I dunno.

I just had my car give a check engine light, when I took it to the dealer they told me the cars ECU has been tampered with. They told me I must pay around $250 for them to flash it back to factory specs before they diagnose the CEL issue. And ontop of that, if they find any more issues after the flash back.. Jag may refuse to cover those.

At this point I'm not sure if getting the tune was such a great idea.

 

VAP doesn't even offer an upper pulley for the V6. The OEM pulley is already about as small as you can fit on the SC nose. Mina Gallery does offer a 2.5% reduction pulley but that really does very little by itself and in combination with an 11.6% overdrive lower pulley, overdrives the SC too much at peak rpm resulting in a power tail-off at high rpm. The tune alone offers a noticeable power gain (~416hp, ~376 lb-ft), but subsequently adding the lower pulley is a huge kick in the pants (~455hp, ~435 lb-ft.)

 

Anybody have any troubles going in the dealer for scheduled maintenance after doing the tune?
& also if you just kept the tune before going into maintenance or if you flashed it back to stock?

 

My shop just doesn't care. I told them not to do any updates so they don't brick the ECU. They just go about doing what they need to do. I assume a discussion will ensue if I puke one or more connecting rods through the crankcase. When they first saw the car sitting more than an inch closer to the deck, they automatically assumed I had gone full monte on the car.

 

Look a few posts above, I had some issues with the dealership due to the tune.

And yes, I flashed it back to stock. Unfortunately it seems the ECU keeps some sort of log because they sent some information to Jaguar and they knew exactly what had been done.



Can you PM me which shop that is?

 

I did the VAP ECU tune a couple weeks before putting on the lower pulley.

There is a very noticeable increase in both steps and worth it.

I have had mine back to the dealer twice, once for routine maintenance and the other for a recall. Both times I reverted to the OEM tune beforehand. Neither time had the dealer mentioned anything to me about the tune or the pulley. Granted, if I had issues, perhaps my story would be different; I hope not.

 

This depends completely on the dealership you go to as we've seen. Some people (bigdaddy for example) have had issues; it's well known when you flash a tune in that a code is permanently tripped in your ECU for non-factory calibration. However others, including myself have had no issue. I had my radiator fan replaced after it failed and subsequently my supercharger replaced and an entire cylinder head rebuilt without issue or complaint. I also had two O2 sensors replaced after my car set a CEL for free, and they would have had to scan my ECU for that information.

Always ALWAYS always flash back to stock. Just in case.

 

Awesome, just the answer I was looking for. If there's anybody who lives in California and has maintaince done before which dealer did you go to and had no issues?

 

I have the tune and catted downpipes, and while the car has yet to require maintenance/service, I'll just leave it as is and tell them not to update the ECU. No need to flash back to stock and hand it to them with the CEL on while they can clearly hear the difference.

 

Well if you leave the CEL on that's your fault... and its kinda dangerous if they flash over a custom calibration. It may fail and brick the module, you just don't know...

 

SVR, it is ok if the CEL light is on. They know it is not stock, but having them brick the ecu is a ridiculous risk. It happened to me with another company tune on my XFR . On my Ftype I went with VAP and VAP makes it too easy to flash back and forth to not protect your ecu. A CEL is likely just showing them a fuel mixture error and you just politely tell them to ignore it unless the CEL shows some other error. There is no reason not to flash and re-flash. They can always deny a warranty claim on the CEL mod, but will not unless you give them a reason. But your bucks. I keep a very clear understanding with my dealer as to accepting what I could be responsible for our arrangement works well.

 

Dealer just said the powertrain warranty is completely void due to ECU mods.

I wouldn’t risk any tunes if this is how they are responding to it.

 

Not sure why you're surprised at this. While they are being a bit on the dramatic side saying "powertrain warranty", this is the price you pay to play the game. Pretty well known and documented.

 

Who says I'm surprised. I'm putting a warning out there for folks asking about what to expect with a tune. If this was so well known, the guy 6 posts above wouldn't be asking.

Also popular opinion (atleast on these forums) was that unless your tune causes some kind of big issue.. they will not know or care.

My dealer won't even check what the CEL is without trying to charge a bogus ECU reflashing fee.

 

Take the car to AutoZone or Advanced Auto and they will pull the CEL Code for you and clear it. OR...let's get together for lunch and I can read and clear the code for you. At least you'll know whether it's related to the tune or to a known Jag issue.

 

Yeah ive had no problem with my dealer and I have a v8s. But I always revert back to stock and clear the cel with my ob2 scanner. But then again I have had no real issues. I don't get why anybody wouldn't revert back to oem and clear the cel before a trip to the dealer. Takes no longer then 5 minutes.

 

The guy 6 posts above is asking because he didn't read the other dozen threads on the topic, or read deeper into this one. Its been discussed at great length.

I don't know why you're relying on the dealer for this. Not only could any auto parts store do this for free, but the VAP tool you already have can read codes...

Educating yourself about tuning/diagnostics and how they work is very important, and not enough people do it prior to jumping in.

 

Any merit to purchasing a "used" ECU and having that unit flash tuned and installing it? Ive done it on older Porsches.

When the car requires its annual service just swap the original ECU back in. Absolutely zero evidence of a flash tune on the original ECU that way.

My guess is the ECUs may be "paired" with the vehichle Vin?....anyone?

i have a lead on an ECU from an identical 380hp Fpace -S as my own.

Just curious.

 

That's always an idea for pre-flexray stuff. We can clone the ecu and you would have 2 ecu's to swap around with. All depends on the clients ability/confidence..

The PCM will hold the mileage/vin/key codes. So every time you swap over the PCM, it might flag a mileage taper code in the instrument cluster(but a code clear will wipe this soft code). A really low battery can trigger this code so it's not a looked at fault code by JLR.

When you would swap to the modified ecu, the mileage will obviously be lower BUT it will auto update to the highest mileage seen on the vehicles CANBUS network.

The problem that might run into is with the Flexray cars, I'm not sure if when cloning, will it also change the Flexray tag ID name. If it doesn't update this ID name, then the ecu will be bricked once it's connected to the vehicle.

 

Edit: Stuart's explanation far better.