RexNuts Subaru Forums

True. Might just do that!

Let us know what they say.

I just found an old email I got from them..
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Autotech dated 12/08/09
Firstly thank you for your enquiry. The cost to tune your vehicle with ecutek is $1695. The tuning of your vehicle coupled up with your existing mods will increase the power by 40kw. It will also improve drive ability, throttle response and in many cases also improve fuel economy depending on driver habit.
The question about locking the ecu with ecutek and restricting tuners is not 100% correct. The ecu can be retuned by any tuner using ecutek software. You are correct about the licensing fee. It is only charged once on the original tune. The other software used by various tuners is free off the internet. It is a pirate copy of ecutek. The parameters are not all there. Please give me a call on (02) 9897 1378 to discuss this in more detail at your convenience. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
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What do you guys think?

As in the locking part.
The ecutek software itself is fine.
If you buy a car with it on, it's dramas if want to go somewhere else to get it tuned.

The other part that annoys me is you have to pay an extra $900 initially for a licencing fee before you even start to reprogram...
This is anywhere that does ecutek, not just MRT.

That's average. I bought my car with it in, definitely won't be going down that path should I ever need to invest!

That doesn't sound right either!
So if SAS do other software, are they saying it is not as good as ecutek?
It is missing stuff.
No way is that right.

Yes forster to michael south in gosford would be around 3 hours i think

Seems that way hey...
Why do you mention SAS by the way?

That's where I have always taken my car.
I know they would never use a software program that "misses bits".
I'm sure no where else has the missing bits software either!

I took my car there once... ONCE!!
The charged me way too much for and extra 25kw and left a fuel leak...
Was that worth $2600 ?? Nope!!!
So I don't trust them anymore.. Rip me off once and I'll spread the word

I took my car there once... ONCE!!
The charged me way too much for and extra 25kw and left a fuel leak...
Was that worth $2600 ?? Nope!!!
So I don't trust them anymore.. Rip me off once and I'll spread the word [/quote]

$2600!! Jeebus!!!

Yeah they reckon they had to regap my spark plugs... Which were new... And fix the neutral switch... Which aparently if it's faulty the cruise control turns off.. Which never happened... And I asked them to install a silicone induction properly and they just sqeezed it in which caused the fuel leaks.. And they didn't even print a dyno sheet showing psi but told me it was set to 17... And my last dyno showed 19... And they left the tune a little rich... Worst experience ever...
Highly NOT recommended from my experience!!

Didn't we work that one out on the "other" forum that they were not quite as bad as you thought?
I think even msr backed them up ( amazing I know lol) and said it was fair enough the pricing as not an easy job. If I remember rightly, I think you even realised that you may have got a bit over excited- easily done with performance car stuff! lol.
They usually do leave the car a little rich for safety. They don't like to push it too much as Dave would like the car to be reliable and run for years than squeeze a few more KW at out of it.

Did you ask for a dyno print out with psi when you dropped it off?

Did you let them fix the fuel leak? By memory, they tried to fix and told you to come back if was still an issue but you didn't go back?

Were the spark plugs gapped before they were put in the 1st time? They wouldn't pull them out for no reason so must have needed to??

A mechanic would not take off the manifold to put the silicon pipe in unless asked as alot more labour and not needed.
Other than that, smooth sailing!

btw, no I don't work for them and understand they can make mistakes!

One other little point, another subaru specialist occassionally can't sort out a problem they take it to SAS to fix......

Replies in bold above.
Since then I've read that people who have Neutral switch problems the Cruise control doesn't stay on... maybe they were wrong but I've also been told that Pulse disable this switch and may charge you around $100 which is way cheaper
By my calculations
Tune $1200
Install Sililcone Intake & check filters $ 285
Fuel Pump $ 222
All up $ 1707
I just grabbed the receipt so the actual total amount was $2277
Which means they charged me $ 570 to install the pump and fix this neutral switch
Now they rang me up about the pump and I said yeah go for it but they never told me about the neutral switch.
So the car actually went from 172kw to 188kw so I gained a whole 16kw for $2277 just feels wrong..
Also, Autotech & Pulse ring you afterwards to check that everything is ok... simple customer service is also important to me
I know I ended up saying that its fair enough in the other website but since then I've changed my mind

This is what happened to me. You can make of it what you will but if SAS is good and I'm being unreasonable and expecting more that I should go ahead and tell me because this is only my first tune so I don't personally know other tuners.
When other people have good experiences anywhere we hear about it so this is mine...

I understand what you are saying 100% and please don't think I am having a go at you or saying you are wrong etc.
Just trying to get both sides of the story.
I know it is hard sometimes in the performance car game with tuners and expectations and results.
Things can certainly go wrong in any workshop, including SAS.
I do remember you bought the induction pipe of Rigoli? and it was short so they had dramas galore so labour would have been higher.
If you asked them to take off the manifold and check the other bits at same time then they stuffed up.
Maybe the info didn't reach who was meant to but that's not your responsibility, they should have done as you wished.
I know it's also hard when talking to the guy on the front desk and not the tuner.
I am sorry to hear that things didn't work out.
I can only say that they would normally only do the plugs or the neutral switch (Dave said yours was in and out as is common fault) if was needed 100%.
Also, was your dyno figures on the same dyno ie. SAS for the 172 up to 188?

Very interesting. I would recommend removing the intake manifold to anyone considering installing a silicone turbo inlet. It's piss easy to do and saves massive amounts of swearing. It's not like you have to put it on the bench, all you need to do is remove the 8 bolts that hold it on, as well a few other incidentals like TMIC and it will lift up and give you the clearance you need to remove the stock one and fit the new one.

Bummer about the Ecutek. You are now stuck using tuners that deal with Ecutek. I tried to have the licence removed from my Ecutek-tuned ECU and the word I got back from both MRT and Autotech was that the situation was not reversible. I'm now running a new factory ECU that is tuned using RomRaider. RomRaider will allow any tuner to access all the important maps to tune your car and it is software like this that is used by SAS, Autotech, MSR, Pulse and god only knows how many others. To suggest that this is pirate software is ludicrous. Colby Boles went through the process of mapping the addresses of various maps in the standard ECU and it just happens that his interface looks a little like Ecutek's. There's a thread out there somewhere where Colby went through the procedure he used to decipher the factory mapping. If this is software piracy then perhaps Ecutek are guilty as well?

...Ben

Yeah Autotech are really good with customer service. I changed my muffler around, asked for it to be put on an angle. When I rocked up and heard how good it sounded I didn't care that it was straight. Spiro told me to wait half an hour and told everyone to drop what they were doing and fix it for me. +1 for the phone call afterwards too!

No I don't think you're having a go mate its a good discussion as I can be wrong here.
I dont want to keep hijacking this thread so I'll leave it there.
My next tune will most probably be at Pulse

Just on the ecutek bit, each new place you take the car to, even if an ecutek dealer, you still have to pay the $900 licence fee.
Eg. you get a tune at MRT, pay the $900 and the tune and down the track you are not happy with them and go to autotek. You have to pay another $900 licencing fee and then whatever the tuning costs.

I have 2 ecu's for my car .. one with ecutek & one with open ecu
both are tuned

ecutek in the end simply locks out your ability to reflash it with something else.. it can be cleared off though, im not 110% certain of the procedure yet.

The sad dopey fcksticks at MRT a while back had their solicitors send cease & desist letters to tuners about using openecu, which is opensource software, trying to scare people into believing they were breaking copyright laws & that only ecutek software was legal in doing this .. it then blabbed on about openecu really being ecutek lol

Ecutek ? you sure

nah i think its only unichip i got a little confused

Steve (99rex), whats your current plans with your car?
Going to leave it how it is, or go for more power?

Well im still in 2 minds to which way i want to go.. but if i choose to do more ill buy a haltech,600cc injectors and walbro pump

I don't think msr use ecutek software because I have been emailing him lately and he charges $700 for ecu tune. Can someone with a msr tune please reply.

Pulse charge $1195.

Autotech $1495

CV Performance $900

No ecutek at MSR and he has a lot of experience and happy customers.