Shop/Tuner Screwed up....

Well got my car tuned by very well known tuner and i got shit of a tune....a tune to kill my motor (Bad case of knocking and 9:1 AFR, and loss of hp/tq...after the tune). Car was running perfect before, but had a dented intake pipe and dirty filter. Thinking that might cause a problem in future, i put a new intake on with a new filter. Took the car in to get it tweaked with new parts...tweak cost $406 and created more problems. I got the tune in November and it showed sings before the car rolled of the dyno. I contacted the tuner the next day that the car is having problems and was offered no further help other than paying more to get the work done....when i was just asking the tuner to fix problem tune he did. I kept the matter low till i could resolve it on my own....going through my Credit Card, but seems like that is not going to work. I am still going to keep the name of the tuner/shop low till i run outta ways to resolve (never know they might agree to end this on good notes). My car's been grounded since the tune...other than taking it out to local meets. I finally had to go to a friend who fixed my knocking issue so i could at least drive it without killing it (can't thanks him enough).
For the tuner: I am not looking to get the car re-tuned by you, i am looking to get my tune cost back so i can take it to someone else.

Before anyone says this...car has/had no mechanical issues. One came during the tune, but it was fixed and didn't come in way of tunning afterwards.

Lot more information here: http://www.importatlanta.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154780&page=1&pp=20

People who know who i am talking about please keep all the names low. I will post, if they need to get posted.

would like to hear some feedback....positive or negative...all welcomed.

 

Honestly, Mr.Kidd from Batlground has said everything anyone outside of the tuner involved could say. All I can do is wish you the best of luck to get things sorted mate. Any tuner worth his name should be able to stand by his work and sort things out. Just don't give in an pay for a full new tune from them!

good luck!

 

Honestly i can not afford another tune as of now...i have already to much going on to pour money in WRX or let it sit in garage so i won't be paying extra dime. I am looking to get my tune money back and take it to another tuner. If nothing comes....then WRX will be on autotrader :wtc:.

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of UTEC. A good tune one day can easily turn into a bad tune the next. Temperature compensation exists on the UTEC but it is not the best and is most likely the cause of your issues.


Personally I would sell the UTEC and get with a ecu flash of some sort. Either AP, Ecutek or use the open source tools. The stock ecu is a lot more flexible than the UTEC.

 

Yea UTEC is up for sale, but the tuner should have added the temp compensation himself...instead of me running around afterward, u know. Plus the outside temps didn't drastically change the next day after the tune. If things work out....i am looking to get AP or Hydra :wiggle:.

 

I was told the car is good to go when tune was done. How safe of a good tuner to let me go with a incomplete tune and risk killing my motor. Lol someone who knows UTEC tuned the car and the shop who said should be done in 1hr is aslo a very well known shop (just a estimate)...they may take another hour, but as long as they get it right.

 

observing from outside
I dont think you will get your money back. You paid for service they did work on your car (no matter how bad the work was).

The best i think for a win win situation is they make things right no matter what they need to do they should make you leave with a non negative feel.

You are asking them to give you money back for work that they already performed (may be not complete). I dont think thats goin to happen.

Good luck

 

scary.....my car needs to be tuned, but now I dont know where to take it, lol

 

from my experiences everyone usually will slate 3+ hours for UTEC tuning. ECUTEK or AP in an hour MAYBE. UTEC, no way. unless they blow shit up....

i think my friend jason (jason on the boards), got quoted 5 hours tuning time for his 2.5l/2.0l hybrid UTEC tuned '03 WRX

 

My thing is that someone rushed a service and screwed it up, they should correct it. From reading both here and IA, it seems that the un-named individual rushed the service and was incomplete due to non-work related issues.

 

take 3,4, or 5, but as long as they get this right so at least i feel like money well spent.

 

Yeah the Seigel told me that he would take about 5 to 6 hours for my hybrid also.

 

true, in the end i am paying the price. If i say the name it will be a shocker because tuner is a great person. I think it was a bad day for me and like i said before....i am probably his 1 bad tune out of 100 good tunes....still he should take some responsibility.

 

There is always more than one side to every story.

 

Yes, and i would also like to hear the other side.

 

1. I told you to dump the UTEC the day you got the car.
2. PM me for further instructions.

 

Agree can't eat half of hamburger and then try to take it back, but my case.....i would fit somwhere where i knew it was wrong as soon as i opened it.
I asked the tuner very nicely and politely (till this day i haven't shown any aggression)......i know aggression doesn't resolve anything. I only asked for my tune cost back not mechanical they fixed. They fixed my mechanical problem and they did it right. I have no problem what so ever paying for that.

P.S i saw the tuner viewing the thread, but left no comment.

 

i know UTEC isn't the greatest EM out there, but it is working perfectly. You can't blame a bad tune on engine management.

 

Desi,
One thing we don't want to happen on this site is a war of words on the board between two parties. You posted a thread relating your experience with a tuner. Thats cool, don't let it turn into sniping and I said/he said, that in no way betters our forum or community...

 

So did you talk to the tuner or the shop owner about your'e problem?

 

I hear ya. Thats exactly what i was thinking. Let us know what becomes of this b/c it would suck for the same thing to happen to another person.

It s bad enough you had a problem.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your situation. Paying for a poorly running car is the worst situation. I have a similar problem to yours and the tuner no longer returns my phone calls, which is funny since as Mr.Kidd on IA said in your thread:
"I know who it is by the "tuner was on the phone" comment".
From your post on IA, it seems it may be the same tuner in my situation too.

I've had to contact ecutek directly to get any kind of response. I doubt you would have the same luck with utec so you might want to consider tossing it as will and others have said.

Good luck to ya though. Let us know how it goes.

 

Yah, its just not good juju to fup a tune and not stand behind it.

 

You are assuming that the tuner fucked up the tune.

Don't assume anything. It's funny how things get left out of stories like this....little important details.

 

Edit: Well someone knows something...

 

sorry matt, yeah i made a rash judgment..
dont know the story.. i retract my comment

 

You just made a general statement. It is bad juju for a tuner to not stand behind their work. It doesn't necessarily apply to this situation though.

 

I agree...now give me $2200 so I can get my turbo back exhaust and AP. Thanks

 

lol i'll be the last person you'll see exchanging some mean words. If the tuner wants to keep the business in PM's i'll keep it in PM's.

 

I think there is more to the story than being told. I have talked with the tuner and I don't think there is anything tuning related that may have caused this issue.

From what I was told your car had numerous mechanical issues. Some of which were fixed, but others weren't. One of them being your turbo with had terminal boost creep in 5th and 6th. I believe you were told of this and yet you still decided to run your car WOT in 5th and 6th.

That is not a tuners fault.

 

i talked to the tuner the very next day....morning time about the problem.

i will

i agree too that UTEC is crap, but UTEC doesn't edit maps by itself....every car running UTEC is having problems i guess? I don't know how you can blame Engine Management for a bad tune? If done right there would be no problems

Agree every 1000 tunes there will be a toon, but that doesn't give tuner a right to look over the toon....at the most when contacted he can try fix the toon and keep the client happy.

Pretty sure we had the same tuner PM me the name.
My UTEC isn't acting up..it's running fine and is not cause of the problem. I will upgrade if things work out.

 

i was only told of the 1 mechanical issue that came during the tune and he fixed the mechanical issue. If there were more issues i should have been told that they are keeping him from tunning my car and i would have stopped rite there instead of getting $$$ charged every hour. From what i remember tuner never did a woot pull in 5th and 6th.......only 4th gear pull. He said he usually takes the cars out on street after tune, but wasn't able to take mine out.

Under woot in 5th or 6th....car doesn't have boost creep. Anyone is more than welcomed to check it out.....after the knock issue is fixed.

 

Not that it is any of my business, just trying to get the facts here, but why would you go spend big money for a tune if you had made no modifications to your car other than an air intake?

BTW, I love the little game we are playing of not saying the tuner's name when all the 'hints' given lead to one person.

 

my previous intake pipe had a nice dent in it and my filter looked like a rag dipped in mud. Several people (tuner himself) recommended to change the intake and filter, which i did. I took the car in to get it tweaked on new parts....i wanted it done right instead of something going bad later on and then all coming down to i didn't get it tweaked when i put new filter and intake on.

 

there still something im not sure but ill keep reading maybe it will be later

1. Did you call your CC and dispute the charge ? if yes is it after you spoke to them or before ?
2. Is/Are he/they not willing to work on your car till its right ?
3. What he/they telling you - next step ?

 

1. I did call my CC after i contacted the tuner. I asked him several times to fix the issue (all asked nicely).
2. He said no to work on my car and fix the issue.
3. He said he will be more than happy to look at it/fix it for the normal going rate.

 

if you already disputed the charge how do you expect the shop to have good conscience to continue to help fix your problem. I t would be the last resort if i were to dispute a charge and walk away. Does not sound like you are goin back there anyways (since looking and getting quotes from other shops). Hope you do realize that even they are different people and businesses they have ties among them. by burning one you run the chance of burning more.

I do not know how severe your issue is but AFR 9:1 - how did you measure that ? Was it at a specific boost level and rpm only ?

I still think a win-win situation is that you work with the tuner to get a happy medium - your car may have issues and if he did his best with the conditions presented before the tune then you do need to pay for the work performed. You may post what happened and alert future / potential customers of your experience but you cant just dispute a charge for a custom tune / work done

 

The fact is.. that if they car was in prefect working order before the tune and the after it was not. it SHOULD be the responsibility of the tuner to at least pay the cost of the tune back.

 

CC is backup, it takes one call to them to tell them matter is resolved and case closed (i'd rather resolve this than run around). Going back to them...ummm i'll PM you about that. 9:1 AFR constant after about 3000rpm+...comes up at about 4k then goes right back to 9:1. It was during the tune and is on dyno charts.

 

Dude, the stock ECU can learn around the UTEC. The stock ECU has an immense amount of logic and learning capabilities. If the stock ECU doesnt like what it sees it attempts to compensate. A UTEC is basically just a more complicated SAFC.

Now there is a conflict that the ECU cannot learn while in open loop...however, you have larger injectors, different volumetric efficiency compared to stock and a FMIC with a hot air intake. The stock ECU can be tuned to run that configuration CORRECTLY and AS IF OE. The UTEC cannot be tuned to EFFECTIVELY run that configuration IN CONJUNCTION with the stock ECU. Key word there is in bold.

Yes there are PLENTY of cars running UTECs...however it would be WAY better to use the stock ECU or a standalone to operate said configuration.

Now if you just had an exhaust and wanted a 'stage 2' a UTEC would be fine as you are not changing much in closed loop...you are only changing open loop at WOT basically.

So whether or not its tuned correctly...you've still got a piggy back and a learning ECU fighting each other while in closed loop.

 

turboxs manual boost controller...i don't mess with boost settings. I let it run on the map

 

how do you know your car is running 9.1 afrs? do you have a wideband in the car?

Have you pressure tested the car to make sure it doesn't have any boost leaks?

 

car was on the dyno for 4hrs...including the 1hr of mechanical fix so 3hr of tune. Now take away...helping coworker on other car, break time, time talking to other co-workers......i'll say solid 2hrs tunning and 1 hour mechanical (which i paid for). I hope the i wasn't paying for lunch time and him helping other person on the other car...plus talk time to other people at the shop.