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It’s hilarious that Nissan ever claimed it was impossible to tune considering all the things done to it in those eighteen years.

Aurornis 2y ago
Having a tuneable car is a regulatory risk. Automakers need to take the stance that their cars are to be operated as-is. Claiming it’s not tuneable is important for appearances.
- BoostandEthanol 2y ago
  Toyota meanwhile have made a point that all the front styling grilles in the Mk5 Supra can be opened up and used to house heat exchangers for tuners. Nissan simply could’ve never acknowledged it. Instead made a point that the GT-R was untuneable, which to my knowledge, is the only time a car company has claimed such a thing.
  - Aurornis 2y ago
    > Toyota meanwhile have made a point that all the front styling grilles in the Mk5 Supra can be opened up and used to house heat exchangers for tuners. Heat exchangers don’t modify emissions performance. It’s ECU tuning that they’re worried about. Toyota has actually gone to extremes to lock down the Supra ECU to prevent tuning. Last I checked, only one company in the world had figured out how to unlock the ECU and you have to ship your ECU around the world to have them unlock it.
    - leetbulb 2y ago
      Correct. Sadly, it's not cheap to unlock, but it's easy and worth the price.
    - Zak 2y ago
      Do any countries' emissions regulations require manufacturers to actively try to prevent illegal modifications? It seems to me that wouldn't be the manufacturer's problem, and I can't recall hearing of a legal case where it was. This seems more likely to be warranty-related since it's very easy to break mechanical parts by adjusting things like boost pressure and ignition timing.
      - Aurornis 2y ago
        Yes, the laws effectively require this. Modifying modern cars for high performance impacts the emissions systems. In many cases the ECU modifications will actively defeat certain emission control measures to allow the higher power output without check engine lights, for example. Showing a good faith effort that you've designed the emission compliance systems to be reliable and hard to defeat is part of the process. There's a similar thing that happens with WiFi access points: You have to show that you've made an effort to prevent the end user from trivially modifying it for higher power output or other changes that would deviate from the way it was compliance tested.
  - jmb99 2y ago
    GM also claimed that with the (I think) C7 corvette. “Encrypted” PCM programming meant it wasn’t possible to reflash, you could only go piggyback, or full standalone (or engine swap obviously) but you’d lose connectivity with a bunch of other modules. Got worked around relatively quickly, but still.

Aurornis 2y ago

Having a tuneable car is a regulatory risk. Automakers need to take the stance that their cars are to be operated as-is. Claiming it’s not tuneable is important for appearances.

BoostandEthanol 2y ago
Toyota meanwhile have made a point that all the front styling grilles in the Mk5 Supra can be opened up and used to house heat exchangers for tuners. Nissan simply could’ve never acknowledged it. Instead made a point that the GT-R was untuneable, which to my knowledge, is the only time a car company has claimed such a thing.
- Aurornis 2y ago
  > Toyota meanwhile have made a point that all the front styling grilles in the Mk5 Supra can be opened up and used to house heat exchangers for tuners. Heat exchangers don’t modify emissions performance. It’s ECU tuning that they’re worried about. Toyota has actually gone to extremes to lock down the Supra ECU to prevent tuning. Last I checked, only one company in the world had figured out how to unlock the ECU and you have to ship your ECU around the world to have them unlock it.
  - leetbulb 2y ago
    Correct. Sadly, it's not cheap to unlock, but it's easy and worth the price.
  - Zak 2y ago
    Do any countries' emissions regulations require manufacturers to actively try to prevent illegal modifications? It seems to me that wouldn't be the manufacturer's problem, and I can't recall hearing of a legal case where it was. This seems more likely to be warranty-related since it's very easy to break mechanical parts by adjusting things like boost pressure and ignition timing.
    - Aurornis 2y ago
      Yes, the laws effectively require this. Modifying modern cars for high performance impacts the emissions systems. In many cases the ECU modifications will actively defeat certain emission control measures to allow the higher power output without check engine lights, for example. Showing a good faith effort that you've designed the emission compliance systems to be reliable and hard to defeat is part of the process. There's a similar thing that happens with WiFi access points: You have to show that you've made an effort to prevent the end user from trivially modifying it for higher power output or other changes that would deviate from the way it was compliance tested.
- jmb99 2y ago
  GM also claimed that with the (I think) C7 corvette. “Encrypted” PCM programming meant it wasn’t possible to reflash, you could only go piggyback, or full standalone (or engine swap obviously) but you’d lose connectivity with a bunch of other modules. Got worked around relatively quickly, but still.