Another COWBOY tuner? When a £25 file is billed at £600

💥 Did you know? 40% of our work involves fixing the mistakes of other tuners, often the mobile ones! 🚗 Today, we're correcting what is an expensive "tune" gone wrong. 😬

This Ford Ranger Wildcat had an engine and gearbox tune done by a mobile "Ford Ranger Specialist" in 2022.
Since then, it's been plagued with gear shifting issues. Despite attempts to fix it, the problems just kept coming back.
To make matters worse, the customer couldn’t even book another appointment until December! 😩

When we took a look, we found several issues with the previous tune:
🔧 They couldn’t provide the original file, just an encrypted one and an VBF (dealer tool binary file) file for the wrong software version! Looked to me like the one they sent us was from a Slave tool file (considering it had slave in the title) so no doubt little more than £25 file pretending to be a £600 custom one!
🔧 The EGR wasn’t switched off correctly.
🔧 DPF error codes were disabled, but the DPF is still in place, and torque reduction for high exhaust back pressure was also turned off.
🔧 Torque limiters were removed entirely, I suspect the main cause of the gearbox issues.
🔧 Lots and Lots of basic maps missed
🔧 Very little had been done in the way of meaningful gearbox tuning, just basic software update and I struggled to see any evidence of any beneficial gearbox mod.
🔧 OBD reading was completely disabled, so we had to go into boot mode! We tried: Flex, Kess3, AT, CMD FlashTec, HP Tuners and none could read it over the OBD! So boot mode it was!

I know some tuning centres like to flash the ECU to the latest software, I don’t. Why? You run the risk of introducing newer tuning protection and to be quite frank we’ve got a database of the original software here. We can simply take the software version that’s applied, and we can reverse it back to stock with a little bit of effort. Unless there is some known reason to use newer software (like a bug fix) normally software updates relate to tuning protection and emission issues.
I don't think a Ford/Factory software would have worked either as the other tuner actually advertises that he disables that ability to prevent the map being flashed over during recalls/dealer visits.

After sorting through the mess, the car is driving much smoother now. But honestly, it’s clear the original tuner cut a lot of corners, leaving the customer with issues and no support. What you find with nearly all mobile tuners is they use Slave tools and buy in maps from a third party, never really knowing what mods are being done.

👉 If you're considering mobile tuning, think twice! While it can go smoothly, many mobile tuners aren’t prepared to support their work long-term. If something goes wrong, it often results in long delays or costly call-out fees.

The fact that so many customers end up coming to us to fix these problems says a lot. There are plenty of reputable local tuning shops like ours that offer better service, proper skills, and the support you deserve. Don't fall for cheap fixes that could cost you more in the long run!

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