LSTex

Please pardon my ignorance on this. I've seen myriad ads about scanner tools that claim to be able to do all sorts of things. But the ads seem a bit vague when it comes down to specifics.

Is there a tool that I can buy that'll let me program aspects of the car such as personal settings, timing, fuel ratio as well as resetting the warning lamps? If I wanted to reset the lamps, I could just pull the ECU fuse for free.

Sure, the "Take it to the Dealer" answer is always such a pleasant thing to hear, but is there an alternative that anyone actually knows about?

Thanks in advance.

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

first of all you need to specify what year your car is. pre-95 cars are OBDI where a diagnostics tool is not needed to check/clear codes. OBDII cars have a standard port where the codes are stored an can be cleared with the appropriate scanner.

i have not seen any programmer that can alter stock fuel trims w/o actually soldering in an aftermarket chip into the ECU to flash in different maps. unless the motor is heavily modded there is no need to mess with this, and at that point stand alone ECU management should be considered.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

For simplicity we'lll discuss OBDII (95+) cars as they're the only ones a scanner makes any sense for, generally.

for many cars you can run a programmer and flash the stock ECU.

Not for toyota though. The toyota ECU encryption hasn't been cracked, so no flashing/modding of stock ECUs for us.

Now, a simple scan tool can help you monitor your car as well as both read and reset (temporarily, if you havent fixed the problem) CELS/MILS. In OBDII cars you need a scanner to get the CEL code, unlike OBDI cars.

There's only one specification of programmers that has read/write access to toyota's ECUs, and that's the one that Toyota uses in their service bays. It is extremely expensive, and requires a dealer-level TIS subscription.

LSTex

Thanks both.

@timmy0tool - It's a 96 LS400. I thought it was the default in my "garage", but the Jag is showing up now. Probably because I tried to upload pictures, but don't have permission to do so. I didn't think it would take the attempt as an update. My bad. Good idea with the aftermarket EEPROM. It might become an option one of these days.

@PureDrifter - Thanks for the info. I guess I should give up on the idea for now if it takes some sort of dealer's license to get the programmer.