Last year when we first drove the 10th generation Civic Sedans, we were really impressed with the Civic's new 1.5 liter turbocharged engine. Of course, the first thing that crossed our minds was how much better Hondata could make it, but we didn't know how long it would take for them to engineer a reflash.

Fortunately, it didn't really take them long at all, and starting today, you can hit the Hondata website and order a reflash for your 2016 Honda Civic. But ONLY as long as you have the 1.5L Turbocharged engine in your 2016 Civic – there's no reflash available for the new K20 (2.0L), and Hondata has hinted that there might not be one.

We have spent some time in a Civic that's been equipped with this reflash, and we've been able to swap the stock ECU back in for immediate back to back comparisons. We'll have a more detailed write-up and some video on the reflash once we've had more time to digest the data, but for now here's what we know:

• Turbo spools about 500 rpm earlier than stock
  
• 4 to 6 psi boost increase from 3000 rpm to 6000 rpm
  
• Fuel and ignition maps optimized
  
• Hondata has observed a 20-28 hp increase from 4500 rpm to 6000 rpm
  
• Partial throttle fuel economy unchanged
  
• The reflash is tuned for performing best with a minimum octane of 91, though you can still safely run 87 octane.
  
• The reflash will cost $295 + shipping. You will have to ship the original ECU to Hondata so plan on borrowing a car or getting a rental for a few days.
  
• There's currently no FlashPro offered. Yet. Hondata is presently working on a FlashPro for the Civic 1.5T but do not have a release date.

Well, how is it?
In a word, the difference can be felt immediately. We didn't have the chance to dyno test the car, but we have no doubt that there's a fairly significant bump in the midrange torque and it hangs on. While this added torque is quite nice, you might feel like the boost onset delay seems a bit more pronounced than stock. But that's more of a perceptual thing, as the car ramps from off-boost states to a considerably higher rate of torque delivery. It does have a slightly more binary feel in that sense, but the extra power and torque are well worth it. We did a few before/after 0-60 runs and the reflashed ECU was very consistent with its 0-60 times all coming in 0.3-0.5 seconds quicker than stock.

As far as we can tell, the reflash has no negative impact on fuel economy for 'normal' driving, but of course with more power at WOT, it's going to drink more petrol when you use the performance.

Is it worth it?
For $295, you're not going to find too many mods which will have this degree of performance impact. And it could be the key which unlocks other mods and improves those as well (thinking of upgraded cold air intake, exhaust, maybe even an intercooler). BUT, if you think you're going to be putting more extensive mods on your Civic in the future, it might be wise to wait for the FlashPro, where you should be able to tune the ECU to properly match your mods.

Below are the dyno plots supplied by Hondata.



With these numbers, now we really can't wait for the 6-speed Civic Turbo models to hit showrooms. This Hondata reflash will be an absolute must

Last edited by JeffX on May 16, 2018 19:36