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Trying to flash 97 pcm to stock with HPT

ASCStinger

ASCStinger

New member
I bought a 97 gtp with a blown engine to swap my good motor and trans from my totaled 98. Smooth sailing until reading the PCM with HP Tuners comes up with a checksum error after the read completes. It hardly runs on whatever the old owner had programmed on there. I found a few 97 .bins and .hpts with the correct OS to flash over it, but none of them have a VIN or serial number so HPT wont even do a year/model license and tiny tuner doesn't appear to be able to change or insert the 97 vin. The local dealers all want the car to be there in person or they wont flash the pcm to stock, and that's not going to happen without a hefty towing bill.

At this point it seems like my options are either finding someone who would be able to pull a file from a 97 (16252965 OS) either .hpt or .bin that has a vin and serial or someone who can program one into a bin, or having to buy another pcm which I would like to avoid since I'm laid off from work. Going to email HPT on Monday to see if Bill can do anything for me but figured I would see if anyone else has run into this and if there's anything else i might be able to try.

EDIT: after doing some research, I was wrong about it being tuner locked, it just spits out a checksum error when the read completes. Which still leaves me SOL because I need to do a read in order to get a file to modify and write with.
 
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Some O'Reilly stores have the ability to flash PCM's off of the car, and will do it for anywhere from free to $75 depending on who you talk to / what kind of mood they are in. Technically, you are paying for equipment use and the guy's time to do it. It's usually the largest store in the area, or their local HUB store.

Good luck!
 
Thanks for the tip, it didn't even occur to me to try a parts store. I found a pcm company on ebay who refurbishes, sets the vin and has a 1 year guarantee for $70, so if I dont have luck with finding someone to flash it for less than that then I'll pick one up and just eat some ramen for a few weeks.
 
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