Can aftermarket ECU's be complied/engineered

[CrUZida]

Then you should have said that in the first place, instead of saying it can't be done, which is incorrect.

It just happens that your specific combination (and 99% of other peoples) cannot be made legal.


Although, one wonders that if the ecu was in a physically locked box, and your engineer holds the only key to that box, and its in his name that the cars emissions are legal, would they accept that?

[Lonewolf]

Locks can be picked.

Cruzida seems to have found the relevent ruling on it, but as I mentioned before, most people are going to put it in the "too hard" basket and calling it illegal, as there are too many variables, with it being quite easy to change the programming in aftermarket ECU's.

I dont know if the ecu makes a timestamp of when it was last changed, but if they do, i would have faith in that if the ECU was last programmed before being complied or engineered or whatever its called, then that would be sufficient evidence to show its not been tampered with. If they dont, then a tamper seal on the appropriate port with the respective compliance number on it... or something that you can do to cover your arse.

The way i see it if they do pull you up and start asking questions about the current ECU maps being legal, they likely aren't going to be on your side and thats when your going to have to go "yes it is legal, here is my proof" and then show them the relevent ruling and convince them that the maps on the ECU have not been altered since your last engineers certificate/emissions test. Also, i'd be making sure that the rest of the engine hasn't been changed past whats on the certificates either, i'm sure that would suck to have covered your arse appropriately with the ECU, and then get caught out cause you swaped to a different brand of headers since the old headers broke. You need to look out for yourself

Either way its still a grey area and is something people should be thinking about once they reach a certain level of modifications, or live in certain areas. I didn't even know EPA officers were even in Oz till reading this thread then, and i doubt i'll see em around my area anytime soon.