Has anyone had a good experience spending less than $600 doing a performance tune via Dongle and app? Or, have you heard of anyone using something they liked? I just want to get a bit more out of my performance...

 

Softronic really woke my car up, but it's a bit more than $600.

 

You're gonna have to spend around $1k for an established proven tuner for the 996.

 

I really have been thinking about this also. There is software where you can create your own file and flash it to the car via OBD port. The software supplier claims there are automotive engineers who specialize in making these files and they sell them cheaper than having a company like softronic sell you the software flash.

Heres a link to what im talking about:
http://www.totalcardiagnostics.com/toad/

then Tuning here: http://www.totalcardiagnostics.com/s...-cars-ecu-chip


Taken directly off site:

How Tuning Works & What's Required From You:
Yes, TOAD software can tune vehicle performance or change the way it behaves.

However, first and most important step is: You must FIRST find a tuner that supports your car model/year.

Because the tuner is what will extract the cars data to your computer, as a file.

Then you can edit this file inside TOAD editor, make changes, and upload the file back to car using the tuner.

So basically, to tune successfully you need 2 things:



TOAD Tuning Software: Allows you to edit car's ECU data. Here is a screenshot of included TOAD ECU tuning software...

ecu editing software
TOAD ECU Map Editing Software: Enlarge
It may be overwhelming at first. And it is! But an hour or two and you'll ge the hang of it.

Basically all you are doing is changing the numbers that correspond with different behaviors within the car.

Example: Torque has number 1-255. On your car, it may be currently set at 200. Well, you can increase this to 210.

The other side of tuning requires HEX editing skills. And this is the reality 95% of the time, which is ABSOLUTELY REQUIERED.

Good news is there are many online resources that will teach you about HEX. Also, TOAD will include additional resources and online forums that discusses everything related to tuning / programming.

As a final test if you are READY and WILLING, here is basics of tuning and the kind of editing skills you need to know.



TUNER KIT:

This is needed because it's purpose is to download/upload cars map file to your computer.

There's many tuners available.

Which one to get?

Whichever supports your car. They are all literally the same. Whether a tuner costs $2000 or $200, it does exactly the same thing.

So get whichever tuner supports your car. That's the only criteria to common question of "Which one do I get for my car?".

You can find the best tuners on the market here.




Seams to have a logical explanation.

 

Sounds like a gimmick to me. I can maybe see a generic diagnostics part to diagnose cars with generic codes.

I'm willing to bet $100 that this device won't be able to tune the m96, let alone read Porsche specific codes.

 

Just as a warning the tuning kits are not factory units and copies. The real ones will read and write starting at several thousand dollars typically. From my experience almost weekly they ruin the Porsche DME's, in which someone has to fix..... and I get many. As far as the other info I will let you all decide .....


Best,
Scott

 

To my knowledge they do not flash the NA 996 etc . and remote tuning wouldn't be available at an additional cost then.

 

Softronic is having a sale this weekend on all software including a cable. Special code of "FATHERS" for %15 off.