Guide to tuners, who locks and who doesn't.

[coyote]

For the benefit of those thinking of allowing someone else to tune their ecu, post up your experiences of whether your tune is locked or not.

Note this thread should not be a discussion about the perceived quality of the tune, friendliness of the tuner, etc ... just whether or not you can go and edit your own tune if you wish to do so.

In fact the only other piece of information that is likely to be relevant is whether or not you were properly advised and understood that you'd locked out of your new tune.

I'll try to add info into the first post and keep it to the top, but am likely to lose interest pretty quickly.


HPF Horse Power Factory
Locked - Yes
Advised - No

Pulse
Locked - Yes
Advised - No

Extreme Racing Tuning
Locked - Yes
Advised - No

Verso
Locked -
Advised -

MRT
Locked - Yes
Advised - Only Lies

Springy Motors
Locked : No
Advised : Yes

Michael South
Locked : No
Advised : Yes

Revzone
Locked : No
Advised : Yes

AutoRacingTechnik (ART)
Locked: No
Advised: No need

[Gambit]

Very timely thread, well done Coyote.

HPF Horsepower Factory

Locked - Yes (tune only locked, suspect hex value changed)
Advised - No

[coyote]

Yeah, I can just feel the hate mail on it's way.

For the record, I have no issue with a tuner locking tunes .. BUT ONLY IF THEY FULLY INFORM THE CLIENT AND GET CONSENT BEFORE ANY MONEY CHANGES HANDS AND ANY WORK IS DONE.

To do otherwise is just dishonest and raises more questions about what else they are hiding.

[3rspecb]

HPF Horsepower Factory

Locked - Yes (tune only locked, suspect hex value changed)
Advised - No

sons of bitches

[coyote]

It's interesting that people are sending me PMs rather than post in the thread, for fear of backlash against them.

[blacktop™]

is high power factory and horse power factory the same place?

also, maybe ad the state next to the workshop? eg. MRT (NSW)

[coyote]

is high power factory and horse power factory the same place?

also, maybe ad the state next to the workshop? eg. MRT (NSW)

Fixed

I can't remember, who else tunes these things?

Who doesn't know if their tune is locked or not?

Who thinks their tune is good, but has never logged nor even done a Learning View to check?

And for goodness sake, stop sending me PMs! There's nothing wrong with posting a statement of fact!

[3rspecb]

is high power factory and horse power factory the same place?

also, maybe ad the state next to the workshop? eg. MRT (NSW)

yes and Horsepower Factory is the correct name.

[Gambit]

Yes amended

[SegR]

Is there a difference between a locked ECU (can't apply another tune unless you pay for it to be unlocked) and a locked tune? (Can apply another tune any time but can't edit the tune provided by tuner)

If so then it would be worth differentiating.

[senator]

another thing to note that Pulse had used ECUTEK to tune cars even when the customer had asked for an open source tune.....i know of 2 owners that were in that position, they were also charged to unlock the ECU.

[04GTLIB]

Tony.
I don't know if our tune has been locked, it was done by Paul (Pulse) at Northside 4x4 when he came up for the group tune a while ago.
I've had no problems with ours to date and have never logged or used Learning View to check how the car is running.
I'm not really savvy to all things dealing with ECU tunes, laptops and using programs to check things over but, I'm more than willing to give it a go.
I just need things to be explained to me step by step and in layman's terms.
Hats off to you for starting this thread mate, I think it will make for some very interesting reading/discussion.
Cheers,
Rusty.

[Gambit]

Springy Motors
Locked : No
Advised : Yes

[Kekotic]

When you say it's not locked Gambit, does that mean you can open the rom in EcuFlash and edit it completely, or is it read only?

[Gambit]

You cannot even read it/open it. You have to load a new def file and start from scratch.