RX-Hachi

Although most feel the M flash is great, I had my doubts as it was rumored to smooth out the power curve, but at the expense of that top end rush. My car is a March ’04 build and has been running flawlessly. My butt dyno likes the engine and it felt strong, especially in the high rpms, where it never failed to snap my head back with a 8000 rpm turbo like kick. I always said “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, so I resisted getting the M flash.

Well, a few days ago I had my first oil service at the dealer and they automatically M flashed me as part of the standard MSP04 campaign. I thought “oh well, what’s done is done. Let’s see how she runs.”

At first I was very pissed! Dang it! It ran super smooth alright, but sure enough that top end head snapping kick at 8000 rpm was gone. And I couldn’t feel the supposed increase in power in the lower revs. Overall all it felt weaker and I was actually quite livid about the whole thing.

So I spent the rest of the afternoon driving the hell out of the car to see if it was my imagination or had the M flash made the car go wimpy on me. But then funny enough, the computer must have had to relearn my driving style. By that evening, the engine felt really strong again. I could now feel more power in the lower rpms, it reved quicker, and smoother than ever before. And, although not quite as pronounced as before, that head snapping kick at 8000 rpm was back!!! :D

Now I’m a very a happy camper and think overall that the feel of the M flash is slightly better than L.

I can’t say about MPG. I drive mostly in the city and my mpg is directly related to my driving style. If I drive aggressive with redline shifts, I end up with about 13 or 14 mpg. If I just cruise along in a conservative manner, I’ve gotten as high as 17 in the city. I usually average around 15 city, maybe 21 or 22 highway, which ain’t bad, especially for Honolulu’s congested roads. We’ll see if the M flash has any impact, but I suspect it will be minimal due to my heavy city driving.

shahram72

I find that most car computers take as much as 500 miles to relearn the engine upon loss of power and flashing the firmware would most certainly result in a fresh boot of the computer as well.

RedRenisis

I just had mine in for its first service today and was going to ask the Service guys about the flash and a few other things, as soon as I started talking the Service Manager was like these, so I got flashed today :D woohoo, gonna go back later this week for the airbag and dynamic damper recalls, I guess they had to order the part. Overall Ed Morse Mazda down here in Sunny Florida really impresses me, they been nothing but great with everything.

RX-Hachi

I'm still amazed at how different my engine seemed at the time of the reflash vs. now. Not a huge difference, but yet quite noticeable. When I first got the car back, the engine seemed kind of lifeless without the same punch it had before. Now after a few days, it has more or less its old robust character back, and I think if anything it performs a little better now in the lower rpms.

If it really takes 500 miles for the computer to relearn the engine, hopefully things will only get better. Has anyone else noticed this effect?

StewC625

Mine got the M-flash yesterday as well, and my service advisor, who has worked on RX- cars for years (just learned this ... guess I'll stick with him) said that he recommend I "drive it like you stole it" on the way home from the dealership and for the next several days.

He gave me some good info on the adaptive nature of the computer - basically what it does is monitor and record driving actions in three-mile increments and add that to an overall composite "average" score of your driving habits.

As you accumulate driving habits over time, with more and more data points, the computer learns your desired throttle response, desired rate of acceleration, etc. and this "score" gets averaged more and more closely to the ideal profile of "you".

He simplified as such:

The starting point of the computer's "driving habits" score as a default is a midpoint value. For sake of illustration, he said imagine it as a 10 point scale, and it defaults when the computer is flashed, at 5.

If you take an aggressive drive right away, and record several three-mile increments of data with 9 or 10 on the aggressive behaivor, right away the computer will adjust accordingly. If you continue this way, you keep accumulating points at that high level, thusly putting the "average" more firmly at that point.

What's interesting is that I experienced this exactly. I left the dealership and made a point of flooring it and redlining it as much as I could (WOT, etc.) for the next three miles. I noticed that the power was WAY off when I first picked it up. When I hit that magic 3 mile point, WHAM, all of a sudden I'd never felt so much power before - in the default mode, I couldn't even chirp the tires on the 1-2 shift at high RPM, and once one data point was written, suddenly, POW, a big scream on the 1-2 and a dip into the TCS!

I kept driving it this way, and it's noticably quick.

The M-flash by the way really does help the starting. I tried to flood it yesterday and couldn't - started it up, shut it down, started up, shut down, like four times, just to see ...

Also cold starting works better too.

If you're in Chicago - good dealership: Autobarn Mazda/VW in Evanston. Ask for Jeff Frank, the service manager.

RX-Hachi

Damn, I wish I had known that before, I would have driven even harder! I need to go pound some pavement for another 3 miles now.

Great info!!! Thanks!

great8fifty

That's good info. Thanks much for the explanation. I had the same experience. Got the flash update a couple of weeks ago and the car initially drove like a dog. I proceeded to hit it pretty hard, winding it up and trying to figure out what was going on. Now, it seems to have its old punch back, especially the low-end torque that makes the AT such a hoot to drive. Thanks again. (Still looking for recommendations on service -- dealer or independent -- in the Sacramento area.)

downshift

This is a rather interesting observation. Perhaps the same idea can be applied to why some people did not see an improvement in their gas mileage after getting the M-flash.

StewC625

Yeah, I"m interested in that ... just for illustration. From what the service manager said, is that fuel mileage improvements will be had for typical "cruise" situations, but overall, and especially hard driving around town will not likely show much improvements. Also he said the way the computer is mapped for initial start and engine warmup should also help (it's set quite a bit leaner on the M-Flash than the K-Flash).

Stew

StewC625

Nope, that just shows your Flash status ...

StewC625

Disconnect the car's battery for more than 1 minute.

downshift

It also clears the eccentric shaft plate profile memory. IIRC some people did say it cleared "personality" mapping as well. I think it's in one of CZ's threads.

StewC625

Well, I did the 20-stroke thing today just to see the sweep. Guess I better go out and "drive it like I stole it" again!