how long to flash car's computer?

[1 FMF]

got a recall notice for my car, the letter stated the fix was to bring the car to the dealer for ECM re-program. The letter states plan on 1 hour or longer. I stopped by at the dealer today, they weren't doing jack either, and my only purpose was to show them the letter and ask how long would a ecm flash take. They said 45 minutes, but this is the same service dept when i bought the car told me I had to use only nissan brand oil filters because they have a special valve in them and also if i used a paper intake air filter the MAF sensor would burn out.
So once they park the car in front of their big computer, plug the cable into the OBD2 port, probably read the service manual how to do their job, how long does the flash procedure take?

 

[Jonny Z]

Depends on the protocol(ISO, CAN, PWM, etc), OBDII transmission can be really slow. These things are not designed to do high bandwidth data transfer often. They probably upload the firmware, then run a checksum to verify that everything loaded okay, it might take sometime.

I have no idea what size a typical firmware file is, but 10 - 20 MB would not surpise me.

 

[GMBoy]

An hour sounds right. You figure you're gonna wait to get checked in at the dealer, then the dealer has to page somebody to move your car, the mechanic plugs it in for the download then they make you wait a little more just because they can.

Seriously though, I've reflashed some GM vehicles and it can take anywhere from a few minutes for a module to 15-20 mins for the PCM. All depends.

 

[boxcartommie22]

i had my 98 vic and 98 conti reflashed last year.the updated software from ford fixed alot of detonation problems..i have to do my expedition next.

 

[bdcardinal]

on a ford it takes about 10 minutes on our IDS. we charge an hour, the techs usually poke around in the computer a bit, power balance, relative compression, ignition tests, injector tests, to make sure nothing is out of the ordinary.

o and you don't need to even look in an owners manual to update a PCM, for the IDS, you just follow the on screen prompts.

 

[boxcartommie22]

mine cost 60 bucks and took about 15min.