Tacoma - OVTUNE - VFTUNER - Update Info and Original Development

I wanted to take some time to type out my experience thus far with OVTune.

My truck:
Auto 4x4 TRDOR
CPK Recall at 27k miles, 33k miles total, about 500-600 miles on 1.02B
33" Tires, ~300lbs on/over the bed

Reasons for Purchase:
Improved throttle response
Improved shifting, mainly thru the ability to hold gears longer (especially 5th)
Improved low end torque under 2500rpms
Reduced vibrations at all rpms

My Review:
I want to start off by saying kudos to Matt for all the work he has put into this product. There's no doubt that he is an extremely driven auto-enthusiast who has taken the brunt of TacomaWorld on the chin. In return, he has made some serious $$$ thru this forum, and ultimately I think we are all benefiting from his hard work. Having said that, my review of 1.02B is not exactly glowing, but rather indifferent. The number one reason why I got involved on TacomaWorld wasn't for looking at other peoples' modified trucks, but rather because my own truck was not behaving how I expected. AKA it was unpredictable. I won't go up on a soapbox, but unpredictable things are about the most worrisome things you can surround yourself with, right? Unpredictable people, dogs, cars....you get it. I'm sorry to say that running 1.02B, my truck is still driving unpredictably.

Matt was very quick to get back to me with my file before his "weekend off", which was awesome. Running 1.02B for the first 100-150 miles on the truck was an interesting experience. At first, I almost questioned whether or not I even uploaded the tune. Keep in mind, I was one of the people who went from stock to 1.02, haven't tried the 1.01 derivatives. The truck felt relatively stock, especially in terms of power lower than 3000rpm, shifting, and vibrations. I could feel a throttle improvement, in addition to a much more intense ETC driving experience as others have mentioned. Closer to 100 miles, I felt things smooth out a bit, but decided to leave my battery disconnected overnight. Call it whatever you want, but this almost always helps in my experience when things feel "weird".

Kaboom! Immediate result. Within 30-45 miles or so the next day, I had a smile from ear to ear on my face. I took Tuesday off because I felt like sh*t (also found some cool audio stuff on CL) and drove about 120 miles that day, most highway, 65-75mph. Man, the truck felt really good for those few days. Shifting was BUTTER, throttle was exactly how you would expect a responsive stock truck to feel, and the power/ability to hold or accelerate going uphill without downshifting was significantly improved. This 200ish mile phase of the truck was extremely awesome, and is all the proof I need to know that future tunes hold a ton of promise. The truck most definitely felt "lighter", and wanted to just go forward. I recall laughing after reading @bshammer0 comment about "riding bumpers" because I had felt the exact same way. Overall, MPG was the same though I was driving an average of 5mph faster everywhere. Prior to 33's I could granny my truck at 60-65 mph on my commutes averaging 23-24 mpg on good days. Now, with 33's I can get 20-21 going the same speeds. With OVtune, however, I didn't need to granny anything to get the same result. Over the last 150-200 miles, however, the truck as slowly worked its way back to "fighting itself" in most ways. Fuel economy seems to have gotten rather inconsistent, ranging from 16-20 highway, and throttle response seems a little lacking. The truck would rather downshift to 4th when asked for any sauce at highway speeds than maintain 5th. Even going downhill, I found that putting the truck in S-5 will help take it out of 4th gear when its left in D. I find now that when I hop in the truck, I think to myself "ah man how's it gonna drive this time", which I absolutely was happy to be rid of with the original good results from 1.02B. I've emailed Matt a few days ago requesting 1.01B, but haven't heard anything back. You can kind of see why I'm indifferent at this point. I've had mixed results, ultimately to have the truck return to driving marginally better than stock. I can't say, based on how the truck runs right now, that the tune has been worth the $. I am fairly certain that opinion will change with time.

I'd also like to make a fairly unpopular call out to Matt directly. @OVTune hire some help!!! I completely understand that you run the show, but its been a couple times that I (a paid customer) has emailed you with a fairly serious concern and not gotten a response back at all. I don't think I should have to beg for an email response, and with you looking to expand to the rest of the Toyota Tacoma platform (2.7, 4.0) things are only going to get much busier. At this point, much of what I've read from others & my own experience points to 1.02 being an unfinished product, which MANY people purchased based on your deliverables. Before you move on to a ton of other platforms and rake in $$$, please finish 1.02. The fact that you stripped several "1.02 Deliverables" from your first post in the weeks prior to 1.02 launch, have never had a stock AT on the dyno, and have never had an MT on the dyno are all things that concern me.

tl;dr: Mixed feelings about 1.02; after 500ish miles the truck is driving rather unremarkably. There was a a good 200 or so miles of excellent driving at first. I have a ton of respect for Matt's past & future work, but am concerned feeling like he needs to "finish" his product prior to acquiring a ton of new customers on an entirely separate platform (2nd Gen). Looking forward to trying 1.01B.

 

Agree. OVtune needs to deliver on promised features before moving on to other projects. I'll continue to be patient but at this point I don't feel I've received everything I paid for to include improved shift map that's permanent, datalogging, and custom tunes for minor modifications. I think you hit the nail on the head for Matt to get help. How else is OVtune going to keep up with data logs and required custum tunes for individual customers and fix the bugs in the current tune? Main reasons I purchase this was to optimize fuel, ignition, vvt for my setup/environment, and improved shifting. This off the shelf tune is an improvement over stock but can't recommend it at this point.

 

Thanks for your review!!

 

First real longer distance drive, 47mph in 6th trying to very slowly get to 50, talking barely any throttle but a positive throttle nonetheless and it stuttered big time, must have been 10-15 jerks in motion in 3-4 seconds. More throttle resolved this. RPM was roughly 1500

 

Thank you for the review guys and I have already sourced someone to take over all of my mazda development and tunes, which cuts my work in half. I'm not moving to any other platform until the 3rd gen 3.5 is all well and done. I am just feeling the waters for information I am just trying to be as fair to everyone as possible. People think I'm ignoring the 4.0 guys, since I have dedicated so much to the 3.5, all I am trying to do is make everyone possible happy. I do not plan to move forward with any new projects (except the IS200T which we have been working on for nearly a year) until we have everything complete for the 3.5, as this was a big focus for us and still is. The 2.7 and 4.0 are not taking any priority, I'm just trying to be fair to everyone. I'm getting requests daily and don't want to make it look like I am ignoring anyone.


When I removed stuff from the initial post it was not to delete anything that would be or could be in the tune, it was just to clean up and give the 1.02 information out. The datalogger is already ready in bare-bone format (captures all the required stuff) but I am adding all auxiliary stuff, misfire readings, initial start up, etc.
I am still working on things right now, haven't disappeared or moved on. I am checking logs and information from people who are sending me information about their truck. I'm not sure what I may have missed by email but I try to get to any concern as quickly as possible.


As far as the transmission permanent shifting, I am working on this. It is a little confusing for me that people are reporting the 1.02 feels less refined than the 1.01B as 1.02 is everything from 1.01B with additional enhancements to VVT. As far as permanently putting all shift controls on 1 map it has been deemed impossible. I said I can condense the maps, but eliminating it completely I would look into (which has shown to be not possible).


as far as promised features on 1.02 the main post and point was calibrating VVT, ignition changes for idle, and adjustments to transmission maps.

I have had a ton of other stuff thrown at me that I said I would look into, but I don't think I ever promised them.
like all shift maps into a single map / disabling learning
disable downshift on S mode
enable the rear lock?
ECT mode on all the time.

There has been a ton of requests, and I think some of them may be confused with what was to be delivered with 1.02. Some of that may be my fault as I said I would look into possibly adding what is possible.


for trucks that are having any issues stuttering, I have again found the cause. however I cannot figure out why it only happens on one truck but not another. The cause is related to ignition timing control maps, which I have mentioned a few times.
What I cannot figure out is why some trucks have such stuttering from it and some do not. There is nothing inherently different.

 

You mention a concern about not having a stock AT on the dyno, while I can I stand the concern the reality is the truck he had on the dyno had the genuine TRD exhaust which is standard on the Pro. It also had the TRD CAI. Both of these were developed for the stock tune and in reality provide zero performance improvements and are essentially stock parts.

That said, what is most concerning is when @OVTune stated that he really hasn't DRIVEN the tacoma. IMO it is essential for any tuner to drive the stock truck/car they are attempting to tune in a real world environment to truly understand how the vehicle behaves and where improvements are needed. Dynos are a good start and base line to build off of, but to be complete a real world road tuning is required and this can only come from real world seat time in the Tacoma over an extended period of time.

@OVTune I'd highly recommend renting a Tacoma for 2-4 weeks to get a true feel for the vehicle and allow you a real opportunity to get it right

 

I understand this concern and am looking into what I can do. When I mentioned that I was working on a tune for this platform I had no idea with how big it was. I was expecting we would do a few trucks, and figured I'd make a thread here as we were planning on the 2018 camry which has the same engine. If I had known we would get hit with 150+ trucks in less than 2 months I would have bought one of these trucks months ago. I simply did not know, I will do everything in my power to get these truck running the way people want and expect.


When selecting our initiak test truck we went with the one with every OEM option so we can get a grasp of everything a truck could come with. For example the crawl control throttle maps. Some trucks don't have it but every truck has the code. I need to understand how it all works and take away as needed.

 

^ YOU DA REAL MVP OV.

 

Give it time guys. Anyone remember the 1st version of iOS or Android? Matt will do what he can to improve the tune. Give it time.

 

Seriously, thank you. Most of us are just happy to have your tuning abilities as an option for this truck, its just going to be a matter of time until all of the kinks are worked out.

I guess in terms of "finishing" the tune, I didn't mean to imply that the additional features (such as S-mode improvement) were absent, but rather the base tune after settling/learning feels unrefined. The good news is, we have options. 1.01B, or just a short term memory reflash should both prove to be interesting experiments. Looking forward to getting more data!

 

OVTune stop ignoring us 2nd genners you bastard.

 

You guys have it good on the stock tune

 

I'm going to work this weekend on more table parsing and disassembly of the transmission shifting.

good night everyone

 

@OVTune, I think it maybe time to put a completely stock 3rd Gen Taco on the dyno and see what happens. I wouldn't be surprised if you came away with some differences. I'm confident you would get some free volunteers.
Also when you did the 1.02 tune you had a serious heat issue that day and heatsoke was defiantly present. Maybe run another dyno session now the the outside temps are tapering off?
I respect your ability to take criticism and your ability to conduct yourself in a professional manner despite your workload.

 

d

This is definitely part of the plan. I need a 100% stock AT and 100% MT. Also need it to start cooling down. Plan right now is to get as many trucks as possible on the dyno and street through winter. Winter is when things *normally* slow down enough for us to focus nearly full time on development.

 

Tough crowd...

I have a bone stock (tires included) MT TRD off road. I'll be back in the States in about a months time and will be making a trip to so cal. I could possibly drop the truck off a few days as I'll be in Disneyland and could just rent or Uber everywhere.

I'll let you know as time gets closer and if you still need a truck.

 

Tough crowd indeed.

<rant>

I've been following this since day one like a lot of you guys, but rarely if at all have posted. He has taken on a task that nobody else has done yet, while working on other projects, responding to you guys all day long with multiple questions that have already been answered, constantly requesting new features to be added to an alpha tune that is still being worked on. These things take time and it's only been a few months or so. Be patient with it. He has a lot on his plate and while I understand $700 is no pocket change for most, it's still under $1k and I think that's a bargain. Nobody is making you buy it right now and he has been completely honest about what this tune was originally designed for. Maybe someone in the area that may have access to a second car or just won't need yours for a week or so, leave it with Matt and see what he can do. I mean he only has a couple days total probably worth of time with these trucks and has already accomplished so much with these crazy ass trucks. Some people really should learn to be a little more patient. He'll get the dataloging completed and can see what's going on. Now he's saying that he will be working all weekend as well after working all week. He should be out enjoying himself on the weekend with a drink or something like so many of you guys instead of dealing with some of the pushiness. If I stepped on someone's toes then my mistake but lets be serious here. The guy is doing "God's work" if you will on a new platform that hasn't had any sort of tuning as of yet. It's going to take time to get all the bugs out. Honest reviews about legit bugs are great feedback, but when some people are just pretty much demanding these features be added or else or no it doesn't live up to the expectations that I set myself, that were never originally included, or he should drop everything and only focus on this one task, maybe take a step back and just let the man work.

</rant>

TL/DR Awesome work so far, some people should get over themselves, I'm probably going to have a shit show coming my way, Matt take the weekend off and relax for a change. @OVTune

 

Promised features I'm reffering to are or were implied in the product description on your website when I ordered the tune; data logging, custum tunes, and transmission improvement. I think data logging is the solution to most complaints because you'll be able to tweak everyone's tune for thier mods, driving style, climate, elevation, etc. So it's good to hear you're getting help because this will keep you very busy, and that the 3rd Gen tune support is your priority.

 

You have the tune?

 

Thanks Devin, the M/T community be like