I bought a Diablo Predator tuner about 4 years ago and attempted to tune my car, worked good a few times and then I went to remove a tune I had and in the middle of downloading it back into the tuner something screwed up and gave me an error. I could not upload or re-download anything and the car was dead, apparently the PCM was erased...had to have it flatbedded to the dealer so they could re-install the stock tune back in. They told me they had to manually install the stock tune back in because it wasn't accepting anything..the tech told me these cars don't like tunes and have seen many come in with the same problem. Something about any change in voltage can mess it up..I sent the tuner back for a refund and I'm still rolling around with the stock tune.

Now I want to put a tune back into the car but am very hesitant on doing it and fearing it'll screw something up again..there are a lot more tuners out there so I'm thinking I might be safe with doing it again. I want to know what people are using and how they like it. My car is basically stock with a C&L intake (no tune version) and Magnaflow exhaust. Has anyone encountered this same problem??

Thanks!

 

I've been using a SCT tuner. I have had tunes from several vendors with out fail. Knock on wood. Call steeda or one of the other vendors here on TMS. You will have full support

 

SCT tuners are by far the best. They also have logic built in to recover the PCM in the even that it does get erased.

Be sure to stick with reputable tuner.

Cheers
-Matt

 

Thanks for the input! Anyone using a LiveWire tuner? A friend bought one for his '96 and said it was expensive but worth it..looks pretty cool also but $600 is a lot for a tuner!

 

http://www.steeda.com/store/sct-x3-m...unes-388-3000/

 

I got the SCT X4, and I love it. I think I'd rather have it over the X3, especially since it's only like $20 more.

 

I've been flashing my car with my SCT XCAL2 for 7 years now, only ever had one problem --got halfway through the upload and then blew a fuse to the dash. My heart sank and they car wouldnt start. I replaced the 10A fuse, reuploaded stock, started the car, than put the tune back on. Turns out that there were two wires inside the XCAL that touched and shorted. I put some electrical tape around each one to shield them and I've never had a problem since. That was during the 1st year I had the tuner. I typically change the tunes about every other month or so (I'll load my race tune for a day or two then go back to performance tune -- race tune is a PITA in traffic and throws P0172 and P0175 codes sometimes)

 

Thanks for the input, I'm looking at the SCT ones since that seems to be the majority vote for best tuner. Just hesitant on doing it again and having something screw up! Also, I have 125K on the odometer..is it safe to tune a car with higher mileage? Don't want to blow up the motor also..

 

Same here just bought myself an x4 the other day. It had some improvements over the x3 and for only $20 more it seemed the way to go

 

I just installed some 410 gears and tuned my car accordingly with my diablosport predator tuner and i have high mileage with no problems. Go figure.

 

I'm pretty sure Steeda as well as a couple other tuners stand behind their tunes. Call them and ask. I think if your engine is in good shape a tune won't hurt it one bit.

 

I'm usually concerned about that so I pull the fuel pump fuse and attach a battery charger to my car when I use my x-cal2 so the voltage stays constant. I shut all accessories Off and upload on a cold engines so the electric fans don't cut in.

 

Yea I've heard any changes in voltage can screw it up.. there's a performance shop close to me that charges $700 to dyno tune it (includes purchase of the tuner). I might end up doing that instead of risking messing anything up.