I just received my crank pulley and device today. I sent the factory map back to VAP. I’m planning to take the car to a shop to have the pulley installed. Here’s my question. Is it better to install the tune then drive to the shop to have the pulley installed or have the pulley installed then drive home and install the tune? Does it make any difference?

 

Not sure which way round is best.
A few of us have had the pulley installed at a shop first then driven home to install the tune with no problems, this way is perfectly OK as long as you take it easy on the way home with no WOT action and try to keep it under 3,000 rpm otherwise you risk a CEL and invocation of "restricted performance".
I haven't read of anyone doing it the other way around - tune first then pulley - but I suspect it would be much the same.
So to play safe I recommend you go with what we know - pulley first then tune.

 

Why not install the tune in the parking lot?

 

Because the instructions have me terrified of losing voltage and bricking my ECU. At home I have a better maintainer I left connected during the first procedure.

I haven’t driven the car for a bit over a month. When I hooked up the VAP device, I immediately got an error message stating “key fob not detected” and jumped to the conclusion I fried something or other. Turns out the battery in the key fob died since the last time I drove the car.

 

Cambo and others recommend you hook up a battery maintainer / power source of at least 40 amps capacity when flashing the VAP tune on, although I have used my 15 amp battery maintainer three times now with zero problems. If your maintainer is a little weak maybe the shop where you install the pulley has a more powerful one they will let you use. You may also need a long extension lead to do it in the shop car park.

 

I received a tune that identified as safe without a pulley but "pulley ready." I installed both myself so don't have quite the same scenario but I would install the tune before taking the car to the shop. Some of the map won't be used because the boost values won't be seen but any conditions you'd see without the pulley will be present in the tune. You won't be using all the map, but won't be going outside of it as you might with the pulley and stock tune.

 

So the other way 'round from what I recommended!
Maybe that is the better way with the latest VAP tunes, I put mine on some five years ago now and I suspect VAP have tweaked the tunes a bit since then.
Waiting on Chris and/or Stuart to chime in!

 

I spoke with Chris at VAP about this in the past. His suggestion was to do it in the parking lot. I was equally concerned about the whole battery voltage issue when I first started to mod the ECU. I have used Jaguar's OEM battery tender during all the times I have done this without an issue. I have done this several times through different updates and playing around with Pops and Bang tune versus not. I am sure the shop would allow you to plug the car in for a few minutes to do the update. It really takes less than 20 minutes.

 

I had to send mine off to get recovered because I let the voltage drop.

 

Great topic as I'm in a similar situation, but instead of the pulley I have the downpipes.

Should I do the tune first or should I go have the downpipes installed first and then the tune.

Also...what are the usual "special" requests you all have made with the tune?

 

I made no special requests. I like the crackles where they are. I did request the tune for the VAP crank pulley in the modifications sections.

The shop where I’m taking it does mostly BMWs. We’ve had quite a bit of work done there, and they do a great job. This will be the first time taking the Jag to them. Since we have some history with them, hopefully they won’t object to me scamming a bit of free electricity.

 

Hey do you have a R or S?

I have a 2017 R. Keep me posted on your progress.

I got a message from VAP that they are out for the next 3 days. so It wont be until next week until I take mine into a shop.

 

I have an 18 R convertible. I wasn’t aware of VAP being away for the next three days. Not a huge deal, as the car is mostly parked for the winter. The trip to have the pulley changed will be the only trip it makes for a bit.

I will keep you posted as things proceed.

 

When I ordered my first tune I noted that I'd be getting the pulley at some later date. Chris told me the tune was set up for a pulley but safe without one. Are they all that way, or was mine tailored specifically to be that way? That, I can't answer, but intuitively it seems that a tune set up for a pulley should be safe without one and you'd just never access the portions of the maps for higher boost levels, but there are likely some subtleties overlooked by my intuition.

 

This makes a lot of sense to me. As I understand it, the tune reads boost, not compressor speed. I hadn’t really thought that through.

Great advice, thank you!

 

For what it’s worth, I received the file moments ago. Not sure if it was in under the wire for the three day hiatus, but it is on the VFlash device and ready to install. Wish me luck!

 

Excellent!

 

Done, hopefully correctly. Oddly, it took about 30 minutes to read the ECU information to send to VAP. The installation process took 4 minutes, so hopefully I haven’t done something horribly wrong. I started the car afterwards, and it started fine. Lots of snow and wet roads in Reno today, so I won’t be taking it for a drive for awhile.

Have others experienced this same discrepancy in the time it takes pull the ECU from the car and the time it takes to install the tune from VAP?

For the record, the VAP always responded to inquires quickly. Couldn’t ask for better service. Not unexpected, because many others on this forum have had the same experience which is why I pulled the trigger on this. Still refreshing in this day and age.

 

Thats what I heard about putting it back on.

Was the initial reading hard? Did you get any weird lights or errors?

 

I’m happy the 4 minute install checks out.

After the initial minor heart attack when nothing worked (key fob battery was dead), it was very simple. Anytime the VFlash was “reading”, the dash lights would go out. There were some weird noises, like things cycling on and off. Some lights cycled as well. I turned the radio off when I started the process, but it turned itself back on so I left it alone. I didn’t notice any error messages. I had to cycle the dash on and off perhaps 6-10 times. All the instructions on what to do were provided by the screen on the VFlash.

The re-installation process was even simpler. I only had to cycle the ignition once I think.

All in all, I followed the instructions provided by VAP and it went incredibly smoothly. I have never done anything like this before, so I was a touch nervous. The process is without a doubt doable by pretty much anyone.