Clearing Adaptation

[yky]

Can someone tech savvy please explain ( in layman terms ) what is the meaning of 'clearing the cars's adaptation'?
Why and when would one want to do it and what exactly will be 'cleared'?
Does this 'clearing' applies to all the car's control modules or only to certain ones like the DME ECU?
Thanks

 

[piggyboyz]

Re: Clearing Adaptation

Adaptation in a car means recognising habits of a particular driver.

An example will be on my previous car, which is an automatic. When i do overtaking, i will hit the right pedal at a certain pressure, not full throttle, but briskly and the car recognises that i wish to pull up the car and it automatically downshift one gear for me. Then if i were to do the same thing, but this time round, floors the pedal, the car will drop to the lowest possible gear and pulls away.

If u were to realised, u will not get the same response if u were to do the same thing when u r in another similiar model car cos that car, regardless of whether it's a loaner car, or your friends car, do not have the same adaptation values as yours.

The current car have a different sets of setting and like what i have sent u about the ECU adaptation thingee, the car stores different sets of value and varies from driver to drivers, or car to car.

That is why a lot of ppl here will tell u that the car starts off from 2nd gear but some others is dead sure that the car starts from first gear. The simple reason is the different adaptation values.

In simple and understandable terms, if a driver drivers like a koo-niang everytime and sees the tortise pulling faster than his car for a considerable amout of time, the car recognises it and starts the car in 2nd gear and puts the car in economy mode.

On the other hand, if the driver uses the right pedal as a on-off switch, the car recognises that driver takes part in traffic light grand prix everyday and start the car in first gear and put the car in more aggresive mode by downshifting at the hint of right pedal depression.

U don normally have to clear it since it's a value that the car is trying to understand what u r thinking unless u have done something to it. Example will be that u done some mods like installing some CAI, exhaust, or flashing it with a new programme.

In such instance, the reading the ECu gets from the various sensors like the MAF, oxygen sensors will be different and the car will behave erractically. Nothing will go wrong as the car now realises the changes and starts to re-adapt slowly, but by flashing the adaptation value, it will re-learn faster thats all.

One good example will be that when i drop in my CAI, and immediatle when i start my engine, the car starts to hunt and the idling rpm will start moving up and down. Leave it alone, start driving and after a few start and stop, the car re-learn itself and everything was back to normal. But if i were to be paranoid at the hunting, i could have flash the adaptation and the car will erase all the temporary stored value and start from scratch and stabilise the diling rpm at that instance..

Hope this helps...

 

[yky]

Re: Clearing Adaptation

Thanks for the explanation. So it seems that adaptation applies only to the engine and gearbox ECUs as these are the ones that determine how the car behaves when driven. So can I presume that there is only need to clear adaptation when we do some form of mod to the car?

 

[Racebred]

Re: Clearing Adaptation

Not only for EGS. DME too.

there's adaptation for SMG too. As the clutch wears thin, the biting point gradually shifts. the program will adapt accordingly by shifting the biting point. If you clear this adaptation without changing clutch, then you might expect the gearchange to be jerky for a while, while the program searches for the optimum biting point.

Long and short term fuel trims are also slowly being adapted. As the car continuously searches for stoich burning conditions, they will inject or pull back (by up to 15%) fuelling to suit. As a car undergoes wear and tear, being driven in different climates, etc, these values will + or - accordingly. Clearing them brings them back to 0% change and the engine immediately undergoes a searching process for the best value again.

Inside the Modic, you will see all of these different adaptations being offered for clearing. You cn individually choose them, or you can choose the Clear All option. which will bring your car back to defult settings. In my opinion. doing any mods will not require you to clear the adaptation. Just drive the car around for a day. Give it different scenarios, like city driving, highway driving, wide open throttle, high loading (drag high gear from low speed), and the computer will sort itself out in a day.

Sometimes, clearing adaptation may make it worse, or longer for the DME to sort itself out. Consider this scenario. You are currently at +10% for your LTFT. You add in a cold air intake, which increases the amount of airflow, which requires you to increase your fuelling. You are targetting 15%, but by clearing it, you bring it back to 0%, then it has to climb back up to 15%. Whereas originally it only needs to readapt by another positive 5%.

So, dont bother about clearing adaptations, unless you are very anal about getting some custom DME program being tuned in your car. If not, just let the car sort itself out.