Question about DP ecu installation

[AndrewNS]

Hi all,

I've got a question that I hope someone can help me with. I live quite a long way from my neatest dealer and don't have a trailer, so it is sort of difficult to take my bike in to them for service. That's really not too much of a problem because I'm a fairly good mechanic and prefer to do my own work anyway whenever I can. However, I heard through my local club that the dealer in question was selling a leftover set of termi slip-ons for my bike at a good price. It's actually the kit that comes with the DP ECU, open air box and slip-ons.  I have no problem tackling carburators, but I'm clueless about fuel injection/immobilizer electronics, so I e-mailed them to ask if a backyard mechanic such as myself could handle the install of the ECU, and they wrote back to say that I couldn't, it had to be installed and "re-flashed" at the dealership using some special piece of equipment that only they would have. Is this really true?

It probably doesn't really matter, 'cause it's been a couple of weeks since the items were offered for sale and there probably gone by now anyway. But I would like to know, just in case a similar situation pops up in the future. I don't mind buying the gadget that allows you to do a throttle position reset at home, 'cause I think this would be a useful thing to have for ongoing maintenence, but this fellow said you needed way more than that alone to do the install.

Thoughts? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

   

[clubhousemotorsports]

you do not mention what bike you have so I will guess it is recent. Bikes that use the 5.9 or 5a ECU do not get "re-flashed" but they do need software to teach the ECU where the starting point for the TPS (throttle position sensor) is. I have had a bunch of customers who installed the ECU themselves and then brought it to me to set up the fuel injection. Most of the Dp ECU's that needed re-setting have all been off a bunch, all in the very rich direction.

If you just wanted to install the ECU and then get it to a shop you can most probably ride it there, The bike will just eat fuel and not run so great.
You would want to ride it a short bit to make sure it is not too lean, just because all the ones I have seen have been rich does not mean they all will be.

good luck

[Howie]

Or you could invest in the VDSTS software and do it yourself.

http://www.ca-cycleworks.com/shop/catalog/ducati/elec.html
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[AndrewNS]

Thanks for the replies. My bike is an '06 S2R1000.

If I understand correctly then, all it would take to make the new ECU work properly would be a throttle position sensor reset, and the VDSTS software would let me do this. If so, that would be great - I like doing my own maintenence and would see buying the tool as an investment.   

Again, thanks for the help. I'm sort of out in the boonies here (as far as Ducatis are concerned, anyways) and the discussions on this forum have been a great help on a number of topics. 

[Howie]

Thanks for the replies. My bike is an '06 S2R1000.

If I understand correctly then, all it would take to make the new ECU work properly would be a throttle position sensor reset, and the VDSTS software would let me do this. If so, that would be great - I like doing my own maintenence and would see buying the tool as an investment.   

Again, thanks for the help. I'm sort of out in the boonies here (as far as Ducatis are concerned, anyways) and the discussions on this forum have been a great help on a number of topics. 

CO trim also, about 4.5% should do it.  Any good bike or car shop should have an exhaust analyzer.

[clubhousemotorsports]

The VDSTS works well if you are in the boonies I think you should give it a try.  Even if you cannot get a read on your CO having the TPS re-set should get you close

[AndrewNS]

Hey, I know it's ancient history but I just wanted to follow up and say thanks for the advice. I did eventually buy that termi kit with the DP ECU, and put everything on (with a spark mid-pipe) myself. I even got lucky and managed to borrow a VDSTS rather than buying one! The whole set-up went amazingly well, and it just transformed the bike.

I put a 14t front sprocket on at the same time, but I credit the ECU with most of the improvement in low speed running. In my case the fuel mileage actually went up a bit at first after installation, but I think that was because I initially left the idle trim at zero after doing the tps reset. Looking at the plugs, that seemed to be just a touch on the lean side at really low cruise/idle type rpms. Not enough to probably worry about, but I've since bumped the idle trim +20 and that seemed to smooth the idle out a little. I'll have to wait to ride it a bit more to know what it does to the plugs and mileage. Even without the CO setting exactly dialed in, the improvement in rideability is huge. It's now friendly, and smooth, and fluid, and makes lovely racy noises...etc, etc.

So thanks again to ducvet and Howie for the encouragement, and if anybody else out there sees a good deal on one of these kits, I'd say go for it! Installation isn't that tough, and you'll thank yourself for doing it.