Most of the time ECU flashing works without a problem but there is always the small chance that something could go wrong. ECUs from different manufacturers all have their unique characteristics as well as potential problems too.
This article is about issues encountered when writing to ECUs where the VIN is used by the
Woolich Racing Tuned software to identify the specific ECU and associated bin file key. The term 'VIN' stands for Vehicle Identification Number which is a unique manufacturer for every vehicle worldwide. Some newer ECUs have a VIN written into them which allows us to recognise the vehicle as well as the specific ECU. Upon writing to these ECUs for the first time with the WRT software, the VIN is first read out and associated with the bin file key for that specific ECU. This has the advantage that the bin file key cannot be lost as it can always be recovered by simply reading the VIN from the ECU.
If the VIN cannot be read from these ECUs for some reason then the WRT software cannot identify the bin file key and will have issues when trying to write to these ECUs. In such cases you might see an error message like this:
If you encouter an error like this the first step is to try and read the VIN from your ECU to check that it can be read successfully. This can be done in the
Woolich Racing Tuned software for supported models using Tools > Read VIN or Tools > Read Part Number and Serial Number.
The results are then shown as in the examples below:
These issues have been experienced for some ECUs from different manufacturers and the resolution depends on the specific bike details.
If this error occurs on BMW models (eg. S1000R, S1000RR, S1000XR) it is usually possible to restore the EEPROM (the place where the VIN is stored), in this case please see this support article:
If your VIN-related error is for a different bike please raise a Support Ticket:
Open a new Ticket
These Support Center articles may also be of interest to you: