Sooo....what's Going On With Lucky?

[Burn-E]

Matt, tell your story and don't worry about +1 or -1. I don't suspect you were dinged for spelling out your results.

[mattsk8]

I was under the impression that the 70 hp increase of the blue tune is assuming you are upgrading to an 18/19T from a 15g/16T.

Taken from here... http://www.eurosporttuning.com/volvo/engine/ecu-upgrade.html

ARD Blue Tune runs at 18psi of boost (HPT) and is intended for cars with either the 18T,19T, or K24 turbo

(which would include a 99 V70R, which is what I have)

Typical gain 62 WHP

That's WHP, which would be all of a 70 hp gain at the crank, probably more. Making mine all of 317hp (at the crank) after the Blue Tune.

[Oreo931]

I'm not taking sides in this, but there are some pretty serious accusations being made in the SS and t5d5 threads. I'm curious to hear Lucky's response.

[Dick Dastardly]

Matt, tell your story and don't worry about +1 or -1. I don't suspect you were dinged for spelling out your results.

I hit -1 by mistake. I'll own that

[Dick Dastardly]

I'm curious who gave me the -1. Why? Is it because I spoke the truth? I'm not out to slander anyone, just being honest. $770 is a lot of money and its not like I picked up a tornado air filter expecting 50hp gains and 20% better mileage. I needed this tune to make my manual swap work. I got my ECM out to ARD right when I started this project back in Oct and just got my car going for the first time last night, and all because of the tune. And that's after I argued back and forth w/ his wife that I'm really not a complete idiot, and I'm sure my wiring is good. But, just to be sure, I double and triple checked my wiring to be certain (including pulling everything back apart that was already put together).

When I first plugged the ECM in and it didn't work, the next day I gave a call and I was told Lucky would be in touch, 4-5 hours go by and no call. So I try to call back and it just rings and rings. I keep trying to call and finally Lucky's wife answered and started arguing w/ me about how she's sure it wasn't anything w/ the tune. Then she tells me when I started this whole process I did get the email that it would be 24-48 hours before I heard back. After she explained that to me she enlightened me to the fact that I'm not their only customer. That's all fine if you're someone w/ a question about whether or not this or that will work, but that doesn't work if you've paid ($770) for your part and something's wrong w/ it, anyone in their right mind will want some action taken right away.

I'm still concerned about the tune to be honest. As stated before, once everyone finally realized it was the tune I was told it was probably related to how I connected the battery, or my ECM is bad, or there was a slim chance something possibly went wrong on their end. Whatever... He tested it in a car there and it worked; I got it installed in my car and my car revs beyond 4k finally. But again, I'm being honest about the fact that I'm not feeling a 70hp increase.

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.

This is very similar to mine.. I have more to add but I'm mobile tonight and with my son so I don't have a ton of time.

The curt response from "Michelle" was what really got me The first time

[Tightmopedman9]

I've stayed mum about this topic for a while since I didn't want to sully ARD's reputation when many customers seem satisfied with the services he provides. However, I do have some relevant information that I think I should flush out.

When Lucky first starting offering tunes for 850's he offered the 'ARDVARC' cable so that you could flash M4.3 in-situ. The 'ARDVARC' cable was just a standard VAG-COM cable. The communication protocol and GUI for flashing were taken straight from MotronicSuite. He didn't even bother to change the packaging of the software to make it look any different. I have a screen shot to prove it.

In one of his first threads, I believe it was 'Ard Tune' he flat out lied, multiple times. One instance:

I have updated info regarding a new product we're about to launch next week. I've been re-writing the OBDII sub-routines for all ARD Tunes since the very first one went out the door so as to put PID requests as the top interrupt. Meaning with our new product data logging resolution through OBDII will finally be fast enough to actually give me data to adjust or re-tune folks Ecu's without the need for a dyno plot.

I personally took a look at a black tune created after he had said this. I was horrified that such a shoddy tune was being pawned off for that amount of money.

• The PID request routine was exactly the same.
• Even though it was claimed to be tuned for larger injectors and a larger MAF, the injection constant and MAF table weren't even touched!!!! For comparison, within 3 days of dicking around I found the injection constant, but a professional tuner had left it unchanged?
• The person's car who was tuned complained of terrible drive ability issues, no wonder, but Lucky was unable to help, due to his deficient lack of knowledge.

I'm confident that ARD's quality of tunes increased as we posted open development in the 'Tuner's Rejoice' thread.

With all that said, off the shelf, plug-n-play tunes do not work! Even if ARD was the best tuner in the world he would not be able to offer an off the shelf tune for somebody with anything other than a slightly more than stock setup. I think this is where a lot of people get held up. They think they can just fill out a 'build sheet' and get a tune sent to their door that will work 100% properly for their setup. I can tell you first hand that it can takes 10's even 100's of iterations to get a tune correct on a highly modified car. I think ARD needs to be more upfront with this and have a way to dynamically work with people's setups remotely.

[z31jaime]

Lucky+1 ARD-1

Lucky was never Rude to me, but I will NEVER EVER by anything from him again. After a year of replacing parts I still can't get his Green tune to run correctly in my 95t5 or my 96t5. I was in contact with him and Nick the entire year and asked for suggestions and ideas. And they always had something to try...but after a year of thrashing...... When I requested a new tune I was given the $75 per hour line for testing. I could understand this if I came clear out of Left field a year later and said WTF... but for a year I Have been changing parts on not 1 but 2 Volvo, and you can't "suck it up" and just exchange it, for the "stand behind your product" aspect of it? When I talked to Lucky he said he reviewed my File and everything looks fine, but its $75 per hour of testing if my ECU is fine.... WHY???? if you have my Tune on File Blow that sumbitch into another ECU and exchange it....WTF testing is needed? your not loosing inventory...your not re flashing... its just an exchange. if your really out of money charge me a "restocking" fee.......but $75 for testing without a LIMIT on how much its going to be????? come on.

reply from Lucky to my email expressing the feelings above....

Robert Arnold

To Me

Nov 18

Jamie,

If an ECU is sent back to us for a warranty related claim we test it on our end to see if we can replicate the issues at hand or to see if anything else has failed with the unit itself. If the unit has failed then there is NO charge to you as this would fall under our warranty policy and we will send you another ECU with your tuned file. If however we find that there is nothing wrong with the ECU unit itself then the $75 testing fee will be charged to you. This fee takes into account the time spent to test and examine the ECU to find any faults or issues. Again this will only be charged to you if we cannot find anything wrong with the ECU itself.

We have reviewed your file again, and again the issue is not with the tune. That being said we are more than willing to take a look at the ECU itself to make sure that this is not a failed unit.

Let me know how you would like to proceed.

Thank you!

Michele Arnold

ARD Tuning

What i got from that was............................ JAIME.... we do UN-NEED testing for anyone who wants to exchange a suspected bad tune, so that we can charge them more money.

I want to Know EXACTLY what testing you do? do you have an 850 in every single configuration with every single brand of part, and drop it in the one that's EXACTLY like mine? And drive around? or do you just look at a screen and say... well that looks like what I typed in the map... my map is what I THINK IT SHOULD BE.... so its Fine.

I ended up having someone local try the tune and although it did build 17psi+ in their car , I still can't get it to work on either of my cars... 1 with full supporting mods (which the tune was built for) and 1 bone stock. stage zero and a MBC..... that's it. I should notice SOME change between the 2... but I don't they both LOOSE HP with the tune. Which makes it useless to me........

Its sad when a $20 R ecu from the junk yard runs better in your car than the $300+ Green tune.

The sad part is, EVEN IF 1 DAY i prove the tune is bad/wrong for my car his $75 per hour testing....and his policy of If HE finds something wrong with it he will exchange it, means I'll just be giving him the tune back and him keeping it and not refunding a dime... as I hear he has already done with others.....

[Volante]

Few months ago I buyed an ARD Blue tune. Car seemed to be running fine at first, but there were some issues. When I got the car on the dyno those issues got confirmed.

Lucky is a nice dude, don't get me wrong, we mailed many times and he replied all the times. We thought it was an hardware issue. I replaced many things but the problems were still there. So i got to an other company in my own country for an second opinion. Turns out that it was the software all along. The car was running way to rich on idle and had mayor power fluctuations.

I'm running their software now and all problems are gone.

My car had more then a few upgrades and when you have, I recommend you get an 'custom' tune so it's really made for your car. Not a 'custom' tune that can be applied on every car, every car is different. Or at least choose a tuner that is not outside your country so you can visit and check for problems.

[flyfishing3]

. Why is he still driving around with an ARD windshield banner?

probably an attempt to get the promised horsepower he never got?

nothing else, just going for the funny.

[TBM]

Are most of the problems people have been having related to custom tunes (upgraded turbos, injectors, etc).

I have an 03 V70 T5 and was looking into getting a Green (17psi) tune from Lucky, but this thread is scary.

[Fudge_Brownie]

It'd be great if someone started a review thread. Lot of information here that'll get kinda lost. If you quote your own post, it makes it easy to paste it in another part of VS.

Obviously some people are having problems. But It would be interesting to see everyone report in a review thread and see what percentage of people's reviews are negative vs. positive.

[Commander Riker]

I've stayed mum about this topic for a while since I didn't want to sully ARD's reputation when many customers seem satisfied with the services he provides. However, I do have some relevant information that I think I should flush out.

When Lucky first starting offering tunes for 850's he offered the 'ARDVARC' cable so that you could flash M4.3 in-situ. The 'ARDVARC' cable was just a standard VAG-COM cable. The communication protocol and GUI for flashing were taken straight from MotronicSuite. He didn't even bother to change the packaging of the software to make it look any different. I have a screen shot to prove it.

In one of his first threads, I believe it was 'Ard Tune' he flat out lied, multiple times. One instance:

I personally took a look at a black tune created after he had said this. I was horrified that such a shoddy tune was being pawned off for that amount of money.

• The PID request routine was exactly the same.
• Even though it was claimed to be tuned for larger injectors and a larger MAF, the injection constant and MAF table weren't even touched!!!! For comparison, within 3 days of dicking around I found the injection constant, but a professional tuner had left it unchanged?
• The person's car who was tuned complained of terrible drive ability issues, no wonder, but Lucky was unable to help, due to his deficient lack of knowledge.

I'm confident that ARD's quality of tunes increased as we posted open development in the 'Tuner's Rejoice' thread.

With all that said, off the shelf, plug-n-play tunes do not work! Even if ARD was the best tuner in the world he would not be able to offer an off the shelf tune for somebody with anything other than a slightly more than stock setup. I think this is where a lot of people get held up. They think they can just fill out a 'build sheet' and get a tune sent to their door that will work 100% properly for their setup. I can tell you first hand that it can takes 10's even 100's of iterations to get a tune correct on a highly modified car. I think ARD needs to be more upfront with this and have a way to dynamically work with people's setups remotely.

This makes me want to tackle tuning for myself. Might have to look for another M4.4 Turbo ECU... then I can compare against the ARD blue tune.

However... I feel I have witnessed off the shelf plug n play tunes that did work. I know when scandalo got an IPD stage 3 tune for his 98 T5M with the 18T... I could smell a difference and feel it in the but dyne. Surely it's not a accurate as dyno or street tuning, for sure.

[mattsk8]

This makes me want to tackle tuning for myself. Might have to look for another M4.4 Turbo ECU... then I can compare against the ARD blue tune.

However... I feel I have witnessed off the shelf plug n play tunes that did work. I know when scandalo got an IPD stage 3 tune for his 98 T5M with the 18T... I could smell a difference and feel it in the but dyne. Surely it's not a accurate as dyno or street tuning, for sure.

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.

[Tightmopedman9]

If anyone is interested I could offer tunes with re-tunes via logged parameters. I've done about 12 tunes for people so far and have been able to dial things in pretty well after a few revisions.

[quiksilver]

Not to take a side, but why did these people decide to stay in the woodwork?

This is an enthusiast forum, if you found something good or particularly terrible, say so and help out the community.