Installed A Boost Gauge, Help Figuring It Out Please?

[Commander Riker]

I guess it's possible that you could have a faulty boost gauge... and would hate that for you if it was the case. Like I said, I have a boost gauge for you... hit me up with your address in a PM or text and I'll get it out tomorrow. It's noisy, but I know it works.

Still vote to remove all IC piping and reattach. Inspect each soft hose... because they like to tear in their old age.

[mattsk8]

I'm on to the issue. First of all thanks again Lucas (commander Riker); been on the phone w/ him going through some of this. And to everyone here for the words of wisdom!!

The gauge is good!! My leak is in the line that I have the gauge tied into. If I unhook the vacuum line that comes off the T and plug the T, the gauge goes to 20. Where is this line supposed to go?? I'm almost positive its in the wrong spot; right now it goes to a nipple on the tube that goes from the air filter to the turbo.

[Commander Riker]

Also found this :

Looks like there needs to be a check valve on that line.

I would also make sure the vacuum lines for the turbo are correct as possible.

[lookforjoe]

Yeah - based on that hose attached to the wrong spot, at least some of your drivability issues may be related directly to incorrect hose routing (TCV, EVAP )

[jschaefer7406]

Yeah that would cause a massive leak. Diagrams are kinda hard to interpret sometimes, but that hose goes to the compressor bypass valve on the turbo (and no, there is no check valve in that line ).

As has been mentioned, may want to go over the TCV hoses as well, since at least one is out of place...

Glad you found it

Joe

[Commander Riker]

Check valve on line was in reference to the line he described going from the intake to the inlet pipe. Sorry, should have clarified that.

[mattsk8]

At an idle...

So the problem was the vacuum line that was supposed to go the wastegate was going to the nipple on the air filter, and the line off the bottom of the TCV was going to the wastegate. I can own that I think, one of those moments.

I checked all the other lines and everything looks good. Going to order all new silicone lines from iPd and replace them all.

Unfortunately I couldn't figure out where its at for boost because the roads here are literally glare ice right now. I pulled the car out of the garage and drove about 3 blocks and turned around. Seems to idle better, but I won't know about boost until maybe tomorrow afternoon. This ice storm isn't supposed to clear up till 1pm tomorrow.

[Commander Riker]

Glad to see that picture. Definitely is in the zone now!

[fwdGTP]

I was about to say, there's no way the car would run even remotely normal with that low of vacuum, but looks like it's figured out lol

[mattsk8]

The drive into work today was a good time; something that normally takes a half hour took over an hour because I was basically driving across an ice skating arena all the way here. I did catch a couple dry patches and managed to pull about 10 lbs of boost, but no where near long enough to figure anything out. Hopefully the drive home will be clear for take off...

[Burn-E]

I think you ought to post an apology to Lucky in the ARD response thread given the implications you made that his tune was bad in the two ARD threads.

[mattsk8]

I think you ought to post an apology to Lucky in the ARD response thread given the implications you made that his tune was bad in the two ARD threads.

I actually did, but just to clarify, I never said his tune was definitely bad. My issues w/ ARD were that I couldn't get any amount of customer service; and that was very frustrating because initially my tune was bad. Then, after I mailed it back I get the ECU w/ the message "your ECU might be fried". So I tried to get some clarity about that and couldn't. I never made any statements in the ARD review thread, and if you read the official ARD response thread, I did clarify things. This also isn't done, I still haven't had a chance to hardly drive the car or diagnose anything at this point so I still don't know how the Blue Tune itself is doing. If you're going to monitor things like that, read all the way through. I didn't make any statements that weren't warranted and I am communicating w/ them finally. Lucky's been very responsive lately.

Scroll all the way down to post #140... >ARD Tuning's Response

[Burn-E]

I've read through all the threads several times. And for a guy who isn't looking to slander anyone you threw out a fair amount of heat - and some of the longest posts in both those threads - toward Lucky with a fair number of insinuations that he was unreasonable in not being able to diagnose your problem over the phone / internet and for encouraging you to look elsewhere than the tune.

While there may still be issues with your car - and I'm going to suggest there might very well be - there's a strong probability they won't be related to the tune. Especially given your admission that you don't know anything about a turbo engine. Did you explain that to Lucky in your correspondence with him? Because if I'm him I'm going to make an assumption that my customer knows enough about the car if they're telling me they intend to do a manual swap and a tune on a ME7 and that they've done this kind of work before on other makes.

I'm not out to skewer you on this Matt but you need to own up just as publicly that the lack of a boost gauge and your own incorrect routing of your vacuum lines has been a major source of your headache even though you wanted to look elsewhere (the tune) for cause and blame. I would say Lucky's been fairly patient given the mistakes you've made in doing this swap that had nothing to do with his work but just happened to coincide with the tune being installed.

Short version from me is, I'm taking mine to a guy I know w/ a dyno. I don't feel the Blue Tune difference. First I was told he could do my manual tune for $250, then that changed to "He won't do the manual tune unless I also purchase the Blue Tune". So faced w/ that or stick w/ an auto trans, I bit it and got the full monte. We'll see what the wheel dyno reveals.

None of this is exaggerated and like I said, my purpose isn't to slander anyone. I paid a lot of money for a tune and I expect it to work properly; and when it doesn't (just like anyone else would) I expect some reasonable customer service, not an argument about why things are the way they are.

Ditto. I just started a thread in the performance section regarding this. I actually already have an awesome tuner here locally but he's never done Volvos before. Maybe you could chime in, sounds like you know more than me (which isn't saying much on my end, I know nothing about tuning). I've been talking to him through my ordeal, and he said he would never do an off the shelf tune and put his name on it, he always needs the car there because they're all a little different.

I still also have a weird hesitation between about 1500 and 3500 Rs. Its not terrible, but it wasn't there before I did any of this. I actually said something about it when I first started asking why my car wouldn't rev beyond 4k Rs, but after I got the re-tune it got a lot better (but its still there, and I didn't have it before the tune).

Could this be why I got the CEL yesterday, that I just scanned today and got this code?...

This is getting old. I didn't even really want this tune, but was told I had to have it to get my manual tune. Getting a little pissed. I (would like to) drive this car a lot, and wasn't looking for a bag of headaches. The main reason I did the manual swap was so I didn't need to worry about the headaches related to the automatics.

Now I'm guessing I'm faced w/ putting a boost gauge in this so I can watch crap like this??

Does this new issue now mean I email him, then wait 48 hours before I get the line about checking my battery connections and making sure I didn't accidentally fill it w/ diesel or some other excuse?? Then I answer and wait another 48 hours??

Perhaps he should have asked if you properly routed the vacuum lines?

I hear what you're saying and I agree w/ you 100%. I honestly don't even care if my "Blue Tune" doesn't live up to its expectations. But if you don't have customer service, what do you have? Unless you know EVERYTHING about the ins and outs of tuning, I would say its a very risky venture because for the most part you're on your own w/ any issues. But if you do know everything about tuning, why not just do it yourself?? Catch 22 IMO.

This is the major problem w/ an off the shelf tune. I now fully understand why the guy by me that tunes GM and Chrysler won't ever do an off the shelf tune, even if it is a generic tune that should work on every car. Its because if there's an issue, he can't solve it from 800 miles away. That says a lot about my guy's character, that he actually cares if your car works after he puts his name on it. All other issues aside, IMO that alone speaks very loudly.

In not so many words you're saying Lucky is a man of questionable character (and that may well be the case but here, with your particular issue, your argument rather falls flat). Your immediate problems had nothing to do with the tune but you're pointing directly at Lucky for not solving it when there was nothing he could do about it.

This next one I'll keep short and simple, just so I can try to get some resolution.

Lucky, I'm not sure what's going on. But, I'm not just some idiot that bought a V70r because its all he could afford, I bought this car because this is what I wanted. I don't give up easily, and I will get some resolution one way or another. This isn't just about $770, its also about the fact that I can't drive my car w/ any confidence solely because of what you did to it. I expect an answer to my question regarding what you plan on doing about my ECM, and I'm done asking a question and waiting 48 hours for a response.

Edit: So this doesn't get construed the wrong way let me also say this: I'm very reasonable, but I think I've run the gamut w/ this. Just answer the question about what the next step is.

Apparently you had not run the gamut on it.

1100 ish, at least that's what I had coming at the time (900 for the trans, linkage, clutch, etc; then the pedals and the clutch master). After the fact I also had to order Hussein's mount (awesome mount too BTW), a throw out bearing, and some other misc things.

My only point was that they kind of forced me into the performance tune and I didn't have much option short of being stuck w/ my car having a bad transmission, and all these parts on the way. You can actually track this by reading my build thread (see post #19) '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

Then, after I'm forced to go this route, I have nothing but trouble. Regardless of what's going on (whether its the tune or its something on my car because I got the tune), I can't get any kind of realistic help from ARD w/ this, short of stupid, generic responses that IMO are only aimed at steering me away from any kind of possibility that my issues are related to the tune (and this is once I finally get a response at all).

Could it be because your problem was related to the swap and not the tune?

I'm very curious how you would like to handle this, because at this point I sincerely wish I would've searched the world over for someone else to do my manual tune. I suggest you respond, and also that you respond w/ a helpful solution to these issues or I'll move around you in an attempt to find some resolution. (The ball is now in your court BTW, I anticipate your response.)

The question was emailed to him Friday at noon his time (3pm in MI when I emailed him), and that was the third time I asked him the same question and the only answer I've gotten is "You might want to keep an eye on it". The first time I asked him exactly what he meant was 5 days ago. I need a better explanation than "keep an eye out for odd behaviors"; especially when I'm already having "odd behaviors", I've told him my car has "odd behaviors" ever since I put the ECU in it. It has a weird hesitation (or it bogs down) at 2500 RPM, and it has a weird hickup, or basically it'll chug every once in a while in 5th gear going about 45 mph. Not to mention the 2 times I've gotten the overboost CELs; all of which he's known about well before the weekend and I haven't gotten any kind of direction from him, and none of these things (overboost, hesitation, or the weird hickup) were ever issues before I got the tune.

I'm not saying I'm 100% sure his tune is bad (but obviously he sees that as a possibility based on his response). Seeing how he kind of forced me down this road, a little reasonable help through it doesn't sound unreasonable. If he knew these things were a possibility, a little warning after the forced upsale would've been nice.

None of those were probably issues before you swapped in the manual transmission either. But because the tune was front and center you focused on it without going through the full checklist of other potential issues. And your lack of familiarity with the vacuum line routing meant you missed the real source of your issue that was staring you in the face.

[mattsk8]

I really don't have time to respond to all this right now so I'll do my best to keep this short (since you seem intent on rehashing all of this). I'll just give a step by step so its all very clear to you.

First of all, the only correspondence I had w/ Lucky was when I called him over the phone and explained that I was doing a manual swap on my 99 V70r and needed a manual tune (and I called ARD per the recommendations here). At that point he explained to me that the manual tune could be done for $225, or I could get one of his performance tunes w/ the manual tune for $770. At that point I said I would consider it but I wasn't sure I could afford it. I never made any statements about my car being A-1 mechanically; we never spoke good, bad or indifferently about what would even need to be done if I got a performance tune.

Then I email Michelle and ask how to go about how I go about getting my ECU over to them. I explained that I definitely needed the manual tune but didn't know if I could swing the performance tune (just FYI, I still have all of these emails). At that point Michelle told me she's sorry Lucky mislead, but the manual tune isn't available unless I get the performance tune.

Kind of pissed but really left w/out an option (and after an email where I said Lucky didn't mislead me, he very specifically stated I could get one OR the other; to which I got no response), I downloaded the "build sheet" off their website, filled it out and mailed it to them w/ my ECU.

So, Burn-E, are we tracking so far??

Then I get my ECU back in the mail and plug it into my car and fire it up. The first thing I did was start going through the "ECU break in" process that's spelled out in the tune, once I get to my 2/3 acceleration, I see that car won't rev beyond 4k RPM so I post here and that's when everyone here said "bad tune". At that point I emailed Lucky and get a bunch of generic responses that state it's more likely my wiring. To make this (already) long story short, after a bunch of emailing and phone calls I finally get Lucky to take a look at my ECU; at which point he realized that ARD's tune was in fact bad, and was the reason for why my car was doing what it's doing. But, I also get the message that states "Your ECU may have been fried".

So let me ask you Burn-E, how would you respond at this point (since you seem to think you have some super understanding of everything)? Because I tried to get some clarity about what that meant and couldn't... for almost a week I couldn't get any clarity about it. That's when the "So what's going on w/ Lucky" thread started and I posted everything you so eloquently quoted.

Now you're telling me that because I found something wrong w/ my car I owe Lucky an apology? Just FYI, I think (as I already stated to you, who I really don't even need to be dealing w/) I did apologize to him for being so blunt in those threads; but I also said it was that way because I couldn't get any (reasonable) correspondence from them. And here's one for you; Lucky understood and apologized to me for that. He explained that they've been super busy but that he would focus on this from that point forward.

And he has, and since that point I haven't made any statements regarding ARD beyond the one I linked (and aside from proving myself to someone that really had no vested interest in the matter).

Is that good enough for you? Or do you need more justification??

[mattsk8]

I'm still curious exactly what you're looking for here? Should I say, "I'm sorry for the things I said about ARD" because I found out my vacuum lines were switched?? My issues were never w/ the performance aspect of my tune, and I admitted that I couldn't get to that point because something's wrong w/ my car (whether tune or mechanical). After going through what went I through w/ the transmission tune and ARD originally, then getting the message that my ECU may have been fried during the write process, how would you have responded Burn-E?? I started wondering what I got myself into at that point. But at this point now, aside from needing to go though this crap w/ you, I'm finally moving forward w/ this and I've been very transparent about all of it.

So how's about letting me know what it is you're looking for exactly in this apology. To be even clearer (ironically I think when you went on your quote search you left this one out), somewhere along the way I also said that my issues might very well be mechanical and that's the whole reason I didn't want to post in the actual "ARD Review" thread; I said I'm not ready because I haven't even begun to know how this tune works.

And here's another; I don't even know (short of now having a functioning boost gauge) what was fixed and what wasn't. The car might still throw an overboost CEL for all I know, and I might still have a hesitation at 2500 RPM. So wouldn't addressing everything at this point be a little premature??