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Hacking up Honda's ECU
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:09 pm 
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So Im thinking of offering my tuning services again. But this time making it a legit, taxable business. Here in oregon I dont know of many tuners and I am hoping to change that. Right now It would be strictly street tuning. ( save your it should be done on a dyno blah blah) Dyno time around here is highway robbery. So here is what im thinking. Street tuning will start out at a flat fee of $75. Now before we go on let me say this. Im charging your for my time/wear and tear on my equipment. NOT for the tuning program im using be it free or pro. With that said 15% of the over-all profit I make will goto the developer of the program. (john cui or ben oogle) So far this is what I have. Still trying to work on the details. any help would be welcome.


Street tune (bre / crome) $75
New wideband o2 for your tune $50


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:28 pm 
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guy on td16 was looking for a tuner in oregon about a week ago. good luck with the business. Hope that 15% cut leaves you with enough to make it worth your time...


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:59 pm 
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Its not so much about my time. I work full time as a bartender so money isnt the issue. Its about getting cars off these base maps and getting these half ass tuners out of the picture. So lets hope all goes good. Im applying for my federal id number tonight and monday I plan on going into the bank and opening up a business account.


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:29 am 
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Location: Dublin
Good luck to you. Im kind of in the same boat. There is no one in Ireland that knows how to work on boosted Hondas, so I have been helping a couple of people with there cars, and getting just a little bit of money to cover my time and use of equipment, not really making much money though. We will see how it goes, as I have a few other projects coming up. Maybe make a real business out of it if there is enough demand.


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 7:25 pm 
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That seems nice, i don't really see why you should make it a taxable business... that flat rate by the hour right?? i charge $200 N/A, $250 Spray, and $300 spooled. it usually don't take more than 1 an a half so my prices are way higher than yours.. i drive to my costumers' house sometimes, if you are the only one in miles you are going to see some lots of money... i compete with two other dudes and still see nice figures. now i need a dyno cuz i can't tune rotaries on the street :cry:


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 7:24 am 
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Well as an update I have done half a dozen cars so far. I have settled on $150. I have also told people that if they want to pay for dyno time and can schedule it on my days off I will do the ignition for free. I cant bring my self to charge a second time. Im giving people the option of buying a new o2 sensor that I will only use with there car and they get to keep, if they come back and tune or what ever. Lots of tech support(my g/f hates midnight calls :lol: ). so far its more of a networking kinda thing. My main goal in all this is to bring a low cost alternative to what is offered around me(some shops charge $500 and up!), and the closest people that i could find are some 40 miles north. I have also tuned a two cars of high school kids for free. Im hoping they go back to all there honda friends and brag about how my tuning makes all the diff.


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:26 pm 
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you could tune multiple cars with one O2 to save $$. they don't wear out that fast.


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 10:57 pm 
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The tech support deal its so true... people call me up at 1am cuz they burned the ecu while racing in other towns. I also tuned several cars for free when i started to get the word out, like Stealthiskey said o2s don't wear out that quick. Make some business cards and hand them out at the races.. also make stickers that you could place on your costumer's car's. Always do top notch work... it only takes one dude talking crap to get you out of business.


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 1:42 pm 
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Oh i know the o2 sensors last. I have tuned 15 + cars on one. I mainly give them the option so they cant say "well it was your used sensor that gave me a bad tune". And I also use it as a jumping point of "if you already have the sensor buy the lc-1 controller and do a perm install. Lots of people underrate the perm installed wideband. Im in the process of making business cards. I know a girl that works at fedex kinkos so I will go talk to her. On a lighter note, I made a guys night last night. I made a non vtec ecu run his z6. God I love gold!


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:15 pm 
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Location: Morgan Hill, Ca
skinny ur in Or? Where abouts?

I would like to make a business out of tuning down here in Cali, but there are too many retarded "jump on the bandwagon" idiots that $150 for a good street tune is too much $$$ for them... and plus, the millions of people saying "I am having a spoon motor built by my uncle" and other such nonsense... it makes it not worth trying... just word of mouth and that's strictly it... but then again, I do live in the bay area. But there are no tracks/dyno shops within good reach aside from the one or two, but I dunno... "not my cup of tea; they are" I would say.

u got a good system there, and I bet the local auto-parts store wonders why you go though soo many LSU4.2 sensors soo much =)

I almost moved to Oregon [cave junction] at one point... but it ended up falling through and I am still stuck here =P

If I move to Montana, you'd bet I will start a tuning and performance shop... I know there is the virgin market out there =)


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PostPosted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 2:14 pm 
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Salem for the moment.

You know for all those people with odd ball motors, all I do is give them a piece of paper and tell them to write down everything they know about the motor or have the builder give me the blueprints and final specs so I can judge where to start from those. I also make people sign a waiver for motors with un-stock internals. Mainly because I dont know what jerk put said motor together. I also have 175k in business insurance and I have a shop here in town willing to tear apart any motor and inspect it for me should one pop. So right now i feel im somewhat off on the right foot. As for advertising, my customers are my advertising! If I want to sell my services I either seek people out or have customers tell their friends. more to come in the next installment of Payne in my @$$


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:31 pm 
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Location: Torrance, Ca
I tune cars for money all the time (I have a crome dealer license). I charge $80/hr for street tuning. I start the clock the minute I open the hood of the car. I can't tell you how many people show up with check engine lights, missing or unplugged sensors, coolant leaks, broken or unhooked fan switches, oil leaks, wiring problems, etc. I never know what kind of crap they are going to bring to me. When I first started out I made business cards on some online website where you can design your own cards. I think I paid $60 for 1000 cards. I gave stacks of cards to my friends and they keep the cards in their cars. Whenever the see a "lowered" or "rice-rocket" honda parked they stick one of my cards under the windshield wiper. I also chip/repair/mod ecu's. I charge $60 to chip an obd1 ecu and I charge an extra $40 to convert a non-vtec ecu to a vtec ecu (I buy the ecu parts in bulk from digikey and mouser). I sell chipped/converted P06 ecu's for $160. I also offer package deals. For $250 I will supply an ecu and street tune any naturally aspirated car. For $300 I will supply an ecu and street tune and turbo car up to 12PSI. I will not street tune any car over 12PSI (it gets kinda scary driving on the street making any more power than that). For dyno time I rent a local dyno for $100/hr and charge the customer $175/hr. I also tune cars for local shops that supposedly "tune" cars. I give those guys a discount and they take the credit for the tune. In other words they pretend like they are the ones that tuned the car to make themselves look good. I also had stickers made that say something like "this ecu is for offroad use only"" that I stick over the center screw on the top and bottom of the ecu. That way I will be able to tell in the future if the guy messed around with the ecu after I chipped it.

As for motors blowing up and other problems that are bound to happen. The way I deal with this is I just tell everybody before I even touch their car that there is no warranty and that I am not going to take responsibility for anything that happens to there car during or after I tune it. If they have any problems with that policy or if I get the feeling they are going to bitch about problems in the future I tell them to f*ck off and I don't tune their car.

WATCH OUT FOR PEOPLE WHO KEEP NAMING A BUNCH OF DIFFERENT SHOPS/PEOPLE THAT WORKED ON THEIR CAR. THAT MEANS THEY ARE CHEAP ASSES AND THE ARE GOING TO BE A HEADACHE.

good luck and happy tuning

TOMDATA

P.S. A good thing to offer is a "valet" chip to the customer. Basically set the rev limiter at 5000 rpm and turn the vtec off. That way they can put that chip in the ecu if they are taking the car in for repairs or if they have to loan the car to someone else to drive. Its an easy way to squeeze an extra ten or fifteen bucks out of the guy after you are done tuning. I also upsell people on "race" and "street" chips. The "race" chip is usally a tune with a little bit higher revlimiter and closed loop disabled. The "street" chip will have a very conservative rev limiter and closed loop for better gas mileage. I also sell "kill switch" chips. These are usually sold with a moates two timer. I put the regular tune on one part of the chip and I put a "kill switch" on the other part. The "kill switch" simply has all of the fuel cells above 1200 rpm set to zero. That way the car shuts off as soon as it gets off idle. Just some ideas and examples of how to sell extra chips/hardware after you are done tuning the car. :twisted:


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 5:03 pm 
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Those are some good suggestions Tomdata, I just wrote up a disclaimer quick that I am going to be making customers sign, is there anyway you could post or PM me yours just so i make sure to include everything.


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 1:30 pm 
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You may also want to look into offering your services to local shops who dont specialize in Honda but try to work on everything. Here you negotiate a standard rate and for the most part the shop will do the work on the car, so you can concentrate on the TUNING.

Your specialties can compliment each other.


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 1:30 am 
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Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:53 am
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Location: Wisconsin y0!
xenocron wrote:
You may also want to look into offering your services to local shops who dont specialize in Honda but try to work on everything. Here you negotiate a standard rate and for the most part the shop will do the work on the car, so you can concentrate on the TUNING.

Your specialties can compliment each other.


Thats how I do it. You also get to tune some nice cars with fresh engines instead of Jimmy Ricer with his leaky LS/Vtec.


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