2016 OVTune Tacoma 3.5L Manual Transmission / Engine ECU Reflash

The Flash Manager replacement is right around the corner. Just hold tight. If you search OVT's posts in the main vF thread, he's been talking about and getting ready.

You do not have to jump on the vF train if your are not going to edit.

 

@tonered is right, its not far away at all.

However, i was in the same boat with the upgrade dollars, but i'm really happy i did it. with a little trial....lot of trial, and a littl....lot of error i have gotten my truck to my liking.

and now there is more coming. well worth it IMO

 

Thanks guys. It is just SUPER frustrating to head out and try to reflash a different map just to find out the stuff doesn't work anymore. No emails from @OVTune about changes, no updates, many many days before any kind of response to a question, hell if you don't follow this thread or one of the others page for page you'd have no idea what's going on. If we were talking about some guy doing open source work out of his basement it would be understandable, but when you've dropped seven hundred dollars on a product you expect at least some level of support. It's not like he doesn't have the email address of every single person who's purchased a tuning package from him. And who deactivates the old platform before activating the new one? I feel like I'm being held for ransom for an upgrade, or hostage for an update. Total BS in my book.

 

The System ID change is Windows no OVT.

I know what you are saying, but this has been community driven from the start. The real object of our hate is Toyota and the shitty tune that we were stuck with. It has been six years with only small TSB fixes.

This is not what I would expect from any Japanese brand, let alone Toyota.

 

Nobody is holding you ransom, nobody is requiring you to pay anything.

Unfortunately due to tacoma owners pirating! We had no choice but to make a sudden change in how we are preparing updated tools for flash kit owners.

I don't have a mass email that I can send out, but when the new program releases there will be a guide on how.

Also the email timelines, we are doing the best we can, but we get 100+ emails a day sometimes.


If you really want to find someone to blame blame the guys cheating our software to try to make a quick buck.

 

So this first part confuses me a little. I use a partitioned MacBook and haven't opened Windows since the last time I flashed the truck. No updates, no internet.

That's fair, but if you're going to charge a premium price for a product, it should come with some level of customer service. An email saying "hey, vF is going to be taken off line for a period of time while we work on its updated replacement. We will contact you when the new platform is ready for use." would have been nice. Not all of us can get on here every day, and frequently these threads are many pages further advanced if you don't watch them constantly.

 

So here's the thing: if you're going to charge the kind of money you do, you should be compiling the email addresses of people making purchases. Every online sales platform does this. This is not only useful for proactive product messaging, but is essential from a marketing standpoint. If I buy your product then presumably I would be willing to buy more, but the onus is on the vendor to keep me apprised of what's new and happening. Hell, I would be shocked if Zendesk doesn't have all of this information sitting there for you.

You're running a professional looking operating and commanding a premium price so there's no excuse for not filling in the back end with a communication platform that doesn't require the customer to constantly be vigilant for changes. There are plenty of third party companies that specialize in this kind of thing as well.

 

I am doing the best that I can at the moment. Last time we did mass emails, notifications, etc they were blocked or sent to spam folders.
for example @ATT and @charter emails block almost everything we send.

 

I’m not an expert, but that probably has to do with the domain you’re sending from. Please understand, I’m giving feedback and input here from the standpoint of a frustrated customer but also as the owner of a service company. This is an easily fixable problem but you’re blocking your own growth missing these basic blocking and tackling skills of communication and customer service. One possible solution would be to get your customers to register for your new forum and use that platform to distribute information in a proactive way, but you’ve got to sell that. I hadn’t even heard of it until a week or two ago. Regardless, trust me, that email list of previous customers may be one of the most valuable things your company has, put it to work for you.

edit: if you’d like help in this area send me a PM

 

Looking for some basic advice. Wondering whether it’s worth to get OV tuned. We are full timing in our truck which is roughly 7000 pounds. I am not interested in going faster and do not plan to use 91 octane since most it is not available in much of where we will be traveling. I have regeared 25.29 and am running 31”+ (275/70/17) KO2s. Better mileage would be nice, but not essential.

The truck is currently in a SoCal shop and the owner has wondered about our interest in getting it tuned. What’s the advantage of buying it straight from OV versus having a tuned at a shop. I think there’s a large savings and what’s the difference?

wasnt interested in perusing through 1,000 pages of comments

thanks!

 

100% worth it

there’s a noticeable increase in low end power

There’s pros and cons both ways but IMO with your full time travel, it’s probably worthwhile having a laptop with techstream and the tuning software.

 

I've had some chats with Tony on this exact topic for MT and I'm not sure I fully understand exactly how the tune is "better" or "helps". For AT I think it's extremely intuitive. For MT I believe the idea is more torque at low RPM which I think would be rather nice but can also be offset by just shifting later and keeping rpm's high when the situation dictates it. This isn't a v8 so I don't see how I'll be $700 impressed with low end torque.

I think the question you're really asking is, is it $700 worth it? It would be rad to do a drive test before/after to know for sure. Maybe you could work a deal with the shop to flash you and let you drive it and then decide if you want to keep it and buy in or pay them for the one time flash? If you aren't convinced they flash you back to stock and no harm no foul?

I did a 30 mile drive last night and clocked my MPG's at 21 on the way out and 25 on the way back when trying to maximize fuel economy. I'm stock 04B14.

I'm sort of more interested in having full vf myself so I can tinker than having someone flash me and flash me and flash me and then flash me again. Just not quite ready to start that journey.

In the meantime, 04B14 is a no brainer (and I have Tactrix if you want to self flash for free and you're not already 04B14) just not night and day from what I remember of the truck before flashing it.

 

It’s hard to quantity and explain without actually experiencing it. Think of the power the truck has at 2500-3500. Now have that start at 1000-1500. That’s what the tune is like.

2nd gear is way more useful and doesn’t bog down like it does stock

there’s more but those are pretty big ones. Basically it’s no longer a dead fish under 2000 rpm and smoother all around.

 

Thanks @Shellshock! What I failed to say is I made recently retired forest executive and have a little knowledge of software programming, despite having two sons who are software engineers.

@daveeasa Thanks as well. I was thinking the same thoughts; I don’t have to shift and just boost RPMs to get through a tough spot. Great idea about a test drive, I’ll ask them that. So having someone flash it means I get one shot at the best tune whereas buying the software allows me to continuously adjust?
Having someone flash it is OK by OV standards or are they stealing his software?

 

once you eliminate the throttle limits, and unlock the potential, you would be amazed at the difference. The truck is neutered, poor little pup.

 

Ahh

Most people just flash a tune (in your case you’d probably want regular SFOB) and dont worry about it unless theres a big update in the future thats worthwhile. I used to flash new stuff every couple months but I’ve been on the same tune since last summer now aside from a couple i was trying / testing lately.

If you own the software, you can edit and adjust yourself. Or flash anytime. It’s nice but also takes some time and effort.

Having someone flash your truck is totally fine and allowed.

 

We recommend to folks to at least get a VF kit. Then they could select from tune options that others have made if they wanted to, but having the kit and ability to flash your truck back to stock, update, datalog, etc is a big advantage.

Another thing is if you do plan to go with a user created tune and in person offering, which is totally fine, it's always good to make sure that your truck is being licensed on the newest software, otherwise in the future when something new releases you would have to pay to get it licensed or the person providing the service would have to.

If you fine someone local who does credit trucks they flash, and provides update services (if an update releases) that is also a great option.

 

Bingo! That’s good to know. If I had someone flash the truck and then later needed to take it to a dealer for some reason and wanted to return it to stock. Can I reload it without having to pay someone again?

 

Most people dont bother returning to stock to goto the dealer

It is worth mentioning that if you had a ECU TSB applied in the future, it would overwrite the tune

Paying to go back to stock would depend on who did it i guess.

 

Dealership also won't be able to detect the tune.