Perhaps the car was purchased in a state other than CA and then the owner moved to CA and the PCM had to be updated (flashed or replaced) to pass emissions. CA used to just charge you more when first registering your car when if was from another state.

requiring a new pcm to drive the car in CA is ridiculous.

Other states are going to adopt the Cali standard, so we will start to see Cali PCMs in cars that are located in other places.
Fortunately, the AP doesn't care, as long as you have the right calibrations.
That was the problem with Sky's setup - neither of us realized that his PCM was a Cali version.
I think its all good now.

BTW -
As announced in the other thread:
The Cobb AccessPORT is now available for the 4-port automatic.

In regards to emissions and registration, that state does plenty of things that would be considered ridiculous in other states.

cool... I live in a ridiculous state.

Well I just purchased a cobb access port hope its worth the money :D

Well it depends on what you bought it for.

And nice bump on a 7 year thread.

LOL it was resting in peace nicely ... what did it do to you

it's on topic, he did the right thing

Sure it's on topic.

Not the right thing.

Lol I saw that it was an old thread but I didn't want to start a new one asking questions or anything. Just wanted to say I got one and am excited for it :fingersx: and sorry for waking the dead :rollingla

LOL it's cool and Team does have a point.


What is/was your primary reason for buying the Cobb?

Well currently car is straight piped, with a K&N typhoon short ram air intake, BHR coils and wires with NGK plugs. Eventually will be throwing a turbo on as well but I just wanted to get use to the mapping and such before messing around with things when there is a turbo induction introduced to the system.

What year is your RX8?
Did you buy the Cobb AP brand new or used?
Where did you get it from?

You'll need the ATR software to view maps and make adjustments.

You'll also will want to use the correct dwell settings for your coils.

I would recommend getting rid of the K&N Typhoon even if you plan on going TC
(it's really not a very good intake, sorry)

Bought it brand new from MM and and its an 06 shinka, the typhoon filter will probably be changed out with the filter that comes with the TC kit. As for ATR software, cobbs website as well as Mazda maniac offer a program for the unit I thought? Maybe I was mislead but that's what I was understanding from reading through a few forums on the AP.

Brand new nice.
Jeff's a good guy, are you getting MM to tune your car NA or after you get the TC installed?
You weren't mislead, there is a custom tuning program for your car if you purchased it along with the Cobb AP from MazdaManiac (I wasn't aware Cobb offered this service for the RX8, are you sure?). But I think it's only valid for so long (can't remember) and for one particular setup. For example you get MM to tune your car NA he may/or may not do it again for free once your car is TC.

What TC kit are you looking at?
How much are you looking to spend?

Access Tuner Race (ATR) is free software from Cobb that allows you to modify the ECU maps. Jeff uses a PRO version of this software which locks his tuned map for your car so you won't be able to view those maps. But you can certainly see the stock map or Cobb's stage1 map and look around or make changes.

Make sure you tell Jeff all you modifications ... whatever setup you have at the time of the tuning.

Oh one more thing:

Make sure you understand and follow MazdaManiacs instructions!!!!
He is quite anal about it, to put it lightly.