Fuego Tuner...FYI

[Jimrocc]

I purchased the Fuego tuner so I could tune my car and tune my son's mustanguntilhe gets his own.[/align]I know you can only do one car at a time and I knew this when I bought the tuner.[/align][/align]This is what I didn't know.[/align]Ireturned my car back to stock and decided to tune my son's mustang.[/align]When I tried to tune his car, the tuner said "CHANGE VEHICLES? 4 CHANGES LEFT".[/align]I called Granatelli and thetech asked one of his engineers and told me to ignore the message,[/align]I have unlimited tunes. If I have any more problems, give him a call."[/align]Now after 5 vehicle changes, the tuner is lock to one car. I cannot use the tuner on any other car.[/align]I called Granatelli andtold the techabout the problem. The techtalked to one of his programmers[/align]and told me this is something new that they are doing.[/align][/align]I'm in the process of trying to return the tuner. If I knew this tuner was limited to 5 vehicle changes only,[/align]I wouldn'thavebought the tuner. Iwould have bought an SCT or Diablo.[/align]

This ad is not displayed to registered or logged-in members. Register your free account today and become a member on Mustang Forums!

[xbone]

Thought Granatelli bypassed the tuners by changing the MAF. Get a SCT2 and leave the Fuegos to Renault.

[jmk3]

I believe SCT can only tune 3 cars (vin #). Unlimited tunes on each car. Granatelli is being generous with 5 vin #'s.

[Orion_240]

it sounds like it would give unlimited tunes but you jumped between cars. Sounds like it's meant to be used on one car only, then sold to be used on the next car.
You'd think for the price of a tuner you could use it on both of your cars...
Send that fuego to Tierra Del Fuego!

[cliffyk]

I've got one (Fuego) on order, should come next week, and whilethis is not horribly upsetting news it still ticks me off because there is no mention of this limitation on either Granatelli's site ot that of the vendor from whom I purchased the unit.It would seem we need to realign our thinking (and the vendors needs to be more forthright in their advertising) as these are not tools inany classic sense.[/align][/align]My point is thatI can buy one set of wrenches and repair as many cars as I care to, but these so-called flash "tools" are really limited lifespan add-ons--I guess if youspread the $300 I paidover the time I plan on owning my '03 it's a lot less than many other things I'll be buying (like gasoline...). It isnonetheless quite annoying that the makers of these devices are being such @$$-holes about limiting their use, second owner support (Diablosport offers NONE),etc.[/align]

[lugnut]

Thats one of thier selling points for there tuner they claim you can use it in your truck and then pull it out and then use it in your mustang. Check there web sit and watch the little video they have. JR's claims this in the video.

I think its stuff like this is why so many people stay away from Granatelli products[sm=smiley21.gif]

http://www.granatellimotorsports.com

[cliffyk]

I agree, the video implies and outright states capabilities and functionality that don't seem to be there (as in "the last tuner you'll ever have to buy"). In addition, I have read a number of postings indicating that Granatelli "speaks with forked tongue"--he's all smiles and wonderment talking to the cutie in the video, we'll see. [/align][/align]I plan on publishing a very forthright review of the Fuego once I've used it a bit...[/align][/align]

[Jimrocc]

Thats one of thier selling points for there tuner they claim you can use it in your truck and then pull it out and then use it in your mustang. Check there web sit and watch the little video they have. JR's claims this in the video.

I have nothing against Granatelli products. I have there CAI and I am very happy with it.
When I used the tuner, I did feel a performance gain.
I just wanted to let others know about the vehicle limitation and not assume as I did after
watching the video.

[oldschoolera]

I also have a Granatelli CAI and have been considering whether or not to purchase their tuner. How much horsepower increase, if any, did you notice after retuning? Are you tuned for 91 or 93 octane?

I spoke with a rep at Granatelli and was told to expect about 5 to 10 additional horsepower over the gain from their CAI.

[cliffyk]

I got it this afternoon and the inital attempt to fire it up resulted in a "Could not locate memory card" error--great, good to know my luck is intact...[/align][/align]However, being an intrepid sort I pulled the back cover off (3 screws) and removed and reseated the flash card (it's just a plain ol' 128 MB MMC card), and powered it up--success, a Granatelli logo and a splash of "music" greeted me. BTW, it will power up when you hook up a USB A-B cable to your PC; Win XP's PnP thinks it's a USB-->Serial device and will load the proper drivers from the 'net if you let it. It came up as COM4 on my machine.[/align][/align]So, I hooked it up to my '03 GT and selected Program Vehicle|Standard Program|Gas Car|Mustang|1998-2004|4.6L GT from the drill-down menus--the first time it downloaded and verified the stock tune, howeverthen things deviated completely from the pathetic documentation supplied with the unit (and available on Granatelli's site as manual77_fuego.pdf). [/align][/align]I got the Turn the key OFF|Press <ENT> message, but then an immediate instruction to turn the key ON, and it began loading the "standard" tune (after verifying the stock image on the memory card). No options to select, no "Ready to Program" or cancel/start options, it just did it...[/align][/align]I called Granatelli's support at this point, and a very pleaeant and helpful fellow told me that was the way it worked "on some cars,,," with the standard program option, he also verfied that firmware version 0.28 is the current version (as an IT guy that bothers me because usually anthing less that 0.90 is not even a release candidate)--nonetheless I fired her up and went for a short cruise, the good part here is WOW!!![/align][/align]The old butt dyno was impressed right off the bat, much stronger pull at the low-end and it really tugs from 3500 RPM up to the rev-limiter. You can tell from the exhaust note that the timing is much more aggressive, and it's got to be dumping a lot more fuel in there under load as well, pretty impressive for right out of the box. This was using 93 octane fuel (we are blessed with that here in FL), my only other mods are a UPR X-pipe and Magnaflows, a ProProducts/TrickFlow upper plenum(stock TB for now), and a custom coupling 'twixt the OEM airbox and the hole in the fender.[/align][/align]I did check out the Advanced Program options, that's where all the goodies shown in the PDF file live. An asterisk next to a setting (also the first one displayed) indicates thedefaultstandard tunesetting, any quantifiable settings indicate the deviation from Granatelli's tune. The only thing I've changed so far was to turn off the traction control. This is a semi-permanent changes as it also disables the traction control switch.[/align][/align]The data logging capability is unimpressive from what I've seen (throttle position, load, ETC temp. IAT, and one or two other largely useless bits of info are displayed on the LCD), and there doesn't seem to be anyway to get the logged data out of the unit.[/align][/align]I'll play with it some more and post a more complete review on my website--I got the unit for $299 with free shipping from NewEraPerformance on eBay--I'm pleased with it, not thrilled but quite pleased...[/align][/align][/align]