[Kamrulz4ever]

Hello everyone,

What do you all recommend? Open source or AP protune? Open source is less costly, but it's hard to find a reputable open source tuner. As for AP, it's very costly. $695 for AP plus another ~$350-400 for protuning.

So, which one do you prefer based on your experience considering the drivability. Not so crazy about getting the max power out.

Thanks.

[flatthump]

If you have a time frame from your tuner, you definitely want to go AP or something that can be tuned in real time. Tuning Opensource is annoying as hell especially if you have a limited time frame. You have to flash the ECU after every change to the map. Professional tuners will do a better job tuning in real time if they have a limited time frame.

[Bishop]

i voted for protune, but it depends on what your planning for mods? what mods / planned mods do you have / want.... it can help people vote better

[KiR DieseL]

I think it depends on how far you wanna go with the car...

I got a road tune open source over a year ago from a Proffesional Tuner and i havent had any problems since. Saved myself a TON of money.

Im faster than AP Stage 2 guys. You could always drive down to NYC and get tune done and drive back up save yourself some $$$$.

[Kamrulz4ever]

No mods for now. Maybe at most a catback... maybe. Sometime in the future, a catted DP along with CBE. I just want reliability and drivability. I learned from the forum because of the stock throttle mapping the 07 owners feel bucking at low speed. I want to get rid of that. All this time I've been thinking I can't drive. The STI is my first stick.

Does anyone know if the EU throttle mapping can be incorporated with AP?

Originally Posted by KiR DieseL

You could always drive down to NYC and get tune done and drive back up save yourself some $$$$.

Hey man, I'm from Queens too. Well, I'm not there much often. Where did you get tuned?

[ucsti]

Id say if your gonna get it protuned you might as well do it with at least a downpipe. You could find one used for ~250 or less and it would save you money from having to go back and get it retuned. Then you could always add a cat-back later without having to re-tune it.

[ninjaboy76]

Both have advantages and disavantages:

Cobb AP
Positives: Easy to use, no tuning required. Download maps from Cobbs website and upload to car. Protuners can tune using realtime software. This makes tuning faster.
Negatives: Expensive compared to opensource tuning. Protuning isn't cheap with Cobb. If you do get a protune, you are held hostage by the tuning software and tuner if anything goes wrong with your tune. In other words you don't have access to your cars ecu.

Opensource
Positives: Cheap! Gives the owner of the car access to the ecu for tweaking (not held hostage by "protuner").
Negatives: Not a lot of tuners willing to use opensource tuning. Need a good base tune to get you going. Requires a lot of time and commitment from the owner of the car if they want to learn.

In your case with the 07, I would just stick with a Cobb AP. I say this because the 07 STI ecu is very complex and only a very select few of opensource guys have successfully tuned an 07 with opensource. If your car was an 04-06 then I would say go with opensource if you have any desire to tune or at least tweak on your car.

Also since you only plan on only going with a TBE, I don't think I would waste my time with a protune. If you are after reliability, then just stick with the Cobb OTS maps, just my opinion.

[rjacobs]

Originally Posted by ninjaboy76

In your case with the 07, I would just stick with a Cobb AP. I say this because the 07 STI ecu is very complex and only a very select few of opensource guys have successfully tuned an 07 with opensource. If your car was an 04-06 then I would say go with opensource if you have any desire to tune or at least tweak on your car.

HAHAHA
The open source guys had access to all of the tables in the ECU where as the AP didnt allow access to all of the tables(at first). Ya know what happened to alot of the AP tuned cars, BOOM. Now that some of the better cobb pro-tuners(who also tune open source) got on cobbs ass's about those tables, what do ya know, access to those tables suddenly showed up in Cobbs software. With the 07's there doesnt seem to be a better, safer tuning option, they are all risky. The ONLY people who know exactly how the ECU works are the Denso guys. Everybody else is just making their best educated guess.

[ninjaboy76]

Interesting. I haven't read of any 07's being blown up by just run Cobb OTS maps. I have heard that Gabedude on nasioc figured out a major issue with the 07 ecu by using opensource, and has worked with a few tuners on the issue.

[CenCali07STI]

Originally Posted by ninjaboy76

Interesting. I haven't read of any 07's being blown up by just run Cobb OTS maps. I have heard that Gabedude on nasioc figured out a major issue with the 07 ecu by using opensource, and has worked with a few tuners on the issue.

Haven't heard that one myself either. The two things that I have found out from my last tune was that (maybe some people did or did not know this) the 07's rumored higher reading map sensor is a big negative. Mine stopped at 22.4psi when tuning on race gas. Also while getting tuned on race gas we ran into the problem of the 07 using four different timing tables how ever only one of them was tunable real time and it would switch between these tables as it felt it needed to. After that issue arrose I ordered up a 3 bar map sensor and my tuner emailed cobb one evening about the timing table issue and that next day they sent out the fix and its just one timing table now.


I may have went a little off topic there but just wanted to point out a couple of things I recently learned on my 07 while getting tuned with an AP.

Brandon

[WRX4ME LE 482]

I didnt vote. I think it all depends on you, and your goals. Some ppl have time and the desire to learn it, and some simply dont. I personally have a bunch of time, and not enough money. Ive had my car for more than a year now, and havent been able to buy the first performance mod yet. All I can do is learn to tune, and it's payed. I love the tune Ive worked up so far. Safer, and faster than stock.

Some ppl, on the other hand, have money and/or dont have the time, so they pay others to take care of this part. Nothing wrong with it, it's just the way things are.

Im not a part of the OTS world, but I think, from what Ive heard, most OTS solutions are adequate. Unless, of course, you have a bunch of mods.

[flatthump]

Originally Posted by ninjaboy76

Interesting. I haven't read of any 07's being blown up by just run Cobb OTS maps. I have heard that Gabedude on nasioc figured out a major issue with the 07 ecu by using opensource, and has worked with a few tuners on the issue.

Originally Posted by CenCali07STI

Haven't heard that one myself either. The two things that I have found out from my last tune was that (maybe some people did or did not know this) the 07's rumored higher reading map sensor is a big negative. Mine stopped at 22.4psi when tuning on race gas. Also while getting tuned on race gas we ran into the problem of the 07 using four different timing tables how ever only one of them was tunable real time and it would switch between these tables as it felt it needed to. After that issue arrose I ordered up a 3 bar map sensor and my tuner emailed cobb one evening about the timing table issue and that next day they sent out the fix and its just one timing table now.


I may have went a little off topic there but just wanted to point out a couple of things I recently learned on my 07 while getting tuned with an AP.

Brandon

It was an issue where PROtuner couldn't access one of the DA tables.

[jays05]

Tuning open source is a pain in the ass. Especially if you're trying to tweak one parameter and you keep having to flash over and over again to get it right. A 4hr protune would be a lot more refined than a 4hr open source tune just because you could get so many more runs + tuning changes in with the protune.

[flatthump]

Originally Posted by jays05

Tuning open source is a pain in the ass. Especially if you're trying to tweak one parameter and you keep having to flash over and over again to get it right. A 4hr protune would be a lot more refined than a 4hr open source tune just because you could get so many more runs + tuning changes in with the protune.

exactly.

[Kamrulz4ever]

Originally Posted by WRX4ME LE 482

I didnt vote. I think it all depends on you, and your goals. Some ppl have time and the desire to learn it, and some simply dont. I personally have a bunch of time, and not enough money. Ive had my car for more than a year now, and havent been able to buy the first performance mod yet. All I can do is learn to tune, and it's payed. I love the tune Ive worked up so far. Safer, and faster than stock.

Some ppl, on the other hand, have money and/or dont have the time, so they pay others to take care of this part. Nothing wrong with it, it's just the way things are.

Im not a part of the OTS world, but I think, from what Ive heard, most OTS solutions are adequate. Unless, of course, you have a bunch of mods.

My problem is I neither have time nor money. As for mod, like I said before, maybe a CBE at most (probably not). Sometime in the future (at least a year away) a CBE and catted DP.