[abuqutaita]

I run ISTA-P inside a Windows VM on my MacBook, which has worked well for over 2 years on a couple different cars. I was updating my F22 with ISTA-P 3.59 last night, and it started pushing program data for FEM_BODY when OS X crashed. Normally when there's a fault while programming, re-running ISTA-P gracefully resumes wherever it had left off. But this time, it seems to have killed the car.

I tried to connect to it again using ISTA-P, and couldn't get past the error codes 94201 and 63014. Typically disconnecting the battery for a few min does the trick, but that didn't work this time. Note that since FEM_BODY was effectively missing, almost nothing physical/cosmetic on the body of the car (lights, locks, windows, trunk lid, etc.) worked, including the ignition/start button. When I reconnected the battery, it just went into accessory mode automatically, but I couldn't even use the button to shut the car off again completely.

Then I tried to connect using ISTA-D, and it reported that most of the ECUs were still in transport mode. I removed transport mode, and tried to reinitialize ZGW to see if that would let me connect via ISTA-P, but this action kept failing in ISTA-D. FWIW, I found this a little strange since I could run a full diagnostics test of all ECUs using ISTA-D, but reinitializing ZGW kept reporting an error (I think it was something along the lines of ECU out of range).

Lastly, I tried to connect via E-sys. It connected fine, but when I went to read the VO, it said that it was missing from the VCM (including the backup copy). That's when I threw in the towel and called roadside assistance to get it towed.

I know the risks associated with doing updating ECUs, and I gambled and lost this time. But I'm curious what I could have done to resume programming of the car. Any ideas?

[demon68]

It is necessary to use E-SYS. After establishing the connection and go to the VCM- Backup -Read Data-Read FA- Read I-Step and Restore Data.

[abuqutaita]

Thanks for responding!

Someone can correct me if my understanding of how E-Sys works is incorrect, but I believe when you read FA using the normal path (Comfort mode > TAL calculating), it tries both the primary and backup. I'm pretty sure of this, because when I tried to read FA, one error came up saying that it couldn't find anything, and after dismissing that, another error came up saying it couldn't find anything in the backup VCM either. Because of the second error, I didn't actually try and do it manually.

Given this, what could I have done to make progress? Or perhaps another interesting question: what is the dealership going to do to recover from this state, considering they don't use E-sys?

[demon68]

I can help by TeamViewer

[gbyleveldt]

I think they will just replace FEM with new unit. You'd be surprised how many give problems and the dealerships are so used to it that they'll order another one. They probably won't even notice that the FEM is busted because of something you did.

Interestingly, there's so many other modules, like CIC and NBT that gets bricked while doing everything right, that I'm reluctant these days to flash cars for people. The amount of HUs coming from dealers for repairing programming faults is unbelievable. I honestly do think the latest versions of IstaP are not stable enough anymore.

[abuqutaita]

They told me today that they're ordering a new control unit, but the service rep didn't know which one it was. I'm guessing you're right and they're going to replace FEM. I didn't mention this earlier, but I think ISTA-P had pushed program updates to some other ECUs before it crashed during FEM, so there are probably some other units that are missing coding, or at the very least, need to be reinitialized.

Hopefully they don't just keep ordering new ECUs to clear all the faults, or the car is going to be in the shop for weeks