I have a 2012 and unfortunately you're going to have the same problems I have... you can't tune these. The ECU in these specific years are these Continental branded ones that have some anti-tamper mumbo jumbo. Yes, there are threads out there where people have got around them, but no, they're not in the USA (Argentina I believe) and the few USA vendors that apparently have tuned them long in the past when Spec-B was fresh for the years, well they don't do it anymore (I know, I've asked). It SUCKS. Literally the best tuning option in this case is an Apexi NEO AFC which I don't have a lot of info on.
What has helped the car a lot, in my opinion, has been the Ford Performance suspension kit. It's a barely perceptible drop, but the added stiffness has been nice with ZERO negatives to comfort. I've had and have my share of project cars and that line is usually BS, but here it's true because it's just not an aggressive kit, but it's cheap and more aggressive than stock, plus the stock stuff is old by now. I also have the DNA racing rear anti roll bar (it looked closest to the Steeda part).
I have the CARB legal K&N intake on mine and I don't think the car is faster, but man, that intake noise is worth it! You have a cat-back so you probably have some added noise already.
I wish I could justify putting a Quaife LSD into it (we have a BC/IB5 transmission I believe), but since I can't tune it for more power I'm going to suck it up, accept defeat and leave it where it is.
Apparently the body styles just after ours without the pointy tipped headlights can be tuned, but since I don't have that I haven't looked into it.
I wish I had better news. The biggest saving grace to me is that I want to take it to the track and drive it in anger and I'll probably learn something from that... and maybe blow it up and have to get something new that I can tune
It's a real bummer about the ECU being this PITA USA specific part. You can get some solid n/a gains from these things otherwise as I see them doing in the UK, EU, etc.
edit: do you know what codes you're getting, btw? I dealt with my share of them after I bought it and it wasn't obvious what the issues were. I still have 1 code coming up that is solved by a TSB I have to get around to doing.
What has helped the car a lot, in my opinion, has been the Ford Performance suspension kit. It's a barely perceptible drop, but the added stiffness has been nice with ZERO negatives to comfort. I've had and have my share of project cars and that line is usually BS, but here it's true because it's just not an aggressive kit, but it's cheap and more aggressive than stock, plus the stock stuff is old by now. I also have the DNA racing rear anti roll bar (it looked closest to the Steeda part).
I have the CARB legal K&N intake on mine and I don't think the car is faster, but man, that intake noise is worth it! You have a cat-back so you probably have some added noise already.
I wish I could justify putting a Quaife LSD into it (we have a BC/IB5 transmission I believe), but since I can't tune it for more power I'm going to suck it up, accept defeat and leave it where it is.
Apparently the body styles just after ours without the pointy tipped headlights can be tuned, but since I don't have that I haven't looked into it.
I wish I had better news. The biggest saving grace to me is that I want to take it to the track and drive it in anger and I'll probably learn something from that... and maybe blow it up and have to get something new that I can tune
edit: do you know what codes you're getting, btw? I dealt with my share of them after I bought it and it wasn't obvious what the issues were. I still have 1 code coming up that is solved by a TSB I have to get around to doing.