Tuner Quote Enquiry

[ti2l]

A friend of mine had a quote from a sydney based tuner recently and seemed really exxy to me.

have never paid more than $600 for a tune through unigroup, he was quoted approx $1200 for a full tune. Apparantly the tuner sounded great to deal with, asked a lot of questions etc and seemed to know what he was on about., but to me that seems a bit mental.

computer in car has previously been tuned for:

a stock rb25 with walbro fuel pump

front mount

3.5in exhaust

boost controller.

car now has:

forward plenum

bigger turbo

sard reg

bigger throttle body

Thoughts?

[boostn0199]

Ultimately it varies from shop to shop as they all have preferred ecus and might charge different depending on what you have. Yes 1200 also sounds high to me but every place has there price. Comes down to who you feel confortable withpaying money to either decide the life of your motor.

[ti2l]

yeah agreed and have had a few tuners play with mine.... most i have ever paid was with JEM years back and i think that was $800 for a tune with a link ECU

[GTScotT]

Yeah pretty much that.

I would say $1000 is the most common price you will get quoted, with $600 being one of the cheaper or 'better value'.

Ultimately I would pay $1200 for a tune being confident it would be a stout tune. I think Dart quoted me that much, but couldnt impress me on his knowledge, whereas insight motorsport quoted similar too but I believe Scott possesed the knowledge to get the results I wanted.

If going to spend big bucks on a quality tune, make sure it is a well sorted setup before you go wasting money trying to tune it. For example, I currently run a basic SR setup with a 2860 and a microtech, I doubt I will want to pay over $600 to tune it... Its nothing exotic.

[ti2l]

yeah the above mentioned car really isnt anything out of the ordinary.

3 other reputable tuners have quoted around the $500-$600 mark incl cold start tune.... just seemed a little much to me

[Beer Baron]

just depends. if the $600 tune is 30-60 mins of work and involves a few power runs, basic cold start and cruise mapping then is it good value vs a $1200 tune which takes 4-5hrs and involves very precise mapping, road tuning for drive ability and economy, dyno for power tuning, etc.

I've seen plenty of both types of tune. sadly most were in the 60min variety. but then again does a basic set-up with standard injectors, standard AFM etc really need 5hrs of tuning? possibly not. but I know which tune I think will be better.

[sinistaGTR]

why dont you just go to the reputable dealer for 500-600 then

[ti2l]

Sinista: was looking for some insight into possibly why the price difference as the exxy tuner did seem to know his shit and have heard good things.... however for double the price Im struggling to justify the cost.

Beer Baron:

the $600 cost tuners have both quoted around 4-5 hours dyno time...

for the expensive tuner to be justifying a $1200 tune as most tuners charging anywhere between $140 and $170 per hour, I would expect him to be spending a minimum of 7 hours on the dyno....

honestly i struggle to see how it will take this long for this kind of set up. Although I was impressed and the workshop is very clean etc etc Im struggling lol

[Room42]

My arse. End thread. I'm kidding tho. Just for comparisons sake I paid $187.50 total to get my car sorted on the dyno. Yes I did tune it myself beforehand and they only changed one load line, 1 degree, in about 9 cells, on my advice that it may be required. The also pulled some fuel from the middle of the map for me on my request. They added some accel enrichment to make it more driveable and smooth. They spent an hour and a half on the dyno after I had spent a while driving around tuning with the mrs.

If on the other hand you are looking to get a full tune from scratch ie: not running and no numbers in the maps, get the fuel reg adjusted, the tps set right and the boost controller set up then yes it could take all day especially if something doesn't work right like the boost controller or tps or fuel reg or manifold leak etc. And then yes at $130 an hour or whatever they charge it could definitely end up over $1000.

My 2cents...For the mods you are getting the tune touched up for, it should only take 2-3 hours. Tune it yourself and if you cant then pay whatever it cost to get it tuned. But that's just me and its only advice.

[Roy]

If its a quote then I would rather be told what it could be costing. He asked you plenty of questions...you have responded. Did the others ask you as many questions?

Most likely he is simply more expensive, but if someone has just thrown on a new turbo, plenum etc then I would be expecting hoses to be blowing off on boost. Have to pull plugs and change them, check AFM, fuel pressure etc...if they don't know the car then its in their interest to check things out and spend a few hours doing mechanical checks before throwing it on a dyno and stressing the engine.

The people quotiung $600 could easily sting you for a few hours extra labour because they throw it on the dyno only to be blowing hoses off. Realise the plenum install has a vacuum leak, thing misses on boost because of plug gap etc

Just some things to consider

[75coupe]

^^^ definitely, you could go the $600 tune and find they are only expecting to tune it and be done, if problems arise well thats outside of the quote.

the $1200 tune is probably taking into consideration needing to check over the newly installed parts, double check things and then do a tune, nothing unexpected should arise in this instance, unless its something major, but then that 'something major' would happen in either case..

report back how it goes...

[Room42]

If its a quote then I would rather be told what it could be costing. He asked you plenty of questions...you have responded. Did the others ask you as many questions?

Most likely he is simply more expensive, but if someone has just thrown on a new turbo, plenum etc then I would be expecting hoses to be blowing off on boost. Have to pull plugs and change them, check AFM, fuel pressure etc...if they don't know the car then its in their interest to check things out and spend a few hours doing mechanical checks before throwing it on a dyno and stressing the engine.

The people quotiung $600 could easily sting you for a few hours extra labour because they throw it on the dyno only to be blowing hoses off. Realise the plenum install has a vacuum leak, thing misses on boost because of plug gap etc

Just some things to consider

I concur.

[Crans]

You never mentioned the ECU being tuned. Does this price maybe include a Nistune board and z32/r32 ecu?

[Pal]

i pay $500 for a fresh tune and $180 for a tidy up on a PFC.

think it depends on what computer and how often you go the the place.

[hamiltonau]

speaking of tunes, a while back i heard about this Toshi guy in Sydney who tunes the factory ecu on the fly as you drive around. ie sits next to you, plugs in his laptop and gets it all done without the need for a piggy backed ECU.

Has anyone used him? I believe he was charging 600 bucks so this seems to be an average ball park figure for most tuners. i certainly couldnt afford to pay 1200 for one!

[paulr33]

what ever you get or pay for, make sure its not just max rwkw power tunes

make sure medium and light cruise is tuned properly, including ignition timing and afr's all through those ranges

too many tunes these day are max rwkw power tunes and the car sucks balls off max power / boost and eats through fuel on light cruise

[Dobz]

what ever you get or pay for, make sure its not just max rwkw power tunes

make sure medium and light cruise is tuned properly, including ignition timing and afr's all through those ranges

too many tunes these day are max rwkw power tunes and the car sucks balls off max power / boost and eats through fuel on light cruise

+1

It only takes one dishonest tuner to realise someone doesn't have a lot of knowledge in tuning and take advantage by charging full price then doing half the job.

[Room42]

what ever you get or pay for, make sure its not just max rwkw power tunes

make sure medium and light cruise is tuned properly, including ignition timing and afr's all through those ranges

too many tunes these day are max rwkw power tunes and the car sucks balls off max power / boost and eats through fuel on light cruise

Exactly. It should only take about half an hour to get a wot tune done for someone who is familiar with rb's.

Similar story, I rang around on friday to get a dump pipe made this week. I told one guy about my car and what it has and what it needs. He's like you have to leave it with me for a few days. I told him straight up "Mate it is a couple of feet of pipe with one bend and a couple of flanges on each end". I made the mistake of leaving a high powered car with a business for a couple of days when I was 20. I got it back with different tyres on the back and a slipping clutch...There is no way I would leave my car so some apprentice can try turning it up to 5 or 600 hp and blowing it up cos it aint tuned yet.

[AngryRB]

i had mine tuned bout 6months ago, got several quotes and they were all around $600-$800, thats for a full tune starting from scratch with a power fc..

one thing i dont understand is why a fairly mildly modded car would take 5hrs on a dyno, i wouldnt go to a place charging 1200 for a tune, chances are they are just high rollers with a big name but doing the same job that the less known guys are doing...

i ended up paying well over 1200 and i felt a bit ripped off still, i think they put there efforts more into the big spenders , the guys with the best cars and biggest wallets, they dont care bout a young guy with an r33, hes small fry compared to the r35guy with $5000 to throw around so you get left till last and the job rushed, if your car is the last on the dyno and your picking it up late, like after dark, have to wonder if they have really put much effort into it..

just my opinion

Edited September 25, 2011 by SliverS2