Electronic Throttle controllers - Thoughts?

[SpeedySub]

I've seen on Trademe and Ebay electronic throttle controllers for DBW cars. Are they wort the money and do they change the throttle response enough to justify purchasing one.

I love my Outback but not so keen on the DBW in it, it seems to lag between steeping on the pedal and anything happening (especially noticeable after driving the RS).

I know its not going to give em any more power but would be nice to have the throttle response sharpened up, especially when pulling out onto a main road etc.

Is there a way to increase response without one of these?

[Andy_Mac]

@sobanoodle had a HKS one in his BLE from memory.

 

Can't remember what year yours is, assume it doesn't have SI-Drive?

[SpeedySub]

I've got a 05 outback

[Kiwi_Fozze]

reflash ecu is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper.

the pre-facelift ones have 2 throttle maps, eco and non eco. the car defaults to eco mode until you put it into sports or push the "eco" button.

 

the facelift ones have 3. intelligent, sports and sports sharp. intelligent is a slow responding map, same as eco mode, that also doesnt open to 100% because economy. oh, it also limits peak boost too

 

drive in non eco mode, its like a different car.

it is possible to reflash the non eco map throttle response tables into the eco map

[Marky]

Yeah just buy a tactrix cable and faff about with that 

 

Those throttle controllers are like an s-afc in that while they do work exactly as described, these days there are more effective options available 

[sobanoodle]

Had Blitz in the 3.0 and have Pivot 3-drive compact in the BR - these are awesome little gadgets and if you can find one cheap enough they're nowere near as $$$ as reflash.

 

I find Pivot much better than Blitz as you can actually calibrate it, you can also set it up to come on with the ignition.

 

PS: had 3.0 flashed by Kido. Throttle responce was all over the place - he never got it right really.

 

Can just see it in the photo below.

 

[Marky]

Oh I meant DIY'ing the tune stuff, not paying someone for it.

 

Easy to just wing it when you have a 2k car to blow up... not so much a 20k one at risk

[Nachoooo]

You would be surprised how much of a difference cleaning the throttle plate and resetting the ECU makes.
It would seem models with the electronic throttle are prone to build up carbon around the plate edges, which results in you feeling a delay between the pedal and car. 
Take off the intake hose, clean up the plate, plate edges and surrounding intake with a can of upper cylinder clean, use the rest as directed. Then reset the ECU using a VAGCOM / Tactrix cable etc.
You'll gain a fair bit of response back, however if you really want to adjust the proper calibration, a reflash is your best bet really, like Kiwi_Fozze and Marky suggested
 

[sobanoodle]

Throttle plate cleaning and ECU reset did sweet f all to the 3.0. Resetting the TCU felt a bit different through.

[SpeedySub]

I haven't reset a ECU through a Tactrix cable before. Is it hard to do? also how do you reset the TCU - tactrix cable as well?

[willisnz]

Just need to have FreeSSM installed on a laptop and a VAGCOM or Tactrix cable.  ECU/TCU is simple, just plug in cable, open software, go into ECU or TCU part of FreeSSM and hit "clear memory"

[SpeedySub]

Sweet, Will look at getting a cable and will give it a go.

[willisnz]

Get a VAGCOM off TradeMe or Ebay. Cheap as chips and you can read codes and reset ECU/TCU.

[Nachoooo]

3 hours ago, sobanoodle said:

Throttle plate cleaning and ECU reset did sweet f all to the 3.0. Resetting the TCU felt a bit different through.

I've had multiple success with it myself. Even had a face-lift with the throttle position graph on the cluster display, you could push the pedal with the graph rising, with no increase in revs. After a clean and reset and they were both back in sync.

I'm not saying it's THE fix for every car with this problem but for the sake of $20 and some time, it's worth doing regardless.

 

[Kiwi_Fozze]

@SpeedySub are you near auckland?

[SpeedySub]

On 2017-5-11 at 9:59 PM, Kiwi_Fozze said:

@SpeedySub are you near auckland?

I am at the moment. I'm up here for the Greenday concert. 

But  usually in ChCh

[Kiwi_Fozze]

Aaaaahh there are some wizards down chch ways that can tinker with your computer, they have several threads up on here, but for the life of me I cant remember who they are!!

[calebwrx]

NZEFI perhaps?

[Andy_Mac]

Or SAS / @gotasuby

[Kiwi_Fozze]

8 hours ago, Andy_Mac said:

Or SAS / @gotasuby

Thats the one!!