How long does the ECU record things
 

So... I have to take my car in for a lot of issues. A big one being transmission problems...
The service manager said "we'll run the tests and see if the car has thrown any internal codes. These are codes that don't necessarily throw a check engine light, but they are stored in the ECU"

Here's the issue... (I have an aftermarket shift knob)

I let my friend drive my car, (he THINKS he knows the way I drive and tries to replicate it) but when he brought it back he said "hey, I popped your car into neutral and it said reverse although the shifter was in N"...
"Why the fück would you shift into N? Leave it in drive... You fücked up, it's not the car"

A few days later... Like a JACKASS, he does it again... And again, "WHY THE FÜCK ARE YOU DOING THAT??? You're ******* up, you're popping it too far forward"
So I tell him to show me, we go on a drive, pops it forward... It goes into R... And the car almost tried to engage this time (going 15MPH) but I put it back into N quickly...



So would a shift error like this be stored (I assume yes) but for how long/how can I delete it?

I did the same sh** with mine the other day by accident it made a clicking sound car shuttered but everything seemed fine,

I know this doesn't help answer your question... but why the hell did you keep letting him drive your car???

Wellllll... I had to put gas in both cars, so It was easier to have him drive a car, and the second time I had to pick up the 370Z from work...

dang that aftermarket shift knob will definitely show up in the ECU's history...

Don't automatic cars have a fail safe so you can only shift to neutral unless you press the button in? Then pressing the button lets you shift to reverse or park??

They have a few.
They normall don't let you shift into reverse unless pressing the button... (Mine is finicky) and if you're going over a certain speed, it doesn't even try to engage reverse or park


I just am wondering how long that error (if there is one at all) stays in the system for because i'm taking my car into the dealershit for transmission problems. And I don't want them to think I break it on purpose my trying to jam it into reverse while moving forward

Don't know if that would show up as an error but permanent error codes stay in memory until you clear them. Any good OBD scanner should be able to read/clear them for you. IIRC, there is some data that is stored in "WORM" (write-once, read-many) memory and can't be cleared (I may have see that on the Wikipedia OBD page).

Yeahhhhhh... Dammit, I'm afraid it would be in something like a WORM system... FML...
I was thinking maybe it only has the capability to keep crap for like 1000 miles or something....

At the same time, our cars don't have the same black box that the GTRs have that can inform Nissan of your launch control launches and if you've taken the car to a track

Codes and no codes (hard or soft) can be stored indefinitely until they get cleared. Today's cars can even tell in case of an accident how fast it was going, if the ABS was activated before the impact and stuff like steering input and so on. That's how investigators can tell alot from accidents when there is no witnesses,they pull the info from the vehicle.

Ok, well... I'm 90% sure out car doesn't have the black box to record all that info... And the question is how can I clear it?

Actually there was a list of cars with black boxes listed at some point wasn't there? I need to go dig for that thread because some years of the 370z started getting them. :ugh2:

Yeah, I remember seeing something like that...

God our search function is so sick. Why people don't use it, I'll never understand.

http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-g...-next-car.html

gadjamit, Seems like only 13+ has black boxes.... that's me :shakes head: