YESTERDAY WAS FAIL ON A EPIC LEVEL!




So my car was supposed to be completed on Thursday. The shop was going to begin dynoing it around noon so I head down to the shop. When I get there I see my tuner is working on the dyno's electronics apparently the electronics that locks the drum so you can put the car on the dyno is not working. This mechanism also calculates the load I believe as well. Eventually he tells me that he doesn't think he can tune my car and that I can either wait until he is able to repair or to take it to another shop. I was planning to take the car to willow springs on Saturday so I began calling different tuners to check availability for tuning my Haltech. Church is booked up, SP Engineering is full for the next month, etc...

At this point my car had only been tuned at idle and the shop had been letting it run all day to make sure it wasn't having any problems or leaks. Luckily we find a certified haltech tuner who is only 4 miles away which is RRR Dyno Tuning. We call them and we find out they've tuned Z/G35's before doing a 600+whp built g35 just recently.

THANK GOD, epic disaster diverted....or so I thought. My shop assures me that I can drive the car the 4 miles as long as I don't drive to hit boost (so below 3000rpm). I drive over to the other tuner and they proceed to put the car on their DynoJet. An hour later it seems there is an issue with getting the car to pull timing correctly. They also find a small leak on the driver side turbo with both oil and water. Tuner ends trying to fix the issue with the haltech for another hour or so before telling me the haltech needs to be inspected. I bought the haltech brand new from a forum member so I was surprised there was any issues. To give you an idea of what the haltech was doing, even if he locked in the timing regardless of the RPM the timing would still jump all over the place. It was also not letting him rev past 4k rpm. On top of that because of the oil/water leak he wouldn't be able to tune the car until it was resolved. He advises me to drive back to my other shop, have them fix the leaks and bring him the Haltech so he can have it sent for inspection. He had put a different map of his own doing on the haltech so I could drive down to the other shop. He assures me that it will drive better then on the way there. Anyways as soon as I leave I feel the car is bogging down between 2-3k rpm so I keep the rev's low and keep switch gears when it starts to bog down.

Half way down to the other shop I feel car is struggling to even idle and it dies completely in the middle of a busy intersection. About 5 starts later I am able to get it to move about 50ft so I can pull over. Noooooooooo. I call the tuner at RRR dyno but he had already left for the day to pick up his wife. ****! I call my other shop and to see if he can run over and help me get the car running, I am hoping that if he loads the original map he made the car will start right up. He can't leave his shop until closing, his other guys are gone for the day and he has customers coming to pick up cars. Closing is about 2 hours later so I decided to call AAA to tow it the remainder of the 2 miles.

45 mins later AAA shows up, an old dude who has shaky hands and immediately I knew I was going to have a problem with this dude. First off, I had told AAA that my car was low and that the tow truck driver should have 2x4's to help get it on the truck bed smoothly. This guy immediately says I can't tow this car and proceeds to walk around it muttering to himself. I think if I had a sweet old school muscle car, he would of been more willing but I am a ricer. Anyways, he speaks with his manager and they eventually say he can not tow the car due to liability. My car isn't slammed at all and I've been able to tow the car without any issue in the past. He leaves and I call AAA to get me another tow truck.

At this point my phone is now dead and I am under the impression that a tow truck was on its way. The other shop is also going to be there soon so hopefully one way or another I will get the car back to the shop. While I am waiting, I begin checking to see if I can find any issues with the car. I try to start the car but it dies immediately. It seems to be want to turn over but its not getting any fuel. I dont smell fuel either. I check the fuel pump and when i partially start the ignition, I can hear it hum. I check for leaks, check the battery, check the fuses, everything looks good but the car will not start. There was no heating issues prior to failure so I am guessing its the tune.

FINALLY my shop guy shows up and loads his original map into my haltech. Car still won't start, same problem. He keeps trying for another 30-45 mins before he says we need to tow the car. I told him I had already called a tow truck and they should be here soon, I call AAA to get an update and then tell me they have no other available towing trucks in the area right now. I plead with them and ask them to get the other towing company to come back and that I would sign a damage waver as well as remove my front bumper just so I can get the car back to the shop. My car is sitting in a red zone at a bus stop, definitely not where I want to leave my car. They are unable to help and recommend I try to contact a local towing truck service. FU AAA, I have AAA premiere what a complete failure.

My shop has a local towing company that they deal with and since my phone is dead my mechanic tries using his new iphone4. PHONE ****ING FREEZES AND IS NOT RESPONDING. Reboot the phone somehow and sim card isn't working or getting reception. Somehow we eventually get it to work, no clue what we did. Eventually tow truck gets there and it is around 9pm at night. 8 HOURS OF ****ING HELL. The tow trucks get the car on the bed and off no problems and that is the end of the yesterdays events. tldr.

I should like to commend my shop JER Development for pulling through when I had an issue and staying way past closing to help me. Linh is the man.

 

Sorry to hear about your miserable day. Been there, done that, and hope it never happens again (to you or me!).

One question: was it raining? Water in the ECU connector will do everything you indicated (don't ask me how I know)...

 

No rain at all, we even unplugged the haltech from the stock ecu and plugged in just the stock ecu and the car was experiencing the same issues. No fuel. Injectors were brand new, spark plugs brand new, fuel pump brand new, fuel rails brand new, car had been idling great for 4-5 hours prior to me driving it anywhere. No fuel leaks, plenty of gas in the car.

 

Sometimes with new lines crap floats downstream and plugs up sintered elements, etc... You might want to insert some fuel pressure gauges at various points to troubleshoot. Good luck figuring it out.

 

ok i asked my shop to check the fuel lines for crapola. I'm still really curious why the haltech was behaving so, I wonder if Hal can chime in.

 

My guess would be a melted harness somewhere near the turbo or downpipes. The fact it got worse as the day progressed kind of goes with that theory. Seen so many melted ECU harnesses, it can happen easily.

 

suck it was idling for all that time and your shop didnt notice oil and water leaks bc if they did, none of that woulda happened.

The tuner woulda finished your car and you woulda been home just fine.

i wouldnt call it an epic fail, just a series of inconveniences that ultimately coulda been avoided with a more thorough shop inspection

Good thing is that its still all easy fixes, so you'll be up and running in no time!

 

There was no leaks at idle we checked under the car when i was pulling it out. I think it was only leaking with throttle. Even if the leaks weren't happening the haltech would of still prevented us from tuning the car.

djamps wouldn't a melted ecu harness be more of an issue then simply getting the car to start up. The car sounds like it wants to start up but is choking like crazy and the fuel pump seems to be working. No issues with any other electronics etc..

 

IDk, sounds like you had a crappy tuner. my car felt like it had a fuel cut around 8psi, but it was just the map needed more work.

If he didnt spend anytime setting up the temperature tables, then ya your car will run like crap and never start.

dialing in starting params for a haltech is not easy. I couldnt do it, so i had to take my car to a real tuner.

 

I saw with my own eye the timing jumping all over the place when he specified a fixed timing for all rpm.

 

Could be the crank sensor, especially if you had your flywheel removed or replaced... but seriously, have you pulled the codes yet? That's the simplest thing to do and usually points you in the right direction...kind of silly speculating until you've at least done that.

 

I'm sure my shop will do that. I am driving down to the track today to **** **** up tomorrow in a gutted Celica making 190hp :P

 

are you sure you were looking at the correct timing field. Theres actual (what the car and the haltech are doing) and the what the stock ECU is saying.

easy mistake to make.

 

But he wiped the tuner's map and put the original back on and no change when it used to run on the original? Sounds like a mechanical/electrical issue to me.

 

Correct.

 

That really really sucks. I hope you get everything resolved. I know what it's like to wait for hours on end for a tow truck my DD has done that twice to me in recent months, it sucks!

 

Thanks kwame

 

ya and that map was only optimized for idling at a specific coolant temp. dyno plus drive throws its in very different cells.

just saying, i wouldnt jump the gun too much. a lot of information isnt known.

 

You're statement would be valid if the car started right up when his buddy showed up and loaded the old tune after the car had sat for a few hours.

 

boost gremlins!

sorry to hear that it was stuck at the side of the road for so long.

so what did the inspection show? why didn't it start up?