ECU Tune

[MisterMac]

View attachment 28792

Wait..wait...wait

We just went through this whole back and forth to arrive at the same conclusion that was made earlier?

That powertrain warranty would be voided over the ECU tune.

What a racket you guys are!!

Not exactly. The warranty may be voided. One could even assert it would most likely be voided. However, to make a blanket statement (guarantee) that an ECU tune, JB4, etc. will cause your powertrain warranty to be voided is insincere. Unlike many other automotive manufacturers, Kia actually tries to warranty their products even after the stated time/mileage has been reached in an effort to keep customers happy. (On a side note, Lexus is also pretty good about warranty replacements even after normal expiration.)

When an auto-maker sells a vehicle they put "X $" into a reserve account to pay for warranty claims. This estimate is driven by actuarial calculations which produce a range of expected losses. Many auto-makers use the low end of the range to fund their reserve accounts while Kia and Hyundai use the higher end of the estimate range. Additionally, Kia and Hyundai, by nature of their 10/100,000 stated powertrain warranty places significantly more dollars into their reserve accounts than others. As the reliability of their products has improved, the depletion of that reserve has not kept pace. As such, we have a much better chance than we would if this was a Chrysler 300 SRT, etc. Am I making a guarantee? Heck no.

Case in point: this situation came through the service department of my local Kia dealership earlier this year. ECU tuned Optima. The engine blew; apparently this was a known problem. Kia still replaced the engine. It had 149,000+ miles on it. They could've blamed the tune, yet they didn't.

 

[jmf_tracy]

Another Pressertech ECU tune here. I have about 12,000 miles on this tune and not a problem. It absolutely screams and no problems with original plugs that have not been re-gapped.

 

[Pnbnationsbest]

I run my JB4 on map 5 with stock non-gapped plugs daily, no issues. Nobody is saying issues are inevitable, but the statement that tunes are untraceable is a fallacy.

The facts are that KIA can AND WILL find our tunes if they want to. They can AND WILL void warranty if there's a failure to the powertrain.

 

[ecko04]

Not exactly. The warranty may be voided. One could even assert it would most likely be voided. However, to make a blanket statement (guarantee) that an ECU tune, JB4, etc. will cause your powertrain warranty to be voided is insincere. Unlike many other automotive manufacturers, Kia actually tries to warranty their products even after the stated time/mileage has been reached in an effort to keep customers happy. (On a side note, Lexus is also pretty good about warranty replacements even after normal expiration.)

When an auto-maker sells a vehicle they put "X $" into a reserve account to pay for warranty claims. This estimate is driven by actuarial calculations which produce a range of expected losses. Many auto-makers use the low end of the range to fund their reserve accounts while Kia and Hyundai use the higher end of the estimate range. Additionally, Kia and Hyundai, by nature of their 10/100,000 stated powertrain warranty places significantly more dollars into their reserve accounts than others. As the reliability of their products has improved, the depletion of that reserve has not kept pace. As such, we have a much better chance than we would if this was a Chrysler 300 SRT, etc. Am I making a guarantee? Heck no.

Case in point: this situation came through the service department of my local Kia dealership earlier this year. ECU tuned Optima. The engine blew; apparently this was a known problem. Kia still replaced the engine. It had 149,000+ miles on it. They could've blamed the tune, yet they didn't.

TL;DR

I was content with thinking everyone left on the same page. Didn't think the rabbit hole would get any deeper.

 

[Tonkabob]

Its the price you pay to be fast. If they dig hard enough the will figure out ECU tunes and piggy backs alike. Deal with it later in the slim change we have a failure. May want to stay away from the BMS ECU brake signal snipping for a little while however.

 

[Adamdan]

I run my JB4 on map 5 with stock non-gapped plugs daily, no issues. Nobody is saying issues are inevitable, but the statement that tunes are untraceable is a fallacy.

The facts are that KIA can AND WILL find our tunes if they want to. They can AND WILL void warranty if there's a failure to the powertrain.

I’m curious what kind of mileage have you been running map 5 and what gas?

 

[StungBlueGT2]

Just got to a reputable shop to do a couple dyno pulls to see where I am pre and post JB4 install. Currently have a Injen intakes, custom mid pipe, and a magnaflow back.

The shop owner is telling me he can do an ECU tune on the car and provide better performance gains than a JB4. I’ve told him that no one has fully cracked the ECU yet, but he assures me they can do it. And he will revert it back if I need to go in for warranty work.

Should I believe him, or is he blowing smoke up my ass?

He’s definitely blowing smoke and just trying to sell you something.

We all know ONCE the ecu is finally fully cracked and all the limits & safeguards are removed ecu tunes will be noticeably quicker. However right now all the facts say otherwise.

We have a reputable tuning shop here in FL “Hydra Motorsports” that’s very similar to Pressertech and normally tunes very high performance & exotic cars. They claimed the same thing and that their tune makes 500hp+ so two of my Stinger friends got them. They raced my other two buddy’s JB4 & Lap3 Stingers with same mods and lost to them multiple times. They’re both so mad they tried to claim false advertising and asked for refunds.

Even the tuner with the most cracked Stinger ecu tune and many advantages over chips(20psi+ boost in 1st gear, unlocked torque management, no throttle closure & holding boost during shifts, etc.) his couple Stingers are still slower and/or not as quick as the top piggybacks in the 1/4m list, and most have less mods than the ecu tunes have.

Eventually the ecu tunes will be great and have many performance advantages over chips, but until our tune is fully cracked they're all very similar and within .1-.2 seconds of the top chips.

And lastly, like others “guaranteed” there is no way Kia wouldn’t easily know if you had an ECU tune and the nice 10yr/100k warranty would be useless.

In another year or two ecu tunes may finally be noticeably superior in performance, but anyone claiming that now is just blowing smoke, giving you misinformation, or selling you dreams...

 

[Pnbnationsbest]

I’m curious what kind of mileage have you been running map 5 and what gas?

I get a solid 22mpg on e30 (4g e85 10g 93) I don't drive particularly slowly either...

 

[Adamdan]

I get a solid 22mpg on e30 (4g e85 10g 93) I don't drive particularly slowly either...

Nice, I run E85 FYI running 4G of E85 and 10g of gas with zero ethanol is more like e25. I run that same mixture 15l of E85 to get e25 and sometimes I run 12.5L for a e20. Running 5g of E85 and 9gal of gas will be close to e30. I was getting low fuel pressure sometimes with e30 in the winter time so I changed to a e25 mix. I use this site to get my mixtures as close as I can. Use the tool below to calculate an ethanol mix!

 

[JDM_Man]

That's like saying I can't guarantee that if you robbed a bank, got caught and arrested that you wouldn't be prosecuted. I have no influence there either, however I can guarentee your ass would be in federal prison

Do you know how Russian law works? Shit in a lot of countries you could buy your way out so yes it is VERY possible.

 

[Pnbnationsbest]

Do you know how Russian law works? Shit in a lot of countries you could buy your way out so yes it is VERY possible.

Hey CNN who mentioned Russia? Calm down captain fake news...we're talking about Murica

 

[ecko04]

Possible? Yes. Probable? No.

 

[Pnbnationsbest]

Nice, I run E85 FYI running 4G of E85 and 10g of gas with zero ethanol is more like e25. I run that same mixture 15l of E85 to get e25 and sometimes I run 12.5L for a e20. Running 5g of E85 and 9gal of gas will be close to e30. I was getting low fuel pressure sometimes with e30 in the winter time so I changed to a e25 mix. I use this site to get my mixtures as close as I can. Use the tool below to calculate an ethanol mix!

I would never run an e mix in Michigan winter. The duty cycle increase would definitely yield low rail pressure. You could probably get away with it in two situations. 1) if there were a HPFP driven by the camshafts. 2) if there were an upgraded FP available

 

[ecko04]

We can let this one go now. OP has a JB4, we can move it along.

 

[ScottM]

This thread has me rolling!

 

[ecko04]

Oh and consider the flex fuel sensor if you’re going to run something other than pump gas so you know the exact ethanol content entering the HPFP.

 

[Adamdan]

I would never run an e mix in Michigan winter. The duty cycle increase would definitely yield low rail pressure. You could probably get away with it in two situations. 1) if there were a HPFP driven by the camshafts. 2) if there were an upgraded FP available

How cold does it get? I’m in BC and it never really gets colder than -10 Celsius. I run a 20% mix in the winter and stick with map 2 most of the time and it’s been fine no fuel pressure issues. The only times I saw some dips below 10 on my jb4 logs was on map 5 with e30. I also suspect I might’ve been even more than the 30% when I had the dips.

 

[Pnbnationsbest]

How cold does it get? I’m in BC and it never really gets colder than -10 Celsius. I run a 20% mix in the winter and stick with map 2 most of the time and it’s been fine no fuel pressure issues. The only times I saw some dips below 10 on my jb4 logs was on map 5 with e30. I also suspect I might’ve been even more than the 30% when I had the dips.

We get 0°f all the time.

 

[Girder]

What's better Lap3 or Power Chip? I'm thinking about chipping my Stinger GT soon.

 

[cncBilly]

I run my JB4 on map 5 with stock non-gapped plugs daily, no issues. Nobody is saying issues are inevitable, but the statement that tunes are untraceable is a fallacy.

The facts are that KIA can AND WILL find our tunes if they want to. They can AND WILL void warranty if there's a failure to the powertrain.

What fuel are you using running map5 daily?

Forget it saw your reply to the question earlier.