Hi,
I am thinking about building my own Megasquirt ECU.
Has anybody got any experience of purchasing a kit from the USA (DIYautotune)?
What is delivery cost, import duty etc like.
Is it worth it?
Anything else worth knowing?

Thanks.

With the dollar so poor at the moment it's got to be the cheapest way to do it right now. Normally i'd say Bill Shurvinton would be in with a shout if you wanted a UK supplier for kits but I think he'd be struggling to do you a deal that good right now. You can always ask hi if you're unsure about buying from the US. You'll more than likely get stung for import duty, if you do a search you'll find a few threads on here discussing how much it usuually is, I can't remember. I seem to remember having to pay about £15 tax on my kits i've bought from the states.

I've bought mostly from Glen's Garage in the past, but all of the approved suppliers these days have a very good reputation. If you are buying from the US it may also be worth thinking about ordering an LC-1 wideband at the same time if you are thinking about using one at some point, you'll probably save a bit of money in shipping and tax if it's in one order. Oh, and don't skip buying a stimulator, it's one of the most useful things you can have.

I bought from Glens Garage three times now.
All good experience.

Top TIP....

Choose the cheapest mailing option. The priority mail goes via parcel force and they charge you £13:50 to collect the VAT.

The cheap option arrived by Royal Mail, and they only charge £4:50 to collect the VAT.

These Kits are almost idiot proof. All the components are in bags and are labelled like:
Resisor 1K R6, R7, R8 type of thing.
Its pretty difficult to get it wrong.
But DO READ and follow the assembly instructions (always a case of RTFM).

Hardest part is deciding on which options you are going to have.
ie two or three wire idle valve, or which sensor / type of cranshaft detection device.
Which ignition bits you are using.
Mainly as there are so many options.
Otherwise its pretty straighforward.

As long as you can solder fairly well (and neatly)

I bought my Megasquirt from Diyautotune. They are very helpfull and the kit was great. Everything was nicely packed and labeled. Was very easy to assemble. When you send them an email, they usually respond within a few hours.
I sold my megasquirt a while back because I had a v2.2 megasquirt and I wanted a v3.0 megasquirt. But I'm going to buy it again from Diyautotune.

Thanks for this (already have an LC-1 BTW)
What was delivery times like?
I haven't gone into it yet but are all the options listed when you buy from the two places?
Thanks

[Edited on 28/11/07 by matnrach]