Making a living with tuning...

[TSaleik29]

Hey all, I currently own a detailing business called Saleik Auto Detailing and plan on changing the name to Saleik Detailing and Performance at the start of the new year as I would like to add tuning and bolt on/exhaust installations. Was curious how much on just tuning I can make, or like a ballpark range rather. Would be doing mostly just naturally aspirated gen 4&5 SUV, truck, camaros, corvettes. Trying to come up with a game plan in regards of pricing. Im assuming charging 1.5-2x the price of these aftermarket tuning chips/programmers as HP tuners is custom written tunes. See loads of these gen 4&5 vehicles on the road so tapping into that market shouldn't be awful.

[5FDP]

Well at a minimum it will be either $100 or $200 right off the bat depending on the year of the vehicle, so that should be factored into your pricing structure in my opinion. Maybe something to list when you price stuff out that 2017+ GM's will cost $100 because of credit costs. Or leave the full price the same and just take the hit on those specific cars.

Around here in MN I know a few guys will charge like $500ish for a tune. But the only thing that bugs me from what I hear about them is that some of these people are not getting their $500 worth of that tune. Not everyone has a camshaft swap or is modded very heavy and some only want just a basic tune to turn off the AFM/DoD and do a few minor changes along with some transmission tuning. But it's still $500 just for that. Or that even the customers that do have some mods are just getting 1-2 hours max of time, a bunch of full throttle rips on the dyno, no street tuning to verify the work completed and it's still that $500. They just aren't getting what they paid for and that person doing the tuning is whipping out 5 cars a day to make a killing but offering sub par work in some people eyes.

I'm not sure how you'd want to set a labor rate for yourself but it's something to think about. It you think you're worth $150 an hour then you could charge 2 hours plus the credit cost for example.

I just do this as a side thing so I don't have a shop or a dyno to pay for. But for basic tunes that don't require a ton of time, it's like $100-150 plus the credits. I'll ask for more money if I know it's going to take me an afternoon to do it but I've never charged more than $400 for any tune.

[04silverado6.0]

Not sure if you plan on getting a dyno but my base price for street tunes are $400. Anything over 2 credits is added to the bill. Gen 3 startup tunes are $100 if done on the bench. Anything requiring me to purchase credits is $300 minimum(usually gen 4 bench tunes or simple dod deletes). I highly recommend Mustang Dynamometer as they have been awesome to me and the Holeshot software is ahead of the other guys. Dynojet was very pleasant and treated me respectfully and answered all questions. Dyno Dynamics i could not get on the phone/email, when i finally got a guy on the phone on two separate occasions they were treating me as a tire kicker and would not answer questions, give dimensions, any details, the guy obviously did not want to deal with me.

[LilSick]

tuning gen 4 and 5 on todays shitty pump gas yields what sort of gain?

i am not a chevy guy but on a stock gen 3 hemi all pump gas tuning really yields is an improved driving experience and most of that is thru the trans and the pedal

a little thru the cam timing but todays gas is so bad (and those motors do not like knock) so nothing to really gain with ignition lead

now if you were to take that same hemi and first convert it to ethanol the story changes

tuning the pcm is then worth a bunch

mostly all in the middle but for a street car such as what you are talking about that is what you want anyways

i get deals on pro 2 conversion systems from eFlex if you are interested in offering more than generic tunes

not sure how available good corn liquor is maryland today but it gonna be available everywhere soon so something to keep in mind

[04silverado6.0]

Timing is not the only variable in a tune. Adding timing is usually the last thing i am worried about after getting the fueling and trans dialed in or other things that make a vehicle drive well. There is a lot more to gain tuning a transmission than adding timing in a lot of cases.

[04silverado6.0]

Plus if the trans is spunky and the overall drive ability is good then that automatically makes it a win for the customer.

[LilSick]

yeah

guess i never thought about making the trans or the pedal feel better...

great point!

oh wait.. that is exactly what i had just said ^^^

[Alvin]

I do a ton of remote tuning for other shops. They brand it as their own. Customers get a good tune.

To learn all this and charge for it is a daunting task. I'm 23 years deep into it and still learning stuff every day. So many little platform specific and odd things to know here and there. I honestly don't know how new shops are able to jump in and have happy customers and also survive the low $/hr as you are figuring this out.

Perhaps find a good remote tuner to work with.

[LilSick]

truth ^^^

[04silverado6.0]

I have spent many hours and long nights learning and fighting issues. Still have new issues come up on vehicles and builds that ive done a lot of. Still get surprised occasionally and still have things not work the way they are supposed to. Throw in mechanical issues and sometimes a gen 3 cam tune turns into a 2 week adventure.

[04silverado6.0]

Especially when you diagnose a bad part just for the parts store to sell you another bad part to replace it with. Ever data logged a gen 5 with clogged cats?

[RDF1]

I have spent many hours and long nights learning and fighting issues. Still have new issues come up on vehicles and builds that ive done a lot of. Still get surprised occasionally and still have things not work the way they are supposed to. Throw in mechanical issues and sometimes a gen 3 cam tune turns into a 2 week adventure.

Thats when your sitting there regretting lifes decisions...

[04silverado6.0]

I have more than once wondered why i chose this career. Having to convince stubborn customers there is an issue. Dealing with people sucks sometimes but when you have their vehicle in and control of their wallet its a whole different ball game.

[smokeshow]

but when you have their vehicle in and control of their wallet its a whole different ball game.

Those are the only ones I take. Better this way. lol

[RDF1]

I have more than once wondered why i chose this career. Having to convince stubborn customers there is an issue. Dealing with people sucks sometimes but when you have their vehicle in and control of their wallet its a whole different ball game.

Ive had customers get just mad about their dumb car. They listen to all the wrong folks and buy all the wrong parts.

Dyno tuned a car and it only put down 324rwhp. I ran fueling and timing from one extreme to the other. Couldn't not get to 325.
He was so mad cause all his buddys told him it would make 500hp easy. He didnt want to pay.

[2xLS1]

And anytime anything goes wrong with their vehicle, no matter how much time has gone by, no matter how long it ran fine, you will get a call with the customer thinking it needs to be retuned.

[RDF1]

And anytime anything goes wrong with their vehicle, no matter how much time has gone by, no matter how long it ran fine, you will get a call with the customer thinking it needs to be retuned.

So that happpens to everyone? haha

[04silverado6.0]

Ive had customers get just mad about their dumb car. They listen to all the wrong folks and buy all the wrong parts.

Dyno tuned a car and it only put down 324rwhp. I ran fueling and timing from one extreme to the other. Couldn't not get to 325.
He was so mad cause all his buddys told him it would make 500hp easy. He didnt want to pay.

I get those builds but never had anyone mad at me yet. Have had a few leave booty tickled though.

[04silverado6.0]

And anytime anything goes wrong with their vehicle, no matter how much time has gone by, no matter how long it ran fine, you will get a call with the customer thinking it needs to be retuned.

I get these weekly to some extent.

[RicochetRRMS]

Absolutely, in most of today's new cars anyway, timing is optimized by OAR, and driveability is top on the list, so trany, shift points etc, and drive-wire adjustments, are definitely a plus "good post"