[QUOTE=MY STI]I have an autronic sm4 in my 02 sti and i believe it to be as good if not better than motec and it comes with avcs,antilag,launch control air tempsensor and map sensor with out paying extra it also idles and has a great cold start is an exellent choice in computer. if you change your mind speak to ken or glen at hyperdrive .[/QUOTE]
Ask WRPI0 about Hyperdrive

tenagah dont recommend ecutek when i mentioned i was considering it - they have seen 'so many blown engines with ecutek'

cant remember if they said haltek was the way to go though i think they said that.

im going to check that.

Haltech isn't that bad if you've got a tuner that is competent and has dealt a fair bit with it. In Perth, this would be Aaron as he's done a fair bit of it when he was based over east. The tuning resolution is similar to the autronics and similar cost. I've never had it so can't comment, just from the feedback from various users that have had experience in both

lol i havnt heard of any blown engines from ecutek

[QUOTE=werticusness]tenagah dont recommend ecutek when i mentioned i was considering it - they have seen 'so many blown engines with ecutek'

cant remember if they said haltek was the way to go though i think they said that.

im going to check that.[/QUOTE]
hmmmmm.......who tuned them?? It aint the program people its the tuners that tune it! Would like to know who has blown their engine from a Tek tune!

[QUOTE=Jaron]Ask WRPI0 about Hyperdrive[/QUOTE]

I bought my autronic from hyperdrive but sean tuned it at speedworks. And the times that i have run must mean it works ok ?????

Tenagah dont recommened ecutek for the sole reason that they themselves can't get into it and tune it themselves.. simple.

A tuner/shop will only recommened a product that they know and have access too.

[QUOTE=MY STI]I have an autronic sm4 in my 02 sti and i believe it to be as good if not better than motec and it comes with avcs,antilag,launch control air tempsensor and map sensor with out paying extra it also idles and has a great cold start is an exellent choice in computer. if you change your mind speak to ken or glen at hyperdrive .[/QUOTE]

mmm... but does it do drive by wire throttle?

Nothing wrong with Ecutek. I've had it coming to 2 yrs now but i'm beginning to feel its limitations. In 2004 when i bought the Ecutek there were only 2 options for STIs with AVCS, either Ecutek or Motec. Autronic did not at that time have a plug & play solution so the only way to use it was to wire it in. Expensive and i didnt want anyone chopping up wires in a new car. Also makes reverting to stock messy.
If you want a "reasonable" performance increase on a stock car and dont plan on doing anything else (other add on mods etc) the Ecutek is fine. Just flash and leave it alone. If you're constantly modifying/tinkering around with new hardware which necessitates retuning the Ecutek is not the best. Also two years on, today there are other options avail - Autronic now has Plug & Play, Haltech now has P & P (i spoke with Haltech directly yday and was told that the AVCS function on Haltech was just introduced less than a month ago, hence the reason why it seems nobody in WA at least has tried it yet).
As i see it, the pros & cons of Ecutek are:

Pros:
1) Easy instal. Just download program. No rewiring to mess with. Supposedly undetectable by agent.
2) relatively troublefree. No coldstart problems. Starts first time every morning, idles like a stock car.
3) relatively inexpensive.

Cons:
1) virtually no resale value (u need to swap ECUs with any prospective buyer, have key codes recoded etc...for the little you get..not worth the effort).
2) expensive to retune. I've spent more than the orig cost of the initial Ecutek programme in retuning. What is a fact is that it takes longer to custom tune an Ecutek as the changes made to the programming are not in real time..they have to be made and then downloaded onto the ECU. For a custom tune, the tuner is constantly having to do this on the dyno. My last 2 retunes took over 3 hours each time and cost about $700 each time. I've easily had 4-5 retunes since the orig as i've changed engines, turbos, etc.
3) technically limiting for mods? After many different mods, the only constant on my car has been the Ecutek (i've had 2 engines, 3 turbos, different exhaust configs etc....) and never been able to get the power that i expected. Hence my desire to try a different ECU (process of elimination) to see if it makes a difference.
4) Limited tuner availability - for me there is only one Ecutek tuner in WA, Lane @ RT. An ECU is only as good as the tuner and Lane as one all occasions that i've used him been diligent and i really believe tried his best to extract the max performance possible. Prob is he is hard to book. My last tuning session had a wait time of 6 weeks. If you're constantly messing with hardware changes on yr car, these long waits are just not practical.

Bottom line is. Ecutek is fine for most people's needs. For the constant tinkerer there are other choices now. Value-wise, if you factor in more expensive tuning sessions, the Ecutek is not really much cheaper than a standalone ECU.

I think that has to be one of the most honest, accurate descriptions of ECUTek that I've seen on this forum, or any other. Nice one!