Honda has always been a specialist’s brand for tuning, mostly because the ECUs needed their own software. Two Autotuner releases in June put the Keihin, Continental and Hitachi units behind almost every Honda and Acura onto a normal OBD read and write, so a Civic Type R or a CR-V 1.5 turbo is handled like any other car.
Cars this opens up
- Civic Type R FK2, FK8 and FL5 (K20C 2.0 turbo)
- Civic, CR-V, HR-V, Jazz and Accord 1.5 turbo (L15)
- Civic 1.8 and 2.0 i-VTEC, older Type R (K20A), Integra, S2000 (F20C and F22C), CR-Z, Insight and the 2.0 hybrids
- Accord, Odyssey and Acura TL, TSX and MDX 2.4 and 3.5 V6
What it means
The FK8 and FL5 Type R are the obvious ones: 320 to 330 PS as standard, typically around 380 PS and 500 Nm on a Stage 1 with the standard turbo. The 182 PS Civic 1.5 turbo typically makes around 215 PS, and the CR-V and HR-V 1.5 gain the same 30 to 35 PS. On the naturally aspirated VTEC engines a calibration is about cam timing, the rev limit and fuelling for an intake or exhaust. Reads take between five and seventeen minutes depending on the ECU; the write is under five.
Owners: put your registration into the tuning builder. Dealers: Honda reads through the file service with the Autotuner.
