During re-tunes what causes the ECM to fry? Are certain years more prone to it then others?

 

Not a tuner, but here's two:

1) Flashing an ECM with a bad or low battery. This is one of the most guaranteed ways of bricking an ECM.

2) Interrupting a flash. Flashing can take anywhere from 2 to 20mins. When you start flashing, do not play around with the laptop/scantool or work on the car. It takes one little mistake to knock out a cable or unplug a loom to interrupt flashing and ultimately kill the ECM.

I'm sure there are others.

 

Hello,

3 - Other modules and devices operating on the CAN bus that don't go to sleep or can't be commanded to sleep / quieted. This noisy bus traffic makes the PCM update harder to accomplish and I rarely write to a PCM with it installed in the vehicle. A bench harness for doing the update is best using a good, three amp, 13.8 volt power supply and I've only ever written to a PCM installed in the vehicle one time . . . it worked.

Rick