 |
I just flashed my 997.2 3.6L DFI with the softronic file.
The uploading was smooth, it took about 20 minutes. I followed all the instructions, including power source for the laptop and car, turning off all the background useless software (i.e. anti virus, scree saver etc) and was very careful with the cable maneuvering.
After some code cleaning and a couple of scary messages, the car is running fine. The code cleaning is not particularly difficult, but some DFI and PDK codes are fairly stubborn and one might need to manually clear them, one by one. It's quick and not difficult at all. By leaving the car it off for awhile it finished clearing the codes for good. The sport and sport plus were dead right after the flash, after the cool off, came back to life. No dreaded red “reduced engine power” anymore or emergency traction message.
Interesting how the car behaves now. It seems to have more torque in low revs having the PDK end up in a higher gear than I would expect for some places in my daily commute. How knows, it might also save gas if one drives nicely (which is crazy talk, I know).
In 7th gear on highway, it seems smarter from 60-70, typical pass maneuver. The real gain would be measured by a Dyno, what I can talk about here is perception. Also, in the city when it comes to a quick stop, the PDK drops more often to 2nd instead of 1st gear, accelerates back w/o a problem, but that needs more driving time to make sure.
This is a nice product, some might say it's not worth the money, but notice this: The Porsche DFI cars are close to 100 cv/liter. This is the benchmark for high performance cars, yanking more hp from this engine without forced induction is really hard. Recently I had my high pressure fuel pump replaced under warranty. The receipt stated a total of US$ 1500 in costs, so I really want to keep my warranty. By having the original file to flash it back to stock, I should not have a problem in this area. Replacing the cats and headers would probably yield an even better result, but you can kiss your warranty bye bye, same for forced induction. So, IMHO, I thought the best compromise with upgraded performance and maintenance of the majority of my warranty was an exhaust system (with central muffler delete) with flash tunning. Both are reversible but the exhaust theoretically voids the warranty of that segment only, so no worries there (I hope).
Rating:  [5 of 5 Stars!] |
|
|
