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Author: Subject: ECU 'locked' by rolling road - ethical/legal?
snakebelly

posted on 7/9/11 at 06:58 AM Reply With Quote
Just to play devils advocate what guarantee do you have that the map sent is the same as the map on your ecu and not a "cut down" version....... personally I would have demanded a refund and gone elsewhere. Best of luck to you anyway hope you get it sorted.
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atspeed racing

posted on 7/9/11 at 01:07 PM Reply With Quote
Why do rolling roads lock an ECU?
Not every one is nice. Not everyone is honest. In fact there are some very very horrible nasty people out there that would not lose one moments sleep over any problems that they may instigate as long as they are OK. In fact, this sort of person will think he is really clever and so smart that he will brag to his mates about how he did this or did that and ended up with a pot full of money. Insurance companies, shops and councils have to deal with these freeloaders every day who make fraudulent compensation claims. This means that the all nice people get tarred with the same brush.
Should an ECU not be locked, the nasty customer listens to his mate or someone from a forum (who read a book about cars) who tells him you can get loads more power from your car by running it leaner and with more advance. So they do, but first they box clever and copy the original map saving it to their lap top. When they find out that they cannot run it leaner/more advance because they have now destroyed the engine, they then reinstall the Atspeed map and we find our self liable to be sued.
We had a phone call from a competitor of ours who had a car on his rolling road that we had tuned some months earlier and this customer was ranting about how rubbish we was etc etc.... He had the good manners to call us as this car was so far out of calibration, and guessed correctly that something was not right. So we sent him the file, he installed it and the car ran fine with all the major issues sorted. This customer had meddled with the file on the ECU, messed up and rather than take the blame, slated us.

We started to lock the files after this.

The file is available to the customer upon request. The customer received his file as he requested via post.

Earlier there was a comment about what we set our mixture at. We set the engine at WOT for maximum power whilst still obtaining a reliable state of tune. There is no point running an engine leaner, lets say even if it does make more a few more bhp.. for it to last 2 laps, or lose power as the race goes on. Particularly true on engines running high compression, high rpm etc. Lets face it, there is a fair chance that someone who does this every day for over 20 years may know something you don’t.
Just for the record and to put peoples mind at rest I will list what the manufacturer sets there AFR to at WOT. These cars are all picked at random and are standard naturally aspirated engines.
Renault 12.6...Peugeot 11.6...Fiat 12.3...Honda 12.3...Mitsubishi 10.8...Nissan 10.6...Ford...11.9...Aston 12.8...Hyundai 11.2...Rover 12.2.
The manufacturers are now very keen to make sure that there cars return the maximum economy as possible but also making sure that the car is safe. If they were under the impression that their engines would be safe at a leaner mixture, surely they would do so?
Our recommendations come direct from the ECU manufacturers, they would not recommend us to tune their product if they were not happy with the service or quality of work we do.

There was a comment about us maybe sending the incorrect or a diluted version of the original map. As a company that goes out of there way to help on this and many other forums I find this grossly insulting. Our honesty is not in question here. We give good sound advice on the forums, on private PM's where it may not be appropriate to discuss something on open forums plus the many telephone calls we get. We pay to be on this forum and do all this for free, we do not shout about it, we do it because we enjoy helping everyone and perhaps we will get a few jobs from it. Unfortunately people with complaints shout far louder than those with compliments.

I hope this long reply answers all the doubts you may have had and draws a line under this. We do not lock the file for any profit. Unless you have worked for yourself you would have no idea how nasty some people are and ready to sue at the drop of a hat, this is why we lock our maps, seal our race engines and seal carburetors.

NOTE:This user is registered as a LocostBuilders trader and may offer commercial services to other users
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omega 24 v6

posted on 7/9/11 at 04:15 PM Reply With Quote
Reading this one with interest.
I would have to agree with Atspeed and the last comments they have made. I cannot get my squirt to run well at anything less than 13.9AFR. Also I would agree with EVERY point made about "my mate did this and knows this etc". Making the map available on request ( I would hope and expect a written request) seems a fair way of protecting themselves against being sued or slated.
Whether or not this should be mentioned prior to tuning or not?? I'd say yes it should be stated its only fair to the client.





If it looks wrong it probably is wrong.

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Oddified

posted on 7/9/11 at 04:47 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by atspeed racing
Unfortunately people with complaints shout far louder than those with compliments.


That's so true in this day and age!!.

Everything you say is absolutely right, probably better to make people aware of the policy first though that's all

Ian

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Tiger Super Six

posted on 7/9/11 at 06:44 PM Reply With Quote
Having had my car tuned at ATSpeed 2 weeks ago I admire their involvment in this thread and their honesty. The only practice they should change is that they should make the customer aware of their practice at outset and what the customer needs to do if they want to go down the road in the future.





Mark

Tiger Avon

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scootz

posted on 7/9/11 at 06:57 PM Reply With Quote
Yup! Just tell folks upfront that the map is locked, but you will supply the files if they require and all will be tickety-boo!

If anything, this thread has made me more inclined to use ATSpeed's services... I like the cut of their jib!





It's Evolution Baby!

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daviep

posted on 7/9/11 at 07:01 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by scootz
Yup! Just tell folks upfront that the map is locked, but you will supply the files if they require and all will be tickety-boo!

If anything, this thread has made me more inclined to use ATSpeed's services... I like the cut of their jib!


Ditto





“A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.”

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