Originally Posted by
donttazmebro what's the cost of autronic down under and what's the cost to tune one?
over here I bought an AEM for $1600 USD and have to pay $1100 USD to get it tuned
the unit price is good, but yikes the tunning is outrageous
down here the autronic will go for a similar price (but you do have to wire autronics in) but you can get haltec etc with patch looms for around that same price if not cheaper
my autronic i got used for $900
thing that is big down here in the sr20det rwd scene is apexi power fc's and remaps (which basically turns ya ecu into a stand alone with a fully programmable eprom, which gets thrown on the dyno and tuned very similar to calum by the sounds of it? resolution is 16x16) but the difference here is drive into any workshop (that does remaps) with a typically modded s13/14/15 (lets just say you just put on gt2871r, step 1 cams, z32 afm, intercooler zorst the tunner will prob put the 740cc injectors in for you etc) and walk out $500-$600aus poorer, but the tuner will provide and install the eprom, tune it in real time on the dyno and send ya packing. i highly recommend these for most applications. After this initial outlay retunes are quite cheap its really the dyno time you pay for and what ever the tuners time is worth normally 200-300 all up. or you can do yourself if you are keen.
I went autronic as i will need the extra resolution for cam switchover (power fc and remaps dont have enough, even the honda power fc's have 2 maps that switch when vtec does to solve this) and auxiliaries and have greater access to some really good tuners
now one of the tuners i know that does these remaps also does mail order ones (just like you jwt set up) but even he will admit that its a real crap way of doing it as people tell him their mods and he make a conservative tune to suit. you will get more power and a safer tune when you actually put your individual car on the dyno and fine tune to its behavior
but i cant believe how many people in the states spend soooo much on a rebuild, big turbo kit, even ve head conversion etc and skimp out on the ecu. classic exapmple of this is coheed, big dollar build and all done very well but i remember reading a while back how he advanced the timing over the whole map and got more power. I was like wtf? if you get it tuned right in the first place you wont have to touch the cas or dizzy
on top of this i cant believe how much these jwt suckers go for, not that i am having a go at him as everyone loves him and gets all defensive, but for the price of your jwt, we get the chip, a tune specific to our car and dyno time to work that tune out. Where all you jwt is, is the same base tune that our tunner would program before fine tuning on the rollers, and there is big gains from this fine tunning process
i am very surprised more people dont run calum, if it is what i think it is, as imo its far superior. but by the sounds of it your tuners and dyno time dont sound cheap so i guess that must be the reason.
stand alone systems can be expensive to tune here depending on mods and the tunner, but an good tunner can be found from $400-$600 depending on the time spent on the dyno. Also if the tunner runs into problems snags etc and has to fix things etc it can be more, but if it is just a small tune then can be less also