Today Hondata announced the first OEM ECU tuning solution for the 2023 Honda Civic Type R (FL5).

Boasting gains of up to 45hp and 50lb-ft on 93 octane unleaded this is definitely a must-have upgrade for FL5 Civic Type R owners.


I had the opportunity to speak to Hondata on Friday afternoon ahead of the release of the FL5 Flashpro and learned a few things. First of all, the new turbocharger in the FL5 is certainly an improvement vs the stock FK8 unit. Comparing a tuned stock FK8 vs a tuned stock FL5, on a 91 octane Hondata tune the FL5 showed an advantage in power and torque everywhere over the FK8, with a peak torque advantage of nearly 35lb-ft and ~13hp advantage in peak horsepower.


The FL5's turbocharger spools very quickly and delivers more boost than the FK8's turbocharger, thus Hondata has found that without any other modifications it is already reaching the limits of the factory fuel system. For this reason, flex fuel support is not included with the initial release. Similarly, if you were hoping to install a larger turbocharger in your FL5, you'll want to wait until upgraded fueling solutions are available. For more technical details concerning the differences between the turbochargers, click here.

For now, in order to flash your FL5, you will need the ECU to be jailbroken and at this time that process is something that will require sending the ECU to Hondata in Torrance. It is a software jailbreak (originally, the FK8's ECUs had to be opened up and modified in order to jailbreak) so nothing will be physically modified, but at the moment the "instant jailbreak" software feature is not available.

Since the FL5 still uses a Bosch ECU many of the tables will look familiar to those who have tuned the FK8. Hondata says that they have most of the tables unlocked but not quite all of them (Knock Retard Step is an example of one that they have not added yet), but in time they expect to add most of them.

Hondata's excellent Traction Control System is supported out of the box, which is good news, and for those of you who had an FK8 and have traded to an FL5, if you kept your Flashpro (and remembered to unlock it from your FK8), you can use the same Flashpro hardware to tune your FL5. The only cost would be the jailbreak fee ($275 +$60 return shipping).

Official Product link: Hondata FlashPro Civic Type R FL5 US 2023+

Last edited by JeffX on April 10, 2023 15:22