Qld Tuner- Your Thoughts

[XRT330]

Hi Guys

I have an EBXR6 that was tuned by the tuning shop “Bob Romano Performance Motors” about 6months ago. After the dyno tune I was told that the head was leaking water, which it was. I had Ford remove the head and sent away to an engineering firm who repaired for me. Ford put the head back on and tested the car. All was fine. The vehicle was taken back to the tuning shop “Bob Romano Performance Motors” and de-tuned because it was “Pinging” on light throttle. The tuning shop “Bob Romano Performance Motors” insisted that the Head was not reconditioned properly. I then took the car back to Ford who tested it for 2 days. They said the head was fine. I even rang the engineering firm who also were 100% sure the head was reconditioned properly. The tuning shop “Bob Romano Performance Motors” is saying the head has hot spots and was not cleaned properly when it was reconditioned. I then removed the un-Chip myself and road tested the car myself for 6- 8 weeks. The car ran perfectly and never pinged. I towed the Jet-ski and actually towed a trailer with approximately one tone of tiles during the middle of the day and the car never pinged. It ran perfectly. The only thing it did was miss on idle now and then. I removed the sparkplugs that the tuning shop “Bob Romano Performance Motors” supplied and installed. I noticed the gap was too small. I then gapped a set of split fires plugs and installed. The car runs very smooth with no missing. I paid for the initial tune and payed again for another de-tune. I have since removed the uni-chip and the car actually feels faster because the tuning shop “Bob Romano Performance Motors” had to detune the car because they insisted the Head was not reconditioned properly.

Basically I paid for two Dyno tunes and I was told by the tuning shop “Bob Romano Performance Motors” that the head is faulty and that I should stop “playing” with the car even though I was trying to fault find the problem.

I thought we pay these people to fault find our cars, not push us away with excuses when the problem becomes a little difficult to repair. I have also had issues with the tuning on my other cars but I will not go into these. I have always taken my cars (X4) to them. NOT ANY MORE!!!!!!!

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers

[F6 UTE]

Well, you've mentioned there name enough....

Anyway.. It's not the tuner, so apologize.

Unichip is a horrid piece of hardware.. My best mate had Unichip fitted to his car ( EA ) years ago, and it went backwards in power. The Unichip unit DOES NOT WORK with the EA/EB from all accounts - ie months and months, of going back and forth to tuners..

The result/finfings were a dyno operator who could not get any more power from the car, so he fudged the dyno figures to show an improvement..

Throw the thing in the bin..

As for pinging, well, the head now has a higher compression ratio, I assume you got it skimmed, so that would account for that. The higher level of spark in the tune may not have been accounted for with the machining. ( If the tune was not altered from the first tune )

Lesson learned..

edit: typo

Edited 13/11/06 02:01 AM by F6 UTE

[XRT330]

I understand but...........The tuner should not keep charging the customer over and over again and blame them ( ie STOP PLAYING WITH THE CAR). The tuner should of maybe tryed to tweek the initial tune and explain to the customer the reasons "why". Instructions were given before the car was booked in that " I did not want to spend more money on this car and that I should be quoted before they proceed". I was not called! I was hit with a bill when collecting this car and was told the car has been de-tuned and the Head is faulty...... with no proof.

What has happened to "Customer Service" and " Look after your Customers"?

I won't be using him again for any of my cars!

Thankyou for your feedback.

Cheers

[XRT330]

Sorry I forgot... They should be apologizing and refunding my money.

[F6 UTE]

That's the problem when modifying cars.

If you pay for something to be done, and it can't be done because of underlying issues with the car, than that's something you have to wear..

[XRT330]

I understand that also...but I think the Tuner needs to commicate with the customer so the customer does not through money down the drain. If the unchip can not be tuned properly on this model of car the customer should be told, not blammed for the problem.

[INFLYT]

Why didn't you just leave the car with him and say "Call me when it's done"?

You should've let him sort out the headjob on it, and whatever else popped up.

[4ST-XR6]

Everytime the head is removed ie, doing a headgasket, the head is measured and most of the time decked to ensure a good surface for reassebly, Ive never seen a head warped that bad that required a massive amount to be removed and hence increasing the compression ratio to a point that causes a severe ping, for this to happen, the tune must have been running pretty close to the border line of pinging anyway. And the hotspots would have been picked up during inspection of the head by the ford dealer, or at latest but the machine shop. All this seems pretty out of character for Romanos as a good mat of mine had his car tuned there and said they tuned it pretty conservative for realiability with still impressive results. The E-series have never liked being chipped and Ive never seen one that has ran well.

[Sleek]

Im guessing you have a brother in law, Sam- because I heard this story from him about a month ago. (I used to work with him)

Im glad I heard it actually, because although I can offer no advice I sure know not to take my car to Romano's.

Good luck!!

Glenn

[SHOCK]

What was the tuners name?

Joking...............

Powertorque put me on to this guy when they were having trouble with BF edits saying that he could do what they couldnt.

Unfortunate and time to update....are you looking for a ute?