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

[Che'_Moderator]

I would say it's either because A) the accusations against him and his tuning methods are true and he has no viable response which will satisfy the people who are dissatisfied with his services, or B.) he is simply not good at dealing with the stress caused by the sh- storm he is experiencing in light of the negative feedback he is receiving. There are some people who simply can't handle stress when it begins mount in a situation like this, and simply shut-off. I'd like to believe this is the case, given the fact he has always been very cordial, timely, and willing to help in our interactions. However, given his bland response in this thread and the fact that he has yet to provide a clear and definitive answer I'm tempted to say it is the former rather than the latter. Customer satisfaction should be number one in a small niche business such as ARD, and part of that is addressing and sorting out issues such as those brought up here and on other forums. I feel that in avoiding the issue he is really just allowing his business to crash into the ground.

/End of rant

Chris

C) He's busy with work and trying to help behind customers the scene to get everything back on track. Using your logic and inferential statistics, we could conclude that Microsoft has the same two issues your cited every time they do not answer a problem directly that someone posts on yahoo answers.

See a lot of ambitious issues here. Someone who has actually been jerked around should posts actual emails to show us an example. The letting the imagination run wild game is getting boring on page 9.

[rmorse]

C) He's busy with work and trying to help behind customers the scene to get everything back on track. Using your logic and inferential statistics, we could conclude that Microsoft has the same two issues your cited every time they do not answer a problem directly that someone posts on yahoo answers.

See a lot of ambitious issues here. Someone who has actually been jerked around should posts actual emails to show us an example. The letting the imagination run wild game is getting boring on page 9.

Here you go.

From SS:

http://forums.swedespeed.com/showthread.php?203169-Tune-maps-from-my-dyno-tune

Fueling is barely changed called KFLBTS - high EGT enrichment, there is another map that IS modified called LAMFA, fueling based on TPS

KFMIOP - OPTIMUM torque

KFMIRL - REQUESTED LOAD

both unchanged, and must be changed

the wrong RPM limit is changed

KFZW = ignition timing, unchanged

[Che'_Moderator]

So this is third party?

[mattsk8]

I'm going to wait to post any kind of review in the ARD review thread until I get all this sorted out, but I will say this...

As stated already, I only got my Blue tune because I had to. I needed the manual tune to make my manual swap work. I didn't have any time to research the ins and outs, and I'll be the first to admit that I didn't know fully if my car wasn't at stage 0 when I got the tune; I knew I had some vacuum leaks but I fixed all of them during the trans swap.

That said, my issues w/ ARD are as follows. IMO, they just went for the money. I didn't get any kind of warning from them, or even any direction. Actually the ONLY direction (short of really dumb, generic responses), was from you guys here. More-so, when I first called ARD I spoke w/ Lucky and he told me I could EITHER get the manual tune for $250, or if I got the manual and the Blue tune I could save some money by getting both at the same time. Then Michelle sends me an email stating that I couldn't get the manual tune unless I also got a performance tune as well. (Shady business practice #1)

So I was faced w/ putting another auto trans in this car (and there was no way around it, my transmission died), or getting the full package from ARD and forging ahead w/ my manual swap because to the best of knowledge, ARD is the only place I could find that did manual tunes for ME7. I figured forging ahead was the right thing to do because I eventually planned on doing these things anyhow; just not at the moment because I knew there was a LOT of research and upgrades that should be done before I got any kind of performance tune. Which brings me to shady business practice #2...

When I called ARD, no one explained any of this, they didn't even ask any questions, all they did was take my money. If the levity of getting something like this done to your car (especially when they knew the only reason I was getting this tune was because they kind of forced me into it), someone should've spoke up at ARD. Maybe mention, you'll want to check this, this, this, this, and this before you go ahead w/ the tune. Before anyone drops the 'it says stage 0 on their website', I didn't have a CEL and to the best of knowledge the only issues I had were w/ my vacuum lines. I had one CEL come on one time for a rear o2 sensor but short of that, my car seemed good. Taking my money w/ no direction what-so-ever is shady business practice #2.

Shady business practice #3... Now that I'm committed to this (I have roughly $1300 into all the components for the manual swap, plus another $770 for this tune), I get everything in and together and my car doesn't rev beyond 4k rpm. EVERYONE here says "tuning issue" right away, so I call ARD. First I get the "Let's find out if this guys a retard so we can try to get out of doing anything" response. Then when I'm persistent, I get "You're not our only customer". At this point I'm starting to get pretty pissed, because not only did I just pay $770 for this, I've also invested $1300 into the other components and this tune is the only way to pull it all together. So, being persistent, I continue to call. That's when Michelle starts arguing w/ me some more, even telling me it can't be the tune because "Lucky definitely knows what he's doing" (I'm guessing this statement was made by her to infer that I don't have a clue, and it must still be something on my end). Whatever, I'm still persistent. After emailing LOTS of pics of my wiring job (which if anyone's done this swap, you know its not rocket science), I STILL get "You should check your wiring" from them as a response. Are you f'ing kidding me?? Aren't you the Volvo guru?? You can't look at this wiring in these pics and conclude that its all good?? Whatever... somehow we worked thru all the BS and finally got to the point where he was willing to let me send my ECM back because it might be the reason why the car wasn't right (Ya think??).

ECM goes back, and they find out its the tune that's bad (WOW, what a revelation!)... I get it back and plug it in and it now revs beyond 4k rpm. So I send an email stating "It works" and this is the response I get; "Glad to hear it's working for you, that said I'm thinking that ECU may have some issue... not 100% certain it's going to fail but the IMMO eeprom was partly corrupt, perhaps from short circuit during the write process.. hard to say for sure."

At this point I still don't know what that means. But having paid $770 for this tune, I'm now stuck w/ what exactly?? Is this a ticking time bomb? I don't dare to drive this car any distance because my "ECU may have some issue". I still haven't received a good response to this. IMO, if there's a chance that eeprom is corrupt because it short circuited during the write process, ARD needs to send me an ECU that I can have confidence in.

This is where it stands now. I have some drivablity issues that I haven't even addressed yet (weird hesitation and I got an overboost CEL), that weren't there before I got this tune. I'm getting a boost gauge today, and I guess the saga continues.

Just to be clear, I haven't even begun to wonder what I paid for when I got this "performance tune" yet. I don't want to take it to the wheel dyno until I get all these other issues sorted because I'd be lighting the $100 fee for a dyno run on fire if I know the car isn't running 100%.

Also, just FYI because I don't think I mentioned it, while I was doing the manual swap I replaced all the vacuum lines that weren't replaced, as well as a few other things. I didn't put new o2 sensors in, but my sensors are functioning fine (to the best of my knowledge). To get to a true stage 0, I still need to test my fuel pressure, which I'll do soon. I'm ordering a boost gauge today.

Edited December 13, 2013 by mattsk8

[Burn-E]

I'm curious how many of the people who are posting about how the tunes aren't significantly changed over the stock settings have actually compared stock to other off the shelf tunes from IPD, RICA, etc?

I can appreciate that looking at the settings and saying, "Gee that didn't change much," can seem damning but it only goes so far without additional baselines to compare. We're getting deeper into the weeds than I expect most commenting here have the competency to actually have something useful to contribute.

Don't parrot to me what you read somewhere else - I'm interested in hearing from those who actually have sufficient understanding of the mapping AND have examined other off the shelf tunes.

I'm an interested potential buyer but I want to see actual evidence that substantiates the claims. It's clear that Lucky has issues with customer service. It's probable he has overstated his capabilities and what his tunes actually do. But it's not been truly demonstrated yet that he's actually doing something other so called reputable off the shelf tuners aren't doing.

[rmorse]

So this is third party?

Click the link. I copied and pasted directly from the owner of the ARD tune, who did the research. It's his words, his pictures, and I supplied the source. Are you really going to try and discredit it, because it's "third party?" This wasn't a "I heard someone compared the tunes, and didn't notice a difference." It's the *actual logs*.

[mattsk8]

I'm curious how many of the people who are posting about how the tunes aren't significantly changed over the stock settings have actually compared stock to other off the shelf tunes from IPD, RICA, etc?

I can appreciate that looking at the settings and saying, "Gee that didn't change much," can seem damning but it only goes so far without additional baselines to compare. We're getting deeper into the weeds than I expect most commenting here have the competency to actual have something useful to contribute.

Don't parrot to me what you read somewhere else - I'm interested in hearing from those who actually have sufficient understanding of the mapping AND have examined other off the shelf tunes.

I'm an interested potential buyer but I want to see actual evidence that substantiates the claims. It's clear that Lucky has issues with customer service. It's probable he has overstated his capabilities and what his tunes actually do. But it's not been truly demonstrated yet that he's actually doing something other so called reputable off the shelf tuners aren't doing.

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.

Edited December 26, 2013 by mattsk8

[Che'_Moderator]

Click the link. I copied and pasted directly from the owner of the ARD tune, who did the research. It's his words, his pictures, and I supplied the source. Are you really going to try and discredit it, because it's "third party?" This wasn't a "I heard someone compared the tunes, and didn't notice a difference." It's the *actual logs*.

So yes. Third party.

Mattsk8, good post.

[rmorse]

So yes. Third party.

Mattsk8, good post.

LOL. Yea, completely different.

[rmorse]

I'm curious how many of the people who are posting about how the tunes aren't significantly changed over the stock settings have actually compared stock to other off the shelf tunes from IPD, RICA, etc?

I can appreciate that looking at the settings and saying, "Gee that didn't change much," can seem damning but it only goes so far without additional baselines to compare. We're getting deeper into the weeds than I expect most commenting here have the competency to actually have something useful to contribute.

Don't parrot to me what you read somewhere else - I'm interested in hearing from those who actually have sufficient understanding of the mapping AND have examined other off the shelf tunes.

I'm an interested potential buyer but I want to see actual evidence that substantiates the claims. It's clear that Lucky has issues with customer service. It's probable he has overstated his capabilities and what his tunes actually do. But it's not been truly demonstrated yet that he's actually doing something other so called reputable off the shelf tuners aren't doing.

Again, look at my post above and click the link. The owner is not a volvospeed member, but is active on swedespeed. That link will bring you to his thread, where you can directly ask him any question you want.

Apparently that's "third party" though.

[mattsk8]

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 because you think my ECU might still be fried. 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.

Edit: I purchased a used ECU and ARD is going to clone mine so I have a spare (free of charge). Thanks ARD.

Edited December 26, 2013 by mattsk8

[98glt-5]

I don't post a lot but the "third party" who supplied those maps knows ME7 very very well and has spend hundreds of hours tuning both of my cars, as well as his own. I'm trying to get him to post on here to clear some things up and get some concrete evidence instead of hearsay.

[(n)A-GAME]

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.

Tell your guy if he wants to experiment with Volvos I would be interested in buying/bringing my car there to have work done and/or supplying donor ECUs for him to mess around with. I know several other locals who probably would too. Maybe an economy of scale will make it worthwhile for him.

[mattsk8]

Tell your guy if he wants to experiment with Volvos I would be interested in buying/bringing my car there to have work done and/or supplying donor ECUs for him to mess around with. I know several other locals who probably would too. Maybe an economy of scale will make it worthwhile for him.

I'm definitely working on that. Unfortunately (probably because he's so good at what he does), he's not in "build and expand" mode because he already has plenty of business. This is where I need to convince him that its the right thing to do!! I'll definitely keep everyone here posted if there's a development there.

I can say this, the $25 I paid here for my yearly membership was worth every penny. W/out you guys, I'd be lost and this 99 V70r would for sure be in a scrap yard by now.

[Yosser]

I'm curious how many of the people who are posting about how the tunes aren't significantly changed over the stock settings have actually compared stock to other off the shelf tunes from IPD, RICA, etc?

I can't/won't answer for others but can answer on my own behalf.

I have only compared the ARD blue tune to the stock S70R tune. All that was changed was the boost map 'required pressure ratio'.

I have no idea what other tuners change and, to be fair, the off the shelf ones that you cite probably aren't that much different. Personally, I wasn't interested in making comparisions with other tuners. I bought into Robert as a straight up guy with skills and knowledge that would exceed the offerings that were otherwise available (through tuners like those you mentioned). I assumed that the ARD product would be better than the others, so if I were to make a comparison with these other tunes and find the same then that would not serve to assuage my disappointment.

Over the course of all this I have spoken with quite a few people who's knowledge of tuning these cars far outstrips mine, and they were pretty much all appauled by the map that I was sold. There really should have been more to it, and even what was changed should/could have been way better.

Add to that that, despite my making a bit to bit comparison of the stock and blue tunes and finding only boost map variations, Lucky actually lies to me to tell me that he does more than that. I quote "With out going into detail of how we tune we do in fact touch more than just the boost maps". Well, not on mine you didn't.

I'm more disappointed than I am angry, but the fact that it now seems I'm not alone makes me feel slightly less of a mug.

I can't work out how to post the full comparison from tunerpro for those who are interested, so sorry about that. If I work it out then I'll post if anyone is interested.