HI guys,

I noticed there was increased interest in Softronic ECU upgrade through Vivid Racing, and I felt need to share my experience, so that you don't think it's all land of milk and honey. My experience may or may not be rare, but it's worth checking.

To start, I got ECU upgrade from Dan from Vivid Racing, Aug 2009 for my 996 Turbo.

I didn't install it until November 2009, I was both busy, and a bit careful. As if I knew... Unfortunately, my car and this software didn't like each other from the very beginning. While installing software for the first time, install failed, and 'bricked' my car. I re-tried with Dan's help, it didn't work. I pulled ECU and paid shipping both ways, and was without the car for 10 days, and had to beg in-laws for the car to not miss trip to Montreal. Neither one of these was much fun. At the time, DAN and Softronic accused me that it was my fault, somehow I screwed up the process. I never argued it, though I was livid with rage at the time, because it was not important, I just wanted solution, so I swallowed my pride. But here is the thing: I'm in software for 20 years, software is my life, I know I didn't make any mistake. It's supposed to be simple anyhow. To clarify, I don't know what the problem is, but what was happening is that process of programming is unbelievably long, it takes hours, instead of minutes... Hence my comment of program and car not liking each other. Dan and Softronic never addressed this issue.
- After install, everything went wrong with the car. Since then, until September 2010, I have driven car for maybe 30 days. I had clutch changed twice. Yup, first time is ok, mileage etc, but then brand new clutch went into pieces. My boost was showing 1.5bar. Computer did not seem ok. What fixed it in the end? Resetting ECU, by disconnecting battery. I understand some things can be attributed to the age of the car, but boost at 1.5? I had about $10000-$12000 repairs in this period, but it's hard to draw the line about what was what... O sensors, sparkplugs, clutches, pentosin reservoir (that one probably unrelated to upgrade).

- October 2010, car started working normally, after ECU was reset, but still with the programming. And then it failed drive clean test, mandatory in Ontario. When I was buying, I asked Dan if this is going to be problem and he said no. It measured 9x (800%) of CO at 2500 rpm and infinitely more at idle, compared to what it measured after original programming was restored (I'll attach scans later).

- Dan and me tried restoring original de-tuned program with Softronic ECU loader. Dan was driving the process from his computer through remote software. I asked him to do it, since I didn't want to be accused that I 'screwed' it again. It took 2.5 hours to upload original image instead of 4 minutes. My battery almost died. Battery was on a charger, and charger started switching on/off in the last 5 minutes, as it couldn't give enough current, battery was running on fumes. Few minutes more, and process would have failed, as there would not have been enough current to run ECU. And car would have been bricked again.

- Even if I don't pay attention to previous reasons, I don't want to go through this again, especially possibility of failure/shipping, being without car for days and sitting in the cold outside for hours during programming. And both me and my wife are big on env. protection. I did not want to put programming back. I personally would feel awful to do it, and it's clearly unlawful where I live.

To summarize: I cannot upgrade/downgrade reliably. It is scary for me to try as there is something that doesn't work between my car and uploader. Dan has seen that for himself. When loaded, it spews emissions real bad - it's unlawful in Ontario. Some of the repairs/damage I had to do I directly attribute to programming as it was allowing 1.5bar boost. If load/unload worked, I could have tried removing programming, but that wasn't an option available to me.

So I tried negotiating to get something from Dan. I asked first for full refund. Nope. Than for partial refund. Nope. Than, at least to fix uploader issue. Nope. And than I said, ok, forget it and give me two front rotors as I needed them anyhow. Nope. All this, with understanding that I would return license and never use program again - Softronic can make sure of that, by removing my license key in their system. Answer to ALL my requests was No, or silence. I also asked to be able to resell license. This is a program, why not? Nope.

It gets weirder. When I started sharing the story, Dan promised to share my information, in what I saw to be thinly veiled threat. Maybe not a threat, I guess we'll see his response. I may be wrong on that one... If I knew there would be interest and time, I wouldn't mind sharing all correspondence, but that is obviously not practical.

So buyer beware - software may work fine for you, but if you have issues, your pleas may fall on deaf ears. Vivid's customers seem to be polarized, many a 5 star, but not insignificant amount of 1 stars too. Check BBB, check yelp.com, check google local and please google "Vivid racing issues". Be informed customer.

As I'm afraid this thread will be closed promptly, I just want to share a touch about myself, so you understand I get software:

I am 20 years in software. Originally Electrical Engineer, I'm Director of Sw. Engineering now, and I've built domain registration system for company (OpenSRS - playing wholesale, so you wouldn't know it) that is second in the world after GoDaddy. My software handles 50000 requests per second. And, yes, we still find bugs few years old. I know a thing or two about software and how how hard is to make it work in all conditions. But, I also know how software should behave, and I did not make any mistake at any point when installing it (Dan was installing it second time, and it still took hours).To refuse t fix issues is just not responsible.

 

I promised emission document scan - here it is...

 

And you can see here one of the clutches after it exploded - it lasted 2 weeks

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48739837@N00/4725250880/

 

I'm sure you have been contacted by Bob and asked to resolve your issues with Vivid off of the board...and yet you persist without any respect for board policy...at least this post is less emotional and more factual..but there is always two sides to any story...you have had your say and you are correct this thread is going to be closed...but I will reopen it for Vivid if they wish to reply

 

Chuck, I told the OP to compose something more substantial - his posting was after discussion with me. In any case, the thread is closed.