So excited..

I've always hated the idea of just installing a map. It's something that should be done live, with before and after RR and tweaked.

Every engine is slightly different, some engines may be able to take an extra 50bhp without any issues and some may start having problems after an extra 10bhp. It should be done by a professional mapper and he should spend quite a bit of time finding the best bespoke map for your car.

It's what I had done for £200 and I wouldn't have it done any other way!
 
Housey said:
Has anyone here who is critacising TMS ever had a personal experience of them, or are the sharing mate stories and forum chatter?
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half personal and half mate stories since i have been involved in them working out how TMS deceived them in one case, and didnt have a clue how to fix it and randomly swapped parts in another.

Demon said:
My Brother had his Zaf Mapped with a TMS remap, and wasn't happy, unreliable boost etc, he got a refund, and went to the VXR place, and it was much better. From the price they charge, they should (Courteney seem to do this according to Mr LOL in this thread) RR the car, then remap it just for your car.. ensuring max gains with consistency..
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this is exactly what they do.
 
Housey said:
Has anyone here who is critacising TMS ever had a personal experience of them, or are the sharing mate stories and forum chatter?
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Looking to go Stage 2 + Intercooler (~235-250bhp depending on tuner and other variables) on my VXR, I've done a lot of research into all the different tuners.

I've spent time talking to the three major tuners on the phone,
I've spent time talking to two of them via the forums,
I've spent time talking to customers of all three, both happy and unhappy ones, on the phone, via PM and in person.

My conclusion is that TMS act very unprofessional, John comes across as dishonest and like a child, certainly not the kind of person I'd want to trust my £13k car with. He (or his employee) spent most of the time dodging the pressing questions I had regarding their tuning. This was quite disappointing to me, as their graphs (not peak power!) looked to be very good, and more along the lines of what I want.

Regal seemed much better, but I'm a little dubious about the generic EDS stuff, torque is very "peaky" and the graphs I've seen seem to be aiming for overall peak power rather than something more usable.

Courtenay gave me the most confidence, graphs look good (Though they make slightly less power, but this isn't a bad thing IMO), they seem to know what they are doing, it just sucks that its a 10 hour round trip to get there :(
 
He has loads of happy customers and a few annoyed customers often who like to sprout their displeasure on forums. He is also a little outspoken on occasion to his detriment but to suggest he is running some rip off cowboy outfit is utter crap. His mistake is becoming embroiled in debates with unhappy customers on a web forum where he will never win but if you live by the sword. There are also a lot of tuners gunning for him and posting on forums as John Doe's. Two sides to every story and though I know he is far from perfect I don't think he's any better or worse than most of the other tuners. None of them are saints...and much of what people say he does is driven by chinese whispers, though i am sure he has monged it up now and again.
 
Housey said:
He has loads of happy customers and a few annoyed customers often who like to sprout their displeasure on forums. He is also a little outspoken on occasion to his detriment but to suggest he is running some rip off cowboy outfit is utter crap. His mistake is becoming embroiled in debates with unhappy customers on a web forum where he will never win but if you live by the sword. There are also a lot of tuners gunning for him and posting on forums as John Doe's. Two sides to every story and though I know he is far from perfect I don't think he's any better or worse than most of the other tuners. None of them are saints...and much of what people say he does is driven by chinese whispers, though i am sure he has monged it up now and again.
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The problem is that they are relatively knew the vauxhall scene compared with other tuners.

This was demonstrated by the fact they had no idea that the boost being run by the superchips map was blowing out the spark on the vectra VXR and required the plugs to be re-gapped smaller to prevent this.

They didnt know this, and spent weeks with the customers car replacing every component they could find, and not fixing it. Despite the fact that the fault was only present when the car was remapped. Standard it didnt do it.

it took courtenay sport to solve it.

Might be different with BMW, but it undermines my confidence in them no end when they dont know that "their maps" are running a boost level that causes it to blow out the spark.
 
thepharcyde said:
What is the feedback on the VXR Dreamscience unit like??

http://www.dreamscience-dynos.co.uk/tuning-graphs/vauxhall/62-astra-vxr.html
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It has the same problems that the TMS maps do. They are a generic map not in anyway tailored to your car. They also make excellent power but do so at the expense of upping the boost to dangerous levels with no regard for the customer when it goes bang. Courtenay have specificly said they wont run boost levels this high as they dont want their customer banging on the door when it goes wrong.

Dreamscience are prepared to say "you took the risk, now you pay the price" to customers who experience this and turn them away pointing out they invalided their vauxhall warranty and dreamscience only warranty the unit itself. Fair enough tuning a car is always a risk, but it highlights the different ways of doing business ...

Princey said:
Thorney WILL tweak the map if requested, as this is something I asked.
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Trouble is though is that its a generic map. They can ring superchips and ask them to tweak it if required. But this is it, its tweaked. its not a bespoke map written for your car. And every car is different.

MikeHiow said:
Regal seemed much better, but I'm a little dubious about the generic EDS stuff, torque is very "peaky" and the graphs I've seen seem to be aiming for overall peak power rather than something more usable.
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and thats before we get onto their mustang dyno that is capable of running non mustang software. It can be made to overread on request.

To be fair to them though, everybody mocked them over their 300bhp Corsa VXRs. They said it wasnt possible and it was all just them fiddling with the rollers. Then wayne rolled up at powerstation and made 300bhp exactly as they said it would. And we know that powerstations rollers can be ruthless...

MikeHiow said:
Courtenay gave me the most confidence, graphs look good (Though they make slightly less power, but this isn't a bad thing IMO), they seem to know what they are doing, it just sucks that its a 10 hour round trip to get there :(
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I had to get up at 5 to be there for about 9am when i got mapped. about a 9 hour round trip including the extra traffic on the way back at 4pm. Worth every minute though. Drive back is always fun on the long flat norfolk A roads :D
 
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Sadly tuning and I use that word lightly is often about trial and error, like working out how to dyno a CSL. Lots of computer says no until someone does a work around and tuners tend not to share their little tweaks or else they become me too.
 
MrLOL said:
half personal and half mate stories since i have been involved in them working out how TMS deceived them in one case, and didnt have a clue how to fix it and randomly swapped parts in another.



this is exactly what they do.
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did courtney remap yours? whoever did, i remember the map/plots you chose being a lot better than the thorny one
 
This is also true, we're just spoilt that we have tuners like courtenay sport who've been tuning exclusively vauxhall for so long, and only tuning specificly what they know, that they dont ahve this.

Matt82 said:
did courtney remap yours? whoever did, i remember the map/plots you chose being a lot better than the thorny one
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Yup, as above it was a 9 hour round trip (the same day as well) and i had to be up at 5am. Worth it though :D

Route Clicky
 
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MrLOL said:
It has the same problems that the TMS maps do. They are a generic map not in anyway tailored to your car. They also make excellent power but do so at the expense of upping the boost to dangerous levels with no regard for the customer when it goes bang. Courtenay have specificly said they wont run boost levels this high as they dont want their customer banging on the door when it goes wrong.

Dreamscience are prepared to say "you took the risk, now you pay the price" to customers who experience this and turn them away pointing out they invalided their vauxhall warranty and dreamscience only warranty the unit itself. Fair enough tuning a car is always a risk, but it highlights the different ways of doing business ...



Trouble is though is that its a generic map. They can ring superchips and ask them to tweak it if required. But this is it, its tweaked. its not a bespoke map written for your car. And every car is different.
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Trust me, most tuners out there are doing nothing special, no matter what they might tell you. They all have their flavour of a fixed thing with a few potential tweaks but none of them are doing much more than giving you there flavour of the world, which should be seen as that. I argued with Thorney that his claims for his M3 tunes was crap, still think it is too and a total waste of money, but others don't. I have had 1 person tell me how quick their TMS tuned car was to find it slower than my stock car because mine probably had a better engine. I am not questioning that small gains can be made I am saying they may mean sod all in real terms.

Licence to print money tuning and so many people seem willing to waste it for little REAL benefit other than a print out, more so on non turbo cars.
 
thats one of the things about Courtenay.

John and the guys are brutually honest. Its just the way they do business. I heard them turn away a guy who wanted to use a megasquirt ECU as they told him there was no need for a standalone ECU as the standard one was fine.

its honestly like that that got courtenay the reputation it has.
 
Princey said:
Well 5 mins later after arriving at TMS they decide its the boost sensor having a fit so they replace that in 10 mintues and I'm off to work. Brilliant service.

As for the above comment, it wasn't £2000 more like £1700 as the rest was a service and believe me its not just marginally faster.
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Ah its gone again, with the same fault code! Seems down on power too. Gutted, got to wait till next Friday before I can get it back down there.
 
Princey said:
Ah its gone again, with the same fault code! Seems down on power too. Gutted, got to wait till next Friday before I can get it back down there.
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like i said mate

any monkey can say "its this sensor, needs replacing" and send you on your merry way.

The mark of customer service is if they actually fix they fault. Which they havent because as usual they just guessed. If you take it back again, they'll have another guess.

Hope they dont take too many tries to get it right !
 
Princey said:
Me too, if isn't sorted Friday then I'll get a refund on the map and go elsewere.
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Most reputable places will be happy to refund on a remap if you aren't 100% happy. In fact with most you don't even need to have a fault as such, you can just not be happy with the way it drives and they will give you your cash back.

My car ate through three of its four original coil packs within a week of getting it remapped (the originals were pap and mine had never been changed) after they were sorted it has run fine since, hopefully yours are just teething issues too.
 
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