New Fitech install, stuttering issue
My mechanic pulled the O2 sensor from the exhaust today: Other than being covered in soot from running rich the install looks good. I'll confirm it's plugged into the throttle body correctly in the AM, along with the other sensors & wires. I have a scheduled time to go to the garage tomorrow AM and call FiTech support so we can walk through troubleshooting.
So after spending time in the garage with the car and tech on the phone, it appears that this is a known software bug. My unit was shipped with old firmware that causes this exact problem...
So, I've updated the handheld with new software, and hopefully tomorrow when I get back there I can just drive it away from the shop..
I sure hope that fixes it. Wow, if that's true that it has a known problem with the old firmware, than that's something Fitech should have put out a recall notice, repair order on. Instead they let the poor user find out for themselves. Nice! Makes me think I better check my firmware version to see if an update is available.
Yeahh.... No where in the setup docs did I say "and make sure you have the latest firmware before you start". I figured if they shipped a new EFI unit out it would have known good firware, and if it was an old unit with bad known-bad firmware there'd be all sorts of warnings online about "update your firmware before beginning!" or something. Neither of those things happened :S
They said it's some sort of software bug that over time some signal degrades and then keeps the car in the crank state, so it never goes to run.
To follow up: Got the new firmware installed, and it now starts and idles correctly. And no stutter any more either, at least from idle. Still needs some other work, so it's still at the shop. I've asked FiTech to send me a new o2 sensor since the current one is covered in soot.
This is really disappointing. I can't believe they shipped me a unit with known bad firmware (shouldn't that have been recalled with a bug this bad?), with no instructions anywhere to update it during install. I've wasted so much time, energy, and $ on this now, not to mention stress.
Really appreciate everyone here for there troubleshooting thoughts.
Wow, we are aware of updates, but never seen this before. Sorry you went through that. Hopefully things will go smoothly from here on out.
The lack of support from Fitech is the reason for the Facebook groups and this website. These are really good inexpensive systems when you know their shortcomings. They want you to believe that you just bolt it on and go. Allthough it does self tune, there is a lot that the user must know before installing.
Just wanted to follow up: After having driven for a bit, it appears that flashing the new firmware fixed all the issues. The 'totally broken car' + the weird stuttering issue I was having before that.
For anyone from Fitech that is listening: You should put in large bold print on all your setup docs (printed & online): "Make sure you have the latest known-good firmware, here's how to check & install it...". Also, if you know that units with bad firmware were shipped out... recall & update them.
Safe to say the shop that's been doing this work for me has written this tech off completely based on this experience.
Car is now running well, I really appreciate the help from this forum... but with a single sentence in the instructions all of this could have been avoided in the first place. #facepalm
Glad it worked out for you. Did not see a firmware issue with your situation. We all learned a little something....