280ps ECUs direct from Japan

[haydar]

Hi everyone

I've found a company that can source the 280ps ECUs INSERT INTO post VALUES (MD362895) direct from Japan. Total cost is roughly £350 and these are brand new.

Let me know if anyone is interested. Maybe we can get a small discount on bulk order, don't know???

[Spirit]

Haydar

Well done mate, I may be interested but for that sort of cash would need a bit more info.

1: How can we confirm they are brand new ?
2: Are they a reputable source - don't wanna send wads of money to Japan and get nowt in return :INSERT INTO post VALUES (

Bit more info would help mate.

Cheers

Pete

[Brind]

For an extra few quid you could buy a tweaked ECU that will increase the power beyond 280.
For £350 you could fit a complete straight through exhaust system and gain the extra 20 brake plus. :Ponder:

[haydar]

Originally posted by spirit979
Haydar

Well done mate, I may be interested but for that sort of cash would need a bit more info.

1: How can we confirm they are brand new ?
2: Are they a reputable source - don't wanna send wads of money to Japan and get nowt in return :INSERT INTO post VALUES (

Bit more info would help mate.

Cheers

Pete

Too right.

These are the guys that I sourced my lash adjusters from. I found them when I was looking for the Ralliart stickers which were the first things I ordered from them. In both cases the items have turned up within a week and with no problems. The lash adjusters I got had all the Mitsubishi marks on them as well as the Mitsubishi packaging.

I'm not personally trying to make any money out of this and would be happy to put any club member directly in touch with them. I was hoping that if we put a bulk order in place we could save a little on the post as well as try to get a small discount out of them.

All my correspondance with them has been via email and they are very prompt at replying 'in english', and extremely helpful. It took the guy about a week to finally source the parts directly from Mitsubishi! I gave him the ECU number that was identified in one of the previous threads as the one which gives the extra horsepower.

[haydar]

Originally posted by Brind
For an extra few quid you could buy a tweaked ECU that will increase the power beyond 280.
For £350 you could fit a complete straight through exhaust system and gain the extra 20 brake plus. :Ponder:


Brind

I'm more than interested in an aftermarket ECU that would give even more power than the 280 offered by the upgrade ECU? Do please provide details of costs and where it could be bought?

The only other solution I've come across is to add a UniChip, but this is at least £700 plus fitting and setting up INSERT INTO post VALUES (so read at least £1000 into that). Please advice if this is not right.

As for the upgrading the exhaust, again please provide details. However, when I asked LegnumVR4 about this, his comment was that the extra power from the newer ECU came from the fuel mapping, so even with a straight through exhaust, one could then get ANOTHER 20 bhp by upgrading the ECU.

Also, I can't help but think that the upgrade to the ECU will help the car in other areas as well as, such as smooth idling and better/more power at the top end. But I could be wrong here.

[Brind]

I was not trying to patronise you.

I merely meant, for £350 you could add a straight through exhaust or some other modification to achieve the 20bhp.
Obviously this ECU will gain you the 20bhp increase either way.

[Spirit]

Haydar

I am very interested in the standard Mitsy ECU so put me down as a maybe. I have done the induction and exhaust bit but would like to keep the electronics and rest of the engine standard I think so this ECU is probably the way I will go.

Incidentally, do we know the cost of getting this ECU from Mitsy here in the UK ?

Pete

[haydar]

No I don't?

We should find out for a proper comparison but I heard someone mension in the region of £1000 +!!!

If this is true it wouldn't surprise me. I've already posted on other threads that the lash adjusters in the UK are more than £700 a set while I was able to import them from Japan for £225 including post and packaging.

Rip off Briton I'm afraid! We should all use the internet more and shop internationally for better prices. This will make the UK distributors more likely to price their parts sensibly. By comparison, the prices in the States are comparable to Japan prices and in some cases even cheaper. It's only a shame that the Galant/Legnum VR4s were never exported to the states officially!

[Spirit]

How long before you know if you are definately going to order one ?

Pete

[haydar]

Originally posted by Brind
I was not trying to patronise you.

I merely meant, for £350 you could add a straight through exhaust or some other modification to achieve the 20bhp.
Obviously this ECU will gain you the 20bhp increase either way.


Brind, glad you're not trying to patronise me :) , though to be honest I didn't think you were anyway.

The HKS Super Drager cost me about £600 plus fitting so £350 for another 20ps seemed like a good deal! :Ponder:

However, if there are after-market ECUs for not much more than £350 I'm genuinely interested. Better to upgrade the once rather than upgrade again and again. :) I did try to find after-market ECUs but it was impossible trying to track one down unless you can read Japanese. I know they're there, since they are listed as modifications by Japanese owners, but the writing is all Japanese :confused: :confused:

[haydar]

Originally posted by spirit979
How long before you know if you are definately going to order one ?

Pete

I thought I'd give a few days on the forum to see how much interest can be drummed up. If a few people are interested I'd email the guys in Japan back and see if we can work some sort of discount into the price.

[Brind]

What kind of stuff does this company offer? obviously car parts, but is it just official parts or can they get hold of anything else such as an upgraded ECU? surely if they're in that business it would be in their interest to source such items.
Since they can comunicate in English how about asking them?

I'm sure many more people here would be interested.

[haydar]

Look, the easiest thing is if anyone who is interested their web site is:-

http://www.japanparts.com/

The name of the guy INSERT INTO post VALUES (or at least I hope it's a guy) I've been communicating with is Koji. INSERT INTO post VALUES (koji@japanvehicles.com).

The following is the email thread with Koji regarding the ECU:-

===========================================
Dear Haydar,
I am so sorry to have taken time to reply.
I have found MD362895 from Mitsubishi company.
Here is the grand total for you.

*MD362895[1]: 64,000JPY

Sub Total: 64,000JPY
Shipping to U.K Via EMS: 4,600JPY
++It'll take about 14-16 daysINSERT INTO post VALUES (working to get to U.K
since we receive your payment.++
Mail Order Card Sale INSERT INTO post VALUES (5%) for Credit Card Company: 3,610JPY

Total: 72,210JPY
Universal Currency Converter

===========================================
From: Haydar Kirmani
To: koji
Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 6:19 PM
Subject: RE: ECU for VR4

Koji

Received the lash adjusters today. Thank you.

The ECU number required for the car is MD362895. Does this help?

===========================================


Dear Haydar,
I have tried to look for ECU for Legnum. But I could not find it.
It is really hard to look for it.
If you have more infomation for it, please let me know.

Best Regards,
KOJI

===========================================

From: Haydar Kirmani
To: koji
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 8:37 AM
Subject: ECU for VR4


Hi Koji

Can you get your hands on cheap post 1999 ECU for the Legnum VR4 auto/tiptronic? If you can there are several people in the Club VR4 UK who would be interested in buying these. It doesn’t matter if they are second hand. From what I can tell a lot of people in Japan upgrade these to after market ECUs so the standard ones should be available somewhere???

Thanks

[kammy.ahmed]

Haydar

I think i would be interested, its a good start i think....provided they are brand new.
Day off tommorow and i am ordering my new bumper from mitsy so will also enquire about the price of a ECU from them, should give us an idea of how much we are saving?????

[Spirit]

I too called my local Mitsy today and they are checking the part number and price for me so will post what they say too.

Pete

[Spirit]

Got a call today from Mitsy dealer to say a new ECU is £973.46 including VAT !

Won't be buying one of them then !

[haydar]

What a rip off!!!

Makes me really mad that they think they can get away with this! These high prices not only affects us in the UK in terms of maintenance, it also results in our car insurance being so high!:mad: :mad:

[Spirit]

Is it just the two of us for ECU's then ?

[pjjohnson]

I have made some enquiries about a Mines ECU, they are available for £730 as a replacement unit. The contact is Shin Inoue, e-mail inoue@prospec-ms.co.uk.

More expensive than the £350 Haydar has found but in theory it should give even better performance.


His e-mail to me said

" The difference from standard ECU is as follows.

- Ignition map
- Air/Fuel Ratio map
- Rev limit
- Speed limit

It makes better acceleration response, maximum
power and maximum torque.
You can use the ECU up to stage 1 tune INSERT INTO post VALUES (induction,
de-cat pipe and exhaust). "

" The difference from standard ECU is as follows. His e-mail to me said

[haydar]

PJ

The Mines ECU sounds very tempting though maybe out of budget for the moment. How does it differ from the Uni Chip? Did your contact give you any indication on how much more power the Mines ECU would give?

I know we've discussed before the apparent performance wall the VR4 seems to hit and we've debated if it was down to electronics or turbo limitations. I wander if your contact could settle this debate for us???

Just something to check, does your contact know what happens to all the old ECUs once his customers buy the Mines ECU? Do they offer a part exchange deal? You can guess where I'm going with this :)

[zentac]

Nice one, but 72,000jpy once youve added 10% parts tax and 17.5% vat plus handling fee at this end the final figure will be closer to £450. Ive brought in loads of parts from all over the world, sometimes you get away with out paying VAT depends on the courier company.

[zentac]

Mines ECU`s are good, I had one on the FTO, however unless you can find a spare to send off you will be without your car for about 28 days as they reprogram your standard ECU.

[haydar]

Originally posted by zentac
Nice one, but 72,000jpy once youve added 10% parts tax and 17.5% vat plus handling fee at this end the final figure will be closer to £450. Ive brought in loads of parts from all over the world, sometimes you get away with out paying VAT depends on the courier company.

I've imported parts from them before and not been asked to pay any tax? I guess if one was importing large items such as gearboxes etc... it would be obvious but ECUs are unlikely to attract attention. We could also ask Koji to mark them as used parts :Ponder: . Even at worst case £450, still less than half the price of the ECU in the UK :)

[BraindG]

get them to send invoice seperate...

[zedy1]

ask them to mark em as warrenty exchanged

[banjo]

Or zero value

[richieelliott]

how do you know if its a 280bhp i have a manual legnum vr4 with ayc? ec5w is the chasis number and is there a upgrade for the ecu where it doesnt have to be off the road so long?

[Brind]

If you have a manual car you will have 280bhp before and after facelift, it was only the automatic cars that were effected.