Its funny how i have just read another thread on here saying i mapped a car too lean and that is the reason the car couldnt be mapped that day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well honestly, where do I start… It’s a real shame that despite only posting once in a blue moon on this forum, you feel the need to denigrate someone else and their efforts so readily. You may note that over the last two years I have kept my personal views regarding your service and mapping abilities to myself, if you can find a bad word published on this forum then do tell… until now. Having been in business for over 10 years, I have neither the time or interest to get embroiled in disparaging other peoples work or abilities on internet forums. However, for you I shall now make an exception given that you have already done likewise without provocation or any knowledge.
For those that don’t know, I was a customer of Rob (and at the time Perfect Touch) dating from the end of 2006 through to the Summer of 2007. During that time I made 5 trips at a total cost of almost £1500 with the net result being my car still didn’t run right, in fact it NEVER did. My situation is somewhat different to many on here in that I have a highly modified coupe that required larger fuel injectors i.e. 440cc. My options were to go standalone e.g. Motec, or re-map the standard ecu, I chose the latter as Rob convinced me he could do it successfully. Had I known then what I would know almost a year later, I wouldn’t have wasted my time or money because it simply didn’t work.
1. Idle was invariably too rich i.e. 11-13 afr
2. Cold start , what cold start? i.e. for the first few minutes it wouldn’t idle at all and was very hard to drive on light throttle… way too lean.
3. Wide open throttle low down was super rich, low 10 and 11 afr, should be close to stoich i.e. 14.7
4. Part throttle when cruising wasn’t under lambda control i.e. either too rich or too lean
5. Wide open throttle coming on boost would be very rich hitting 9 afr before leaning out into the 10s, 11s and then at the top 12s, with the Unichip it was hitting 13s & 14s midrange.
6. 3rd gear - towards redline ran way too lean i.e. 12.5+
7. 4th gear - just about managed to hold onto 11s
8. 5th gear - well a few know of my problems at TOTB and Fighting Torque where I couldn’t use 5th gear at all therefore killing my top speed attempts. What was happening, it was running sooooo rich midrange it was killing the spark even at part throttle so a totally useless gear.
I should note that the above experiences are from my final re-map in the Summer of 2007, the ones in between were on occasion even worse where I had to revert to standard injectors.
Beyond the actual problems with the mapping, what I found even more insulting as a paying customer was a litany of accusations, underhand actions.
1. After my first mapping session in Nov ’06, I was due to renew my MOT in December. Following the re-map my car was idling at 11.2 afr, for those that don’t know that is the same fueling requirement as wide open throttle on full boost. A normal idle is around 14.7 i.e. stoich, and this is required for passing the emissions test. Knowing this was the case I decided to put my standard injectors back in with a standard chip. However, upon opening the ECU I found the eprom had been potted (glued) into the socket. It took me almost 3 hours to slowly excavate the chip without doing damage to the chip or ECU. I should note at no time was I told this had been done or more importantly asked permission, it is my property after all. Their suggestion was use two ECUs…
2. My second session in February ’07 was to correct a number of the problems from the original map. This resulted in the worst map of all where the car was barely driveable. However, to make matters worse I was told at the end of the day when the work had been completed that the map had been 50% via the main ECU and 50% via the Unichip. Why? There was no technical reason, Rob simply didn’t want anyone copying the chip i.e. me, and trying to sell it. So, as a PAYING CUSTOMER, I was neither informed or asked if this would be acceptable. Less than a week later I had to bypass the Unichip and install the standard injectors as the car was undriveable especially in the depths of winter.
To top this, when paying I asked for my original chip back i.e. the one I drove in with from the first re-map. After a few minutes arguing and then waiting, I eventually got the chip back. Don’t forget I had already paid for this back in Nov ’06 so it was my property. Anyway, a few miles down the road I decide to try the original chip and of course it didn’t work, car wouldn’t start. So having driven in with that chip, 8 hours later it doesn’t work at all (I have subsequently checked the chip and it is blank). I advised PT of the problem and asked for a copy of the original chip to be posted on a few occasions, it never arrived.
3. Despite all these problems, I either had to stick with PT or spend £3k on a standalone system. I phoned PT to voice my concerns but instead of getting a helpful response I was confronted with a barrage of accusations. It turns out that someone has a copy of a PT chip and that of course came from me??!! It wasn’t one of my “perfect” 440cc chips, I have somehow been selling other peoples chips on the side. Of course this is/was totally untrue, in fact I will publicly ask now, who has bought a chip off me over the last year for running a 300bhp+ turbo? That would be a BIG FAT ZERO.
So having cleared that up, another accusation comes my way that a 2.4 coupe came in with one of my chips. Oh right, that would be Taz from on here who I LEANT one of my chips to try on his recent 2.4 conversion. This was my chip, I paid for it, and I simply let Taz try it for FREE. I said it would probably work better given the extra displacement and offset the rich running, if so book yourself in at PT and get a full remap. Taz was toying with the idea of going Motec or trying the standard ECU. Guess what, the chip worked slightly better for Taz so he booked a session with PT and a got a re-map! So, I get accused of selling chips but in fact PT get a job from me???!!! Despite this revelation, I am told that it was still illegal and that it wasn’t my chip to loan?? The fact is, the chip contents are the intellectual property of PT/Rob, despite it being Bosch code, therefore I can’t loan it or sell it (even in the car?)… what am I paying for then?
So there you have it, that’s what I got for £1500… nice. I have kept quiet for more than a year, like I said at the start I have no interest in this type of engagement but when I am denigrated so readily, well the truth must out.
So moving on, why have I set-up FC Performance? Well I don’t “need” the money, I do pretty well from my other companies. It’s quite simple, after TOTB ’07 I decided that PT were no longer an option a. They couldn’t do the job, £1500 lighter is testament to all the problems and a failing car b. What sort of customer receives such treatment, I didn’t realise they were doing me a favour and I was subject to such accusations… did I mention I paid for this? As a result I decided to figure it all out myself so I could do the job myself. I didn’t have the luxury of professional software (Dimsport, Italy), £5000s+ which require no knowledge of the Bosch ECU, simply plug in with a nice GUI as found on a Motec or Unichip and off you go. I figured it all out from the ground up, raw hex code, a LOT of time spent going through code, research on the internet and testing with my own car. Just one goal, I wanted to be able to map my own car correctly.
you either know what you are doing or you don’t
Well guess what, my coupe now runs great, 95% as good as a stock coupe which is a result of all my efforts. All the problems listed above gone… ALL of them. Not bad for a rank amateur…
I don’t profess to be the worlds greatest mapper, who does? I honestly respect Rob as a mapper (customer service no, but then we are the little guys). He is almost God within the Skyline community but this is the coupe community, smaller, less options and different hardware. All I can do is share my knowledge and abilities with the coupe community so that others might benefit. Of course it’s not totally altruistic, I will get paid for my efforts but as I said before it’s not about the money. I know coupes pretty darn well, I’m not perfect but I don’t bullsh*t, and I certainly won’t just send you on your way if I don’t think things are right.
I'm not mapping your cars based on what i can do to my own car… but on experience
When it comes down to it, I am mapping your car based on what I have done to my car and my experience (it's a coupe btw). The difference is I had to do it because nobody else could…