Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 26

Thread: The ever going "I'm ready for a tune" customer....

  1. #1

    The ever going "I'm ready for a tune" customer....

    Rant....
    Post below any stories of " yeah yeah yeah I'm ready for a tune "

    I had a customer tow in his trailblazer ss today, for a cam only startup tune.

    He told me he was ready and everything was checked and ready to go!
    Mind you, he stated he just had a cam swap.
    When he finally showed up, the story changed. It went from cam only, to heads, stroker kit, injectors changed, and a 4l70 to 4l80 swap....

    To make a long story short, the oil pan was changed, so the dipstick was gone, no one punched the mini freeze plug from the engine to accept the c6 dipstick, so I could not check oil level.
    Fuel in the tank was 2 years old.
    And last but not least, checked the transmission fluid and found water mixed with it.... ughhhh
    end of the day for now.

    The good thing about it, is I'm going to get more $$$ out of it, by repairing all the issues

    Share your stories below
    09 Pontiac G8GT LSA conversion & cammed (HP Tuned)
    07 Trailblazer SS Cammed & Nitrous Fed (HP Tuned)

  2. #2
    Tuning Addict 5FDP's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    Rogers, MN
    Posts
    13,533
    Sounds like someone was not well educated on what it took to really mod and finish his vehicle. Anyone can buy parts via the internet.
    2016 Silverado CCSB 5.3/6L80e, not as slow but still heavy.

    If you don't post your tune and logs when you have questions you aren't helping yourself.

  3. #3
    Advanced Tuner
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Posts
    302
    Was this something he had done himself or did he pay someone else for the privilege of screwing up his vehicle?

  4. #4
    We get stuff like that all the time. Guys with real good intentions. Either trying to save themselves a buck. Or they are just havin fun working on it. Or a rookie tech has worked on it. Either way, we end up having to straighten out all kinds of stuff.

  5. #5
    Been there done that, still have the tshirt

    Had a customer bring in a 2000 vette on the hook. Said it ran fine after he installed the new engine but it stopped running and he brought it to me to get it running and do a tune.

    After 2 days of working to fix wiring, hook up NOS for his new NOS engine found the stupid thing would not start. 2hours later determined no fuel pressure, called him and he said the tank was full so it looked like a fuel pump bad. got read with pans cracked open the fuel pump carrier to tank, not drop in the tank. go figure.

    Same guy by the way that crossed the O2 sensor harnesses and the car would die after warming up and going closed loop, that was an interesting one.

    They were all well educated, after all google always tells you the right thing the first time with the first hit.

    sorry to rant.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Markmx6 View Post
    Was this something he had done himself or did he pay someone else for the privilege of screwing up his vehicle?
    He paid someone and paid good money too...
    09 Pontiac G8GT LSA conversion & cammed (HP Tuned)
    07 Trailblazer SS Cammed & Nitrous Fed (HP Tuned)

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by jpliss View Post
    Been there done that, still have the tshirt

    Had a customer bring in a 2000 vette on the hook. Said it ran fine after he installed the new engine but it stopped running and he brought it to me to get it running and do a tune.

    After 2 days of working to fix wiring, hook up NOS for his new NOS engine found the stupid thing would not start. 2hours later determined no fuel pressure, called him and he said the tank was full so it looked like a fuel pump bad. got read with pans cracked open the fuel pump carrier to tank, not drop in the tank. go figure.

    Same guy by the way that crossed the O2 sensor harnesses and the car would die after warming up and going closed loop, that was an interesting one.

    They were all well educated, after all google always tells you the right thing the first time with the first hit.

    sorry to rant.
    All rants welcome, that was the point of the thread!
    09 Pontiac G8GT LSA conversion & cammed (HP Tuned)
    07 Trailblazer SS Cammed & Nitrous Fed (HP Tuned)

  8. #8
    HP Tuners Support
    (foff667)
    Bill@HPTuners's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Hailing from Parts Unknown
    Posts
    28,247
    I remember having a customer come in with a 98 Camaro(this was back in 02ish) and the vehicle was dropping in an out of high speed mode when reading, I informed him that the vehicle has some wiring/electrical/battery issues that he needs to fix before I can tune the vehicle, he proceeded to pull out a crescent wrench from his center console and tighten down the battery terminals...

    It doesn't have to be perfect, it just needs to be done in two weeks...

    A wise man once said "google it"

  9. #9
    Advanced Tuner
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Behind the wheel
    Posts
    272
    Glad to know I'm not the only one who meets these type of people.

    Apparently "ready to run" means different things to different people. I meet a guy at his place with full intention of reading the cal, deleting VATS, etc.. This is to be followed by a quick spin up the street and back to make sure things are good. We meet at the designated time and the car isn't even close to finished so I use my bench harness to read and flash the PCM.

    A few days later he calls saying he is getting a bunch of codes and it drives like crap. Confused because it's a stock 5.3 swap, I stop by his place. His handheld code reader shows a list of faults about eight deep and most I've never heard of. I now see the harness looks like a bowl of rainbow coloured spaghetti lost a fight with a mower, a roll of black tape and a box of crimps. Further investigation reveals part of the harness is cooking against the passenger side header and the inlet air temp sensor is randomly dangling in the space between the radiator and engine. I try to explain that he has a lot of troubleshooting and work to do. He replies "can't you turn off the bad codes and I can keep driving?" Wow.

    In the list of errors I saw was: hacked harness, IAT outside intake stream, no knock sensors, rear O2's swapped for fronts, no fuel pressure regulator, random mixed junkyard V6 injectors, harness grounding against header, no coolant temp signal and several codes.
    Last edited by gofastwclass; 09-26-2015 at 09:05 AM.

  10. #10
    Advanced Tuner axekick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    Austin, TX
    Posts
    333
    I get these people all the time too. You tell them there is something wrong and they want you to "tune" it out. I have had people call me up two years after the tune and want a retune because its not running like it used to. I've had to start pricing out the people that i know I don't want to deal with. I'll still deal with them but its going to cost them since that's the only way to get them to value my time as much as I do.
    2006 Tahoe
    Iron ls2, built up 4l60e w/vig 3000 stall, 232/234 114, 4.30s, LTs, ORY NNBS intake and LS2 TB etc.

    Fighting solves everything...
    ...except partial differential equations.


    Click here to combine multiple VE Logs into one.


  11. #11
    Senior Tuner
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    1,104
    Ready for a tune list

    Turbo LS1 02 Fbody. re did the charge piping, the iat was just shoved into the silicone upper. 4 bad injectors. 4 bad coil packs, new injector seals, new valve springs {floated bad at 5k} new plugs, list goes on.

    07 cobalt. "tune ready" 6 bent exhaust valves... came back, dead intercooler pump, zzp stage 1 cams. stock valve springs....

    240sx with sr20det swap on aem.

    harness issue after harness issue. car did mid pull on the high way. CAS died...

    i could keep going. i really need to get shirts made "it just needs a tune"
    The most hated, make the most power.
    93 Ranger. 5.3 D1X. 1069hp.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by axekick View Post
    I get these people all the time too. You tell them there is something wrong and they want you to "tune" it out. I have had people call me up two years after the tune and want a retune because its not running like it used to. I've had to start pricing out the people that i know I don't want to deal with. I'll still deal with them but its going to cost them since that's the only way to get them to value my time as much as I do.
    There are people I don't want to deal with so I just over price so they go somewhere else.

    It makes it easier that way.

  13. #13
    Tuner WongBob's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    Minden, LA
    Posts
    65
    Had a customer come in with a stock regulator and a walbro 450.... stock injectors... 92 psi at the rail. "Can you just tune it and make it run like that? I dont want to change it." So I did. A week later he calls me because it wont run and its loading up. Half the injectors had given up so what does he do? Another set of injectors. This time they last two days. Finally he puts a good regulator on and some decent injectors.

    Same guy later brings it back for a nitrous tune and says its ready to go with 150 pills in it. I go out and make a hit and it instantly goes WAY lean. He never pulled the schrader valve out of the rail. I had just hit his stock cammed 6.0 with a 150 shot of dry nitrous on an OLSD tune without any fueling adjustments. This is less than an hour after I made a pull on motor where the throttle body rolled across his fuel line and was pinned at WOT because his fuel line was routed wrong...

    Now he has another car that I originally tuned. He cammed it and had someone else tune for it because I was out of town for work. The engine has blown up 3 times with little more than cruising around and idling. Now he is wanting me to tune it and as right now, "it only needs a tune".
    TBSS Cam Only Record Holder 1.467 60', 11.568 @ 116.86
    Second Fastest Naturally Aspirated TBSS 1.484 60', 11.144 @ 119.46

  14. #14
    lol I feel you...
    09 Pontiac G8GT LSA conversion & cammed (HP Tuned)
    07 Trailblazer SS Cammed & Nitrous Fed (HP Tuned)

  15. #15
    Advanced Tuner
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    webb city, mo
    Posts
    504
    got a 2004 silverado in with a whipple on it a while back....another shop had done it first...welded an aluminum tube to the blower and then murdered it with silicone couplers and hose clamps to and from the intercooler. The owner complained the truck didn't run right and didn't make any boost.

    The couplers kept collapsing or blowing off. the other shop had stuffed pie-cut pieces of tubing inside the couplers to keep them from collapsing. the pieces got blown into the intercooler. I had to fish all that stuff out, weld up a whole new charge pipe, now just 2 pieces instead of 5. the truck had been tuned OLSD and they just CUT the MAF harness and removed the sensor. I welded in a bung and soldered in a syclone IAT.....got into the tune and it was still the stock OS and stock MAP....had to get cobalt MAP and tune from scratch....owner was very happy with the results but angry as hell that he'd paid another shop over $1500 to install the blower and tune it....he also mentioned they had burned the bearings out of the new blower on their dyno and charged him to remove it, ship it, repair it, and reinstall it.

    I get a truck a month with longtubes and 2-5 broken header bolts with massive exhaust leaks.

    I had a ready to tune 02 camaro with a MS4 cam and stock valve springs...

    01 WS6 that the brakes didn't work on it at all (i street tune most everything). He had the brakes fixed and brought it back....same issues....all he had done was flush the fluid. the master cylinder and booster were both bad and it had some kind of blockage in the lines. i didn't get to tune it because i apparently wasted his time and money on his brakes...i know where he lives and the car has sat, unmoved, in his yard ever since. It's a really nice low mileage cam/bolt-on car.

    now i'm working on swapping a heads/cam LS1/TH400 into a 2003 4.3/4L60 silverado....owner didn't want to pay for the V8 engine harness, so, in order to "save money," he asked me to put a carburetor on it....after I angrily responded to him with the pricing list of intake, carb, fuel system, ignition box, and tuning....he shut up and allowed me to finish the job as i was...this is by far the most annoying customer i've ever had and I could write PAGES about the stupid text messages, phone calls, and pop-in visits i've endured. He's borderline harassing me. He got upset when i told him was PROBABLY going to need fuel injectors....then today, he messaged me saying he ordered a wet nitrous kit for it and wanted me to install that...

  16. #16
    Senior Tuner
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    1,104
    had an envoy 5.3 come in a couple weeks ago. needed DOD shut off and mild stuff as he just put in an LM7. no biggie, load the file into it, fire it up, dead on 4 cylinders. no codes.. he said it did that the first time he started it as well before he had it towed up to the shop. pulled the heads, bent valves, broken pistons.

    ::facepalm::

    SSSTTAAAAHHHHHPPPPPPPP!!!!!
    The most hated, make the most power.
    93 Ranger. 5.3 D1X. 1069hp.

  17. #17
    Advanced Tuner
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Collinsville IL
    Posts
    697
    Story of my life..
    https://www.facebook.com/tuningbyshanehinds
    [email protected]
    2009 G8 GT [email protected] 1.60 - Sold
    2008 A6 LS3 C6 Cammed [email protected] 1.44 Sold
    2013 CTSV wagon 9.21@151
    2015 C7Z bolt ons 10.0

  18. #18
    Tuner WongBob's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    Minden, LA
    Posts
    65
    Turbo c6... nothing tight. Holes in charge pipe. Secondary pump wiring bad. Meth pump wiring bad. Meth lines leak.... "Its ready for a tune."
    TBSS Cam Only Record Holder 1.467 60', 11.568 @ 116.86
    Second Fastest Naturally Aspirated TBSS 1.484 60', 11.144 @ 119.46

  19. #19
    Tuner in Training
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Shreveport, La
    Posts
    32
    I hate when they call you back after 2 weeks and tell you the car is running like shit and it's the tune. You jump out of your ass to go over and check things out only to find out they had some kind of failure not even related to the tune.

    Another thing is when they call with the run down of mods and start talking about what to change and blah blah then when they get here they wanna look over your shoulder and as soon as I open editor they say "what is all that?" I laugh and they walk away while I do my thing. Customers can be aggravating but it's funny nonetheless.
    1999 Camaro SS #1601

    1998 Z28 M6 cam/heads/bolt ons/9"

  20. #20
    Tuner in Training
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Shreveport, La
    Posts
    32
    Or 5qts low on transmission fluid......thanks again for the help WongBob
    1999 Camaro SS #1601

    1998 Z28 M6 cam/heads/bolt ons/9"