Technology
Need a Tuneup? Become a Hacker

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By SEÁN CAPTAIN
Published: October 25, 2006

BRAWN beat brains in the old days of automobiles. To make cars faster, people bolted bigger air intakes, carburetors and exhaust pipes onto giant muscle car engines. Tuning adjustments were simple, requiring only screwdrivers and wrenches.

In the mid-1980’s, control of the engine slipped out of the average mechanic’s hands and into the so-called black boxes housing onboard computers.

“When computers came out, probably 90 percent of the muscle car tuners were left in the dark,” said Pete Kang, the chief executive of Works, a San Francisco tuning shop specializing in Mitsubishis and racecars.

But a new breed of mechanics began hacking into car computers, and grease monkeys morphed into automotive geeks.

“I’ve been a big computer nerd my entire life,” said Wayne Schroeder, a software engineer in Lenexa, Kan., who likes to race his souped-up 2003 Acura RSX Type-S. Mr. Schroeder paid a company called Hondata to modify and reprogram his car’s engine-control unit, or E.C.U., so he can electronically tune the car to work with the new parts.

“You can’t just expect it to work at its full potential unless you change the E.C.U.,” Mr. Schroeder said.

Even a car straight from the factory will run differently with computer tuning — especially if it is a performance-oriented model like the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution or the Subaru Impreza WRX STi, equipped with beefy hardware like a turbocharger.

“They’re so aggressively prepared from the factory,” said David Vespremi, who wrote “Car Hacks & Mods for Dummies.” “And yes, they left a little bit on the table. And that little bit is often what you get from tuning.”

The first hackers simply opened up the engine-control unit and started examining the gibberish of computer code on a memory chip called an Eprom, or Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory. “You had to literally reverse engineer by going in and changing the code, and then starting up the car and seeing what it did,” Mr. Kang said.

Eventually, they discovered the engine maps — instructions telling the car what to do as the engine runs faster. A high-performance map might, for example, change the mix of air and gasoline and ignite it slightly sooner to produce more power. Carmakers do not program engines this way because it can cause problems for average drivers.

“You have to basically tune for the worst-case scenario,” Mr. Kang said. “Even though you tell them they have to use 91 octane, inevitably someone is going to use 87.” In that case, an early spark could cause the lower-grade gasoline to explode prematurely, resulting in “knocks” that damage the engine.

To tune up the first generation of computer-controlled cars, drivers bought chips with new engine maps from a handful of tuning companies. But because the chips were hard-wired, car owners were limited as to the changes they could make. They couldn’t custom-program their cars.

Though not intending to, carmakers added that ability in the mid-1990’s. They replaced the Eprom chips with rewritable flash memory like the memory used in digital cameras. And to meet environmental laws for California, they added a data port to all cars, allowing inspectors to access the engine-control unit and assess whether the engine was operating cleanly.

By plugging in a laptop, car hackers could download engine maps from the E.C.U.’s memory, modify them and upload the changes without touching a soldering iron. “That’s when what had been a fledgling tuning industry started to flourish,” Mr. Vespremi said.

Around the same time, car hackers were getting on the Internet, and they began trading maps online, the way music fans traded MP3 songs. “Suddenly any novice had access to the tools to fundamentally change how the car works,” Mr. Vespremi said.

Today, car-hacking resources take all forms, from companies like Dinan, Hondata and Works to Internet user groups like openECU.org and PGMFI.org, which publish free information.

Carmakers seem conflicted about hacking. “We understand people are passionate about Honda, and that’s something we want to support and cultivate,” said Sage Marie, a Honda spokesman. “But we can’t facilitate that in any way.”

But the carmakers generally like the publicity that modifiers bring to their brand, according to Peter MacGillivray, vice president of marketing and communications at the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association, which represents makers of auto accessories. “It’s not my impression that there are any anti-accessories cultures out there,” he said.

He noted that 10 years ago, only three carmakers took part in his organization’s annual show in Las Vegas. He expects over a dozen in this year’s show, which runs from Oct. 31 to Nov. 3. “That’s a tremendous vote of confidence,” he said.

Modifications do appear to be a big concern for car dealers, since they have to handle repairs. Under federal law, dealers can’t void a warranty simply because a car has been modified; they have to prove that a modification caused the failure.

Unlike other changes, like adding new air intakes, hacks often leave no physical evidence. And few mechanics at car dealers have the expertise to recognize the software changes.