COBB Accessport V3 Mustang EcoBoost 2015-2023

One tried and true way to add horsepower and torque to any vehicle is with a good performance tune. Whether you're talking about a high-performance car like our EcoBoost Mustang or even a utility vehicle like an F150, a good quality tune is going to add horsepower and torque, especially if you don't mind upping the octane a little bit. We had great success with the COBB Accessport on our focus ST project car, so today we're going to install one on our EcoBoost Mustang.

The COBB Accessport is an excellent tool for your 2015 EcoBoost Mustang. It comes with pre-loaded maps to work for a variety of performance modifications, as well as different octane, and has the ability to be custom tuned, as well. On top of that, it can read and clear any kind of trouble codes, has performance parameters built into it, and can also do real-time data logging right on the screen. The kit includes the Accessport itself, a handy carrying case, two different face plates, a mount for your dashboard, and a cable to connect your OBD-II port.

We'll start by plugging the cable into our OBD-II port. We're basically going to follow the headlights switch down under the dash, and it's right now here. Once the cable's plugged in, plug in the other end to the access port, and it'll turn on automatically.

Once it turns on, it gives you the basic instructions on how the buttons work. Basically, you've got up, down. The small button's "cancel". Large button in the middle is your "OK". Until you marry the Accessport to your vehicle by programming it, you're only going to have two options on the main screen. One's going to be to install your tune which is basically to install the Accessport. The other one is for trouble shooting. Even if this one isn't married to your vehicle, you can still use it for any OBD-II car to plug in, check a check-engine light, and clear it, as well.

We're going to install the Accessport. Do to that, the first thing you want to do is hit the "start" button once. You don't want the car to start, but you want it to turn on. You want the dash to light up. You'll know you're doing it right. Now, we'll click on "install". Next on the screen, it's going to tell you what kind of vehicle it thinks it's plugged into. In our case, U.S. domestic market, 2015 Mustang EcoBoost, male transmission is correct. We'll hit "continue".

Once it recognizes the car, it's going to give you a couple of different options for your tune. Anti-theft mode, basically what that does is it disables the car. For our friends in the military or someone who stores their car for a great period of time, you can load this tune in, and even if you have the key, it will not start the car. Down at the bottom, you have a valet mode. You load the valet mode tune. Basically, it limits the car to about 35 miles an hour and 3,000 rpm, so nobody can take it out and beat on it.

Besides that, then you have your normal performance tunes. Stage 0, basically, just marries the tuner to the car. There really are no performance benefits for that, so we're going to skip that one. The two currently available are going to be Stage 1. Once there are some more modifications for the EcoBoost Mustang, such as downpipes, cold air intakes, inter-coolers, they'll be other stages available. What's on the market right now, probably is offered is Stage 1.

Here you can choose between your 91, if you're West Coast you can't get the 93 octane, or 93 which, in our case, is what we're going to go with. The Stage 1 will work with our stock EcoBoost. You're going to click "select". It recommends a battery charger. This does take a lot of time. Your first program is probably going to take roughly about 20, 25 minutes, so not a bad idea to put a battery charger on it to make sure you don't lose current because if the battery would die during the tune, you could lock the car up.

"Continue". Now, the Accessport is basically making sure that the computer is correct for the tune it wants to load. What it's doing here is basically preparing the computer. What it does, it takes the stock file, removes it, and stores it on the Accessport, and then re-flashes it with a performance tune. Again, this part here will take some time.

Right now, it's saving the factory data. This will take a good 10 to 15 minutes. Once it downloads the factory tune into the Accessport, the car's going to light up. All your sensors are going to go off. This is perfectly normal. Now it's preparing the ECU for the Accessport map. Once everything's downloaded and prepared, now it's actually flashing the computer. You notice it turns the "Do not turn off". Be very careful. If your battery would die here or you turn it off, you can definitely screw up your car. This is the actual part where the map is being loaded into your factory computer.

Okay. Now, once it gets to 100%, it'll say that it's resetting, making sure everything works. All your system is going to turn on, turn off, and your installation is successful. Hit the "off" key and you're programmed.

Now that the Accessport is married to our car, you'll see that we have a lot more options. We have gauges. We have performance along with the trouble shooting, and then the tune at the bottom there. Gauges allow you to monitor what's going on. It gives you additional gauges the factory doesn't provide, as well as data login. Here you can actually choose the layout. You can have up to six gauges on the screen, or you can have a couple larger ones. We'll go right in the middle. We'll go with three.

Took the top to "setup". As you're data logging, it actually has a shift light built into it, as well. We'll change the units. Change monitor allows you to choose what you're actually logging, or what you're seeing on the gauge. You can see you've got a ton of options on here. Pressure sensors, AFR, we'll click that for one of them. Click down to the next one. We'll set that up next. Change monitor. That one we'll go with "boost". We'll set up the bottom one here. We'll go with "coolant temperature".

Now that you got the car running, you can see we're not logging everything, but you're getting real time gauges on the car. You can set up a total of six or as few as one. You see our AFR changes. Our boost pressure changes. Great additional tool that comes in every Accessport once it's married to your car.

Then, in addition to the gauges you have performance parameters, something you can play with when you're at the track. Definitely don't want to do it on a public highway. It allows you to record your 0 to 60, as well as a quarter mile.

Like we said before, the Accessport is a great tool to have for your 2015 Mustang. You have the ability to load the pre-loaded maps. Custom tunes available. You also get the gauges, the performance parameters, and even an OBD-II scan tool built in. If you have an EcoBoost Mustang, this is a great choice for tuning.