Does anyone have experience with VRTuned ECU tunes? I am considering buying this:
https://www.vrtuned.com/shop/vr-tuned-ecu-tuning-box-kit-porsche-cayenne-s-36l-turbo-p-151359352.html?osCsid=q1jvmcego85nklm5l2sg9sg7p2

It will be for my 2015 958.2 Cayenne S. It looks a little too good to be true. More than 100 lb-ft or torque gains. Has anyone tried these and felt a dramatic change in performance? Thanks.

 

That's not an ECU tune. It sits between the ECU and other components (typically the fuel rail and sometimes the boost readings). It lies to the ECU about the information being read from sensors and lies to the attached components about what the ECU is telling them to do.

I have no experience with their boxes, but here are some things to consider off the bat:

1) Tuner boxes typically go for $300-$700 for other brand cars (e.g. BMW) for similar sized motors.

2) Other than VR all cases I'm familiar with the tuner boxes are rather conservative compared to true ECU tunes. VR claims their boxes offer bumps on par with real ECU tunes.

There is past history here so it might be worth searching my history for commentary on VR's tuner boxes and judging for yourself the weight of the rest of what I'll say.

So to my points above. What makes their box worth more than double that of comparable boxes for other brands? Is it simply that they think Porsche owners have deep pockets? Is it that there aren't really any competitors in the tuner box market so they feel they can ask what they want?

As far as the power claims, I simply don't believe them. I haven't seen any reports of people buying the unit and then doing their dyno, so all we have is their word of which I am skeptical at best.

If you Google VR you'll find a lot of bad commentary about their customer support and significant problems with some of their products (I believe it was some 996 Turbos that got their ECUs bricked from VR's ECU flash). This is why I'm skeptical of their word.

If you search my history as I suggested you'll find another thread where VR was promoting one of their tuner boxes and some of us that actually know about such products started asking questions. It did not go well.

So the short answer is: Read up on tuner boxes vs ECU tunes (flashes) and do your research on VR themselves. Then make your decision based on what you feel comfortable with.

 

Thanks gnat I appreciate your feedback and this is very helpful. I was suspecting they were overstating their figures. I'll look around and into your old posts. As for ECU tunes vs tuner boxes, there haven't been many products for the 958.2 v6tt, even after a little less than two years of launching. All I could find was the VR tuner box, and it looks like they are taking advantage of it and charging the $1,500. I'll look around some more. Thanks.

 

I would also strongly consider GIAC... they have a decent reputation....