LS1 ECU Tuner Lock

[Sasha]

Has HP tuners recently incorporated extra file protection into the latest versions of the software.
In the past I have always been able to earth a pin on the ECU and bypass the tuner lock to read the file and tune the vehicle.

Today I attempted to unlock a customers car that was tuned by another shop. I used the earthing pin method and the file was read from the ECU and saved to my laptop, but upon trying to open the file a message popped up telling me I cant open the tune as it's tuner locked by someone else.

This customer is unaware of where his car was previously tuned and is now stuck with the tune in the car unless I replace the ECU or send it away to be software unlocked. What's changed and why?

[Alvin]

I've never seen a locked file that looked even halfway coherent. Most of the time it's to hide sloppy work.

I've never heard of grounding a pin to get a PCM to read. Where did you read or see this?

[gtstorey]

I've seen posts that said this would allow reloading the OS when getting an x36 fault, but I don't know what ECM this was referring to.

[2xLS1]

After you ground the pin, you need to read the file with something that will save it as a .bin, then open the file with a hex editor, Find the seed/key in the bin, calculate the correct key from the seed, change it with the hex editor then it will be an unlocked .bin. That is the only way to correctly unlock it. But since HPT doesn't open .bins now you really need to use another product to accomplish all of that.

[Sasha]

After you ground the pin, you need to read the file with something that will save it as a .bin, then open the file with a hex editor, Find the seed/key in the bin, calculate the correct key from the seed, change it with the hex editor then it will be an unlocked .bin. That is the only way to correctly unlock it. But since HPT doesn't open .bins now you really need to use another product to accomplish all of that.

That is just too much work Why did HP tuners have to add that extra layer of protection. I have been using the grounded pin method to bypass tuner lock on P01 ecus for years.....well, until they decided add this little hiccup to the software.

[2xLS1]

That is just too much work Why did HP tuners have to add that extra layer of protection. I have been using the grounded pin method to bypass tuner lock on P01 ecus for years.....well, until they decided add this little hiccup to the software.

Yep takes all of 10 minutes. And if you don't change the key to the proper one, the file is still locked. That's what locking does. It changes the key to one that doesn't work with the seed. I doubt HP tuners has changed anything in their locking routine.