too. (He bought that car from me.)

I'm sure much of the success was having a professional set it up and tune it. We didn't have time for a 100% tune, since i was taking an 8,000 mile road trip in a matter of a couple days after it was installed, but it never skipped a beat through the whole trip.

Would i have been able to do the same myself on that car with a Megasquirt? Probably not. Probably wouldn't have been able to do the same myself with a Haltech, either.

While i feel that Haltech may be slightly more robust and "fool-proof," if you can't figure out the Megasquirt on your own, you're going to have a harder time with Haltech, since you'll lose this site as a resource.

If you're paying someone else to do it, use whatever they're most comfortable with. If that happens to be Haltech, then awesome.

I still flip flop between Haltech and Megasquirt for what i'm going to use on my current project(s). There's things i really like about both. Worth mentioning i went from a Hydra to the Haltech. Nobody could get anywhere with the Hydra. Haltech was user-friendly enough that i could successfully make small changes on my own without feeling scared. I still find it easier to use, personally, than Megasquirt.

Haltech is much easier to use in every way. Miatas don't only run on megasquirt and guys here say u must use megasquirt (no u don't), haltech would be my option by far.

How many Haltech miata's have you tuned, personally?
If the answer is less than 1, don't even bother responding, it's worthless.
If you've tuned many, please compare and contrast the two.

That sounds terrible. I know where you're coming from, and I've had issues with MS before, trust me. I'm just not sure if switching platforms is going to ultimately provide you with bulletproof reliability, cause I see other units fail every now and then too (like all the issues people had with aem ems4, or all the hydra issues).

Terrible is right sir. My rings in cylinder are all washed out lol. but the piston head was so damn shiny when we put a scope down there (fuel washed for some miles)

I'm no pro tuner. Have I learned a good bit from megasquirt and tunerstudio, YES. Do I think I can tune a haltech? NO

But I do feel like even with limited support, I could get could get my car relatively reliable with a base map and haltech's autotune feature.

I haven't made the purchase yet. But I'm getting pretty close.

I'm going to try this "output test mode" and post results on my post in my other thread. But if there is no light at the end of the tunnel there..... FRsport will see some funds heading their way for the haltech and I'll go from there.

Thank you for the input guys!!

I just want my BP4W to scream again

<p>You are on some pretty old MS hardware. Have you looked into newer MS stuff? Or replacing the spark drivers?</p>

A bunch of the miata guys I track with run Haltechs. They're all from Louisville KY and get their cars tuned by Hal (no relation to Haltech) at Dynosty, who also sells Haltech stuff.

Dynosty - Performance Automotive Parts, Builds and Dyno Tuning

If you decide to go the Haltech route, I would highly recommend buying from Dynosty since they have quite a bit of experience installing and tuning those ECUs on the miata platform. I'm sure Hal will be able to provide you with way more tech support than FRsport...

/\ See that's really helpful. If you have the same guy sell you the unit, set up and tune it, and he actually knows them inside out, that's a pretty good way to go.

<p></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Both of these. Are you tuning it yourself, or having someone else do the tuning? If it's someone else, buy what they are familiar with. I made the mistake of having my car tuned by someone who did not know the ECU and was not super familiar with the car and it was, predictably, a train wreck.</p>

I was going to tune it myself as I "did"with the diypnp. It was pretty solid for what it was for years till this issue happened.

The reason I haven't looked at "newer" MS stuff is because I'm afraid now that it is something in my tune or God knows what. In tunerstudio it reads 100% of the time reads "not synced" rather it's running fine or not.

I do not know how to "replace spark drivers "??

............

I had a cylinder misfire on my MS2E but had some help here on MT and traced it to an injector controller. Bought the $3 chip, re-soldered it and I'm running fine. I've been autotuning every so often and the car keeps getting stronger and I'm really starting to enjoy the MS and its software. Hope you get the car running well in the end