MS3 Tuner Lock
 

Hello,

I have booked my NA MX5 in to get professionally tuned and I've been told that once it's done I won't be able to change the map. They've said that if I want to "play around with it" then the map will be wiped from the ECU and I'll have to start from scratch. I'm also not allowed to stay with them at all while they are tuning the car.

I'm still learning but I'm not a complete noob when it comes to tuning my car. I bought the MS3Pro from DIYAutoTune and an AEM wideband to begin with and started learning to tune on my stock engine. I continued to use the car to learn how to tune and how to modify the engine and it's now got large cams (285/277 duration), a built head with oversized valves, COPS, is wired for sequential ignition/injection plus a lot of other things which is why I want to see what it can do once on a dyno. The car is currently running well but feels like it's lacking a bit in power because I'm trying to keep it safe. I have dialed in the VE table pretty close to where it wants to be but is still a little rich to keep it safe and have made very slight changes to the ignition table where it wanted a bit more timing but is still running pretty conservatively.

This is my first time having a car on the dyno and I didn't expect this kind of thing. I get that they would want to keep the tune locked so I don't add more timing, blow it up then blame them but I still need to be able to access other parts of the ECU.

I'm wondering if this ECU can be locked in that way? Can the file be encrypted or password protected so I can't access it at all? If it can then will it lock the whole ECU or just the ignition and VE table?

My biggest worry is that I won't be able to access the ECU at all to use the test modes when troubleshooting things or be able to tune other parts like cold starts or adjust launch control/flat shift without wiping the whole tune.

Thanks,
Aaron

TLDR, they are lying to you. Find somebody else.

Agreed. Red Flag. Stay away. What shop and what area are you in? Perhaps someone on MT can recommend a trusted tuner close to you. Otherwise, if Vlad is still offering remote tunes, you can go that route (i did) and just show up on a dyno day to re-baseline after it's all done.

... I see you....

Thank you for the replies.

I'm in Scotland and this tuner is actually very highly recommended which was why I was so surprised when I was told that the map would be locked and I can't even be there while they're tuning it. I'm assuming then that they can't lock, encrypt or password protect an MS3 map and if I get it tuned by them that I'll still have access to everything?

I looked into lots of other tuners in the area and found this one to be the most recommended for making a safe but powerful tune. If there is no way of locking me out of the tune then I'd still be happy to get it tuned by this company because of their reputation. Maybe I just need to go have more of a talk with them about it? My other issue is that there aren't really any other reliable options around me from what I've seen.

I *think* certain aspects can be locked in the firmware - specifically some emissions related stuff in the the new OBD2 compliant mslabs ms3for the NB?
Remember Jan from SPS Motorsport mentioning something like that in a previous Video.


I very much doubt that's the case with the Tuner OP mentioned though.

I'm an Aussie and one of the main reasons I wanted a MS3 over a Haltech ECU was because many Haltech tuners here lock their tunes, including the one that is just 10 minutes from my place.
- If I can't tweak it, I DON'T want it!

The tuner I'm booked in with does a large variety of cars and ECUs so I guess they haven't realised that the MS3 can't be locked out to the client. I'll go over this week and have more of a talk with them about it and see what they say. If they don't want to tune it without it being locked then I'll have to just figure something else out.

Thank you for the info guys, it's really made me less stressed about it. I'll update this post after I've talked to them about it in case anyone in the future has a problem like this.

Unless the tuner has created a custom firmware that allows locking (which is not impossible but I highly doubt he has done so), then no, the MS3 has no way of being tune-locked.