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Thread: Professional Tuners, do you Lock your tunes?

  1. #21
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    Bill@HPTuners's Avatar
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    1. we don't offer tunerlocking on any gen 5 ecm's to my knowledge so if you are looking at locking gen 5's you won't be able to even if you wanted
    2. locking them is up to you the tuner, if you lock it and you provide a shitty tune or the customer moves, does more mods and wants it tuned at a different shop be aware that customer will likely be pissed when he finds out he needs to spend another $500 or $1000 on a new ecm because you locked it, even if you tell him ahead of time you are locking it. With that said its a hotly debated topic with us being stuck in the middle, do what you want
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  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill@HPTuners View Post
    1. we don't offer tunerlocking on any gen 5 ecm's to my knowledge so if you are looking at locking gen 5's you won't be able to even if you wanted
    2. locking them is up to you the tuner, if you lock it and you provide a shitty tune or the customer moves, does more mods and wants it tuned at a different shop be aware that customer will likely be pissed when he finds out he needs to spend another $500 or $1000 on a new ecm because you locked it, even if you tell him ahead of time you are locking it. With that said its a hotly debated topic with us being stuck in the middle, do what you want
    Hi Bill,

    Just poking in checking out the software (I haven't purchased it as of yet). If a tune is locked can you overwrite it? Or is the read a map function disabled? Also if a map is locked can the Tuner send a unlocked version to a customer to flash onto the vehicle.
    Also can the original tuner offer to send a unlock version.

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by podium View Post
    Im going to start offering my tuning services and was wondering if I should lock my tunes. I put a lot of time and effort into tuning and really dont want others to profit from it. The local tuners files I have read pretty much focus on WOT, raise the idle high to keep it running kinda crap. I want to set myself apart and actually offer a full tuning experience.

    I of course be up front about this and Im sure most would understand. I would also offer to reflash the pcm with an unlocked file if they wanted to go somewhere else.

    What are others thoughts? I know some are very pro and some are very against it.
    Please DO NOT LOCK YOUR TUNE. Each time I come across a luck tune I automatically think rape/crap tune. Who care if someone use it, most of the time will work poorly

  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill@HPTuners View Post
    1. we don't offer tunerlocking on any gen 5 ecm's to my knowledge so if you are looking at locking gen 5's you won't be able to even if you wanted
    2. locking them is up to you the tuner, if you lock it and you provide a shitty tune or the customer moves, does more mods and wants it tuned at a different shop be aware that customer will likely be pissed when he finds out he needs to spend another $500 or $1000 on a new ecm because you locked it, even if you tell him ahead of time you are locking it. With that said its a hotly debated topic with us being stuck in the middle, do what you want
    I didnt think you ould lock gen3 or 4 stuff with HPT anymore either?
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  5. #25
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    locking a tune i feel is silly because every car is different in fueling and timing it likes. A good tuner makes the right changes to make the safest and most powerful combo which a copy and paste will never give you that.

  6. #26
    I dont even know how to lock it lol.

    Ive come across a couple cars that the shops have used proprietary software that locks us out.

  7. #27
    Tuner in Training kareltuning's Avatar
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    My policy on locking tunes is as follows:
    - On any stock ECU where I work on top of someone else's work, be it an OEM engineer or another tuner, I save a backup of the original tune for the customer and DO NOT lock the ecu.
    - On stock ECUs where the platform does not allow me to work on top of anyone's work but allows me to ovewrite it with my custom developed maps (EcuTek for example) I lock the tunes since it can always be re-written by another shop but not read/copied.
    - On standalones where I have to start from scratch and develop maps I always offer to save a backup of whatever was in the ECU before (if not password protected) and give to the customer before completely erasing the ecu and starting my work and locking the tune. Since all standalone ECUs have the option of overwriting a locked tune it is not an issue for competent shops who can work with their own maps.

    The point is the customer should always have access to tune at a different shop. Never render the ecu useless.

  8. #28
    Senior Tuner mbray01's Avatar
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    a couple thoughts here. if your smart enough to have something so great its worth hiding, then your smart enough to know you can lock a file without using seed/key lock,(which locks everything out, including dealer tools) unless you brute force it, or run a computer trying all combos on it. The easiest lock is to just change the calibration id, or move things within the file, so it becomes unreadable, but can still be flashed with factory tooling
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  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by podium View Post
    Im going to start offering my tuning services and was wondering if I should lock my tunes. I put a lot of time and effort into tuning and really dont want others to profit from it. The local tuners files I have read pretty much focus on WOT, raise the idle high to keep it running kinda crap. I want to set myself apart and actually offer a full tuning experience.

    I of course be up front about this and Im sure most would understand. I would also offer to reflash the pcm with an unlocked file if they wanted to go somewhere else.

    What are others thoughts? I know some are very pro and some are very against it.
    Well , if you got paid fully , your time and effort wont be wasted .

    From my perspective , it's selfish to do that as I don't own neither the car or ECM .

  10. #30
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    I'd never lock a tune. I've never run the exact same flash in 2 cars anyways...even if they were "identical on paper"

    I've been accused of it when using the HPTuners gen-3 3-bar OS when an EFILive tuner couldn't make changes after the owner made mechanical changes to the car and I wasn't around...it wasn't fun to try to explain it even though eventually I was able to.
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  11. #31
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    So, I'm one of those super-pissed customers. My "tuner" locked his file, refused to help, and is now not even answering emails/calls/etc. I know he's using HPT, as he just sent me the file to flash in, and I got the module for it. NOW, I'm trying to learn how to tune to fix his mistakes.

    I kept a copy of the stock-file, so I have that to run right now, but it's really F'd up my confidence in having other "professional" peoples working on my diesel.
    so, IF someone is interested in breaking into this file (or showing me how to do it) I would be forever indebted to you.

  12. #32
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    There are people out there that will unlock them, but you're shipping your ECM to them and you're without it for however long it takes. Could be a day, could be 10.

    I have one in one of my vehicles that's locked too. It sucks. I've just left it as is and will eventually get a new ecm/tcm and start over.

    After having one that is locked and I'm helpless I think people that do it should be drug behind a car down a gravel road...but that may not be the most popular opinion lol.

  13. #33
    Senior Tuner mbray01's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JDSDiesel View Post
    So, I'm one of those super-pissed customers. My "tuner" locked his file, refused to help, and is now not even answering emails/calls/etc. I know he's using HPT, as he just sent me the file to flash in, and I got the module for it. NOW, I'm trying to learn how to tune to fix his mistakes.

    I kept a copy of the stock-file, so I have that to run right now, but it's really F'd up my confidence in having other "professional" peoples working on my diesel.
    so, IF someone is interested in breaking into this file (or showing me how to do it) I would be forever indebted to you.

    IF I TUNED DIESELS(WHICH I DONT) I WOULD BE LOCKING THEM TOO, AS THE DIESEL WORLD IS FILLED WITH COPYCAT TUNERS, AND GROUPS WHO BUY A TUNE AND SHARE IT WITH 25 FRIENDS CAUSE THEY ARE CHEAP. WITH DIESELS ITS ABOUT AS CLOSE TO ONE SIZE FITS ALL AS THEY COME. I AGREE WITH LOCKING DIESEL FILE, BUT GIVE THE CUSTOMER THE OPTION OF REVERTING BACK TO STOCK, WHICH IT SOUNDS LIKE THEY DID. IF THE FILE IS SO BAD, WHY DO YOU WANT INSIDE? FlASH BACK TO STOCK, AND EITHER GET IT RETUNED, OR TUNE IT YOURSELF.


    THE ISSUE I HAVE IS THOSE THAT LOCK THE ECM, AND FORCE THE CUSTOMER TO HAVE TO BUY A NEW ECM, BECAUSE ITS LOCKED
    Michael Bray
    Rusty Knuckle Garage
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  14. #34
    Advanced Tuner ZeroBoostBuick's Avatar
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    I had no idea you can still write a new or stock tune on a Locked ECM. Or am I misunderstanding something ??