tuning help

[Boosted2.0]

Originally Posted by jflogerzi

If you are talking about ECU tunes. There seems to be 2 major ones. The most popular is ECUTEK and the 2 main people are FA20Club and Visconti. For a complete tune, cable, and license expect to pay around 800$. They send you a can file which you flash to your car. Then its up to you to log and send those logs back to your tuner. They then send you a new tune to flash. Rinse and repeat several times or till you are happy with your numbers. The other popular option thats gaining steam is the uni-chip. Thats an external box that controls the ECU. This option is a bit cheaper, but imo a bit more messy.

I would say they are the 2 FIRST ones

As for the BEST one, well I'm biased.....

[Sportsguy83]

Originally Posted by TemeCal

Thanks for the good laugh today. I thought you were serious, until I read this part.

Would love to know why is it funny. I mean, judging for the amount of people here happy with him, and researching other forums a.k.a GTR forums, it seems like a pretty good reputation.

[BigFatFlip]

This was a good read for noobs like myself until we got a little side tracked (not sure why it happens so often in this forum). But to summarize what I understand (please correct me if I'm wrong):

• ECUtek is the most popular but there are others available (uni-chip, etc. please feel free to mention any if you would like to share)
  • Two popular choices for ECUtek: Visconti and FA20club
    • Pros: lots of people have tried them, very easy to do the flash yourself (just e-mail files and logs back and forth)
    • Cons: tunes are based on logs, can take a while because of time between back & forth communications.
  • Also available: local tuners who are local ECUtek suppliers and do their own tunes
    • Pros: can tune right then and there, can get instant verification/results if dyno is available
    • Cons: limited to that shop's/person's experience & comfort level on tuning (compared to potentially more experienced non-local folks)
• Purchase usually includes a cable, license and a tune. Tunes can be improved based on logs. Do they usually come with a "stock" tune also?
• ECUtek software prefers Windows (maybe not 8), but can work on a Mac (with bootcamp, etc.)
• You lose your ECUtek license if you use/flash other tuning software. You may get another license with proof of dealer reflash or ECU replacement.
• Dealer can't detect flash unless going for more major warranty claims

Not promoting Perrin, but since I've started looking into this, I've found their blog very helpful and informative:


http://blog.perrinperformance.com/category/ecutek-2/


Some legit questions that would be nice to get answers on:

Originally Posted by Zgrinch

I asked earlier if I can flash back to stock for the purpose of warranty work, and then flash my tune back on. So if I'm following this correctly, what I'm really doing is flashing back to a EcuTek version that is a "copy" of the stock settings, which in most cases is not detected by dealer, unless for major warranty work. From there I can then flash back to my custom tune, unless the dealer replaced my ECU, in which case I would need paperwork to get the license dropped back down on the ECU.

Second question, again may be a dumb question, but I'm new to this and why I like this forum so much.

What is preventing a person from purchasing a second ECU for the car and swapping them in/out as needed? Or is that not something you can do and why?

Originally Posted by mad_sb

Yeah, this is still a little unclear. I know back in the EvoX ecutek days I could flash back a stock ecutek rom and still retain the license, but i think they have changed the license model since then.

So, If i have an ecutek tune and I flash an ecutek provided stock map back into the car:
1. is the license in the ecu retained
2. can the dealer reflash the ecu (lets say a tsb comes out that calls for a reflash before and part replacement). IE, is the ecu unlocked at that point?

for the support, this is the reason we noobs keep coming back to this forum

[DR 86]

^ you make it sound dummy proof. Read King Tut's thread on his turbo install for an example of problems you can run into with flashing.

[Zgrinch]

Some of us were simply asking questions to get educated, while others choose to give John undeserved hostility and question his reputation. All based on the fact that they don't like how the system works but he made it very clear -- you have other options.
I think the real issue is that they know that a handful of these EcuTek tuners know what they are doing, but are unwilling / unable to pay for each ones service. These are the same people who believe pirating music off the Internet is ok...screw the artists.. because I should get it for free.

Keep charging what you do John and let the others go elsewhere.

[BigFatFlip]

Originally Posted by DR 86

^ you make it sound dummy proof. Read King Tut's thread on his turbo install for an example of problems you can run into with flashing.

Not saying that at all (fully aware of the troubles you can run into, hence my hesitation and questioning), just summarizing what I found on this thread and trying to get it back on topic.

[jflogerzi]

Originally Posted by Boosted2.0

I would say they are the 2 FIRST ones

As for the BEST one, well I'm biased.....

I did not say the best, but most popular atm

[so26]

Originally Posted by BigFatFlip

You lose your ECUtek license if you use/flash other tuning software. You may get another license with proof of dealer reflash or ECU replacement.

Not sure what you mean here could you clarify?

[ATL BRZ]

Originally Posted by ft86me

so i'm confused on in terms of tuning. Where do I go and what do I need to tune the frs? I have the ark grip catback right now and plan on doing test pipe along with intake soon. Just want to know ahead of time. Detailed information would be fantastic. Sorry for the noob question.

There is a stickied thread here in this forum that you'll find helpful:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29340

[86_ZN6]

Originally Posted by BigFatFlip

• • Also available: local tuners who are local ECUtek suppliers and do their own tunes
    • Pros: can tune right then and there, can get instant verification/results if dyno is available
    • Cons: limited to that shop's/person's experience & comfort level on tuning (compared to potentially more experienced non-local folks)

bryan, if you're looking for a local tune, pete at works is a master tuner

[Visconti]

Originally Posted by BEERzed

Thank you. That's exactly what I was getting at.

I find it interesting that after thousands of posts extolling the virtues of the new Ecutek flashing program, it's only now we are finding out that the license you paid for is revoked if you dare to try another tuning program.

You've got to understand that Ecutek has a terrible rep here in Australia. The tuners aren't very good and they are often completely misleading. Anyone using Ecutek here is going to want to try other options as they come available.

What they are doing now is an improvement on simply locking people out of their ECUs forever, but it's still too limiting for my liking.

Not true and I find it funny how you only have 5 posts and all your talking about is this.

Troll

[BigFatFlip]

Sigh... never mind...guess I'm going to works to get my questions answered

[Calum]

Originally Posted by Visconti

So if your Ecutek tuned, flash back to stock and use brzedit you will lose your license.

John

Is there any way for a customer to recover the license back to the dongle so they could try different products?

[Dave-ROR]

Let's keep the tone professional on both sides please. FWIW I don't think Beerzed's questions are out of line at all and I was not aware that if I used an ECUTek tune, then tried something else to see if the results were different that I wouldn't be able to use the license that I *paid* for already again. Personally I find that type of business practice to be unethical. :shrug: Unless I'm misreading John's reply... This actually makes me question as well whether or not I would run ECUTek and I was planning on getting a tune next month, well that or another set of wheels and tires to compare different sizes at the track.