Sale by deception is wrong and it happens all the time. Hey, I'm a mechanic so I live with customer distrust and fear every day. There are people that think "Hey, for the cheap price of that chip it's worth trying." Others just don't believe the cost for a real tune is justified. Then there are people that just don't know enough to learn the difference. It's digital snake oil and it's going to continue as long as people want an easy way out. I spend much more time educating people than I ever did tuning. That's the only way to make a difference.What really get's me is old TBI chips being sold with fancy names and guys swear there butt dyno was major improvement, so they preach how wonderful the $200 spent was. When it is pointed out that there are not enough changes on the chip to amount to anything? And were decieved! They don't beleive and continue to promote sales of a worthless chip. This has been going on 15 years!
Story time.
Two summers ago a guy came down with a pretty rough 1/2 ton 350 Chevy vortec. Lotsa mods for more air in and out but nothing inside the engine. "Make it magic... I just don't feel the power." I said I couldn't do it and neither could anyone else since he hadn't done enough to make any real power. Round and round we went, back and forth, until I finally convinced him he needed real changes to make a real difference. But he wasn't going to go without a change. "I go to mud bogs with this and I need more power." Folks, it was nearly stock. He asked about pulling torque management out and I replied that it was possible but did he have his replacement transmission ready? "I'm gonna swap to manual anyway so it doesn't matter." Caution again... the trans will blow. The odometer is at 200k and this is a 4L60E. You will lose the trans. I can't say when but I promise it will be sooner rather than later. "I've got a meet this weekend and I've got the other trans so it's ok." I did the change along with a couple other things related to his modifications but I told him "No charge because I don't want you to be upset that you paid for a blown transmission. Come back when you make the engine changes and we'll make a real calibration." Next day he called me on his way to the meet. "This thing's awesome! It shifts so hard! It's great!!!" I asked if he really thought so and he did. I asked if he felt the trans would last and he told me it was probably stronger than I thought. I said "Ok, you seem to know your truck. But I'd make sure I brought a tow strap." I ran into him about a year later. He'd blown the trans on the way back. His buddies tried to tell him I did the tune wrong and the fact that I knew it was going to blow up and never charged him just proved it. I asked what he thought and he said he was pissed for a while but then he realized I was probably right and deep down he know the trans wasn't going to last on the stock tune. But he didn't trust the computer stuff anyway so he pulled the efi and installed a carb. He just needed someone to do the tune. "No problem. I do those too. Here's what ya need" and I laid out a list of changes he should make to his carb.
Now here's the thing. In the end, it was the owner that asked for torque management removal. He agreed trans would blow. He was disappointed when his unfounded faith in his miracle trans and engine mods proved baseless. And he decided not to trust EFI because it didn't do what he felt it should have. I presented all the facts and warnings I could but in the face of it all, he just felt the world was going to work in his favor. There's no amount of talking that will fix that. If I'd wanted to work with him hand in hand, call up often and be involved with his truck, I could have kept him on the right path and kept his faith in electronic modifications alive. But that's not my gig anymore so there's an unhappy customer. But you know, he wasn't screwed and he'll tell you that. He had fun for a little bit until his trans blew. And, he recommended me to a couple of guys who were interested in making serious changes so that tells me he decided it wasn't my fault. I think it beats the heck out of screwing a pile of people for a little bit of cash.
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