AEM noobie question

[mayberry]

I recently bought a 1991 Galant VR-4 and it has an AEM box installed in it. The previous owner had Big Al do a quick street tune because he was in between shops (ICS/Pruven). I need to get it unlocked, is there anyway I can unlock it without having the password?

[mayberry]

Well, I figured it out. Turns out the guy I bought the car from wasn't connecting his laptop to the ecu properly. Either he didn't have the proper driver for the serial cable or didn't have the right com port. I was able to log and change things at will.

Even after searching around the net I couldn't find any info on unlocking the ECU. Is it even possible to lock the AEM? I know you can with a stock ECU on an Evo.

[missouri_dsm]

You cant lock the tune on an AEM. At least not on the original. Not sure about the new one.

[David Buschur]

Actually the old AEM was hacked and locked by a few guys. None of them good enough at tuning to have ever needed to lock one though! Haha. I never bothered, it has something to do with the extension file.

[MARK@FORCEPOWER]

Don't see much point in locking the AEM.

Customer pays for a tune then you lock him out, that will make the customer real happy. lol.

[David Buschur]

I completely understand locking an ECU. The customer is paying for ME to tune his car. He is NOT paying for my intellectual property. He paid me to tune his car to do XXX for him. That is what he got. Allowing a customer to access his map after I am done is a courtesy. The problem will allowing this to happen is a customer can then share my hard work with anyone he likes. This cuts into future tuning, makes very ignorant people experts by using your work.

With that said, I do not lock my stock ECU or AEM tunes. I will however lock the Haltech's that I tune.

[dd_man]

Just out of curiosity, why the haltech's but not the others?

[MARK@FORCEPOWER]

I completely understand locking an ECU. The customer is paying for ME to tune his car. He is NOT paying for my intellectual property. He paid me to tune his car to do XXX for him. That is what he got. Allowing a customer to access his map after I am done is a courtesy. The problem will allowing this to happen is a customer can then share my hard work with anyone he likes. This cuts into future tuning, makes very ignorant people experts by using your work.

With that said, I do not lock my stock ECU or AEM tunes. I will however lock the Haltech's that I tune.

I know what your saying Dave and agree to a point. I don't look at it as "intellectual property" though, I just look at it as doing what I'm payed for. I try to encourage my customers to learn something about the system they own, that way it's easier to help them when they call with small issue's. I too have had some customers that run off and share there tune with others, but in the long run have never seen this to work or benefit anyone. I find most customers will never be "tuners" no matter how hard they try, so I just try to develop the best relationship of trust and loyalty with them as I can.