Tune Canceled - Thread of innuendo and speculation. Jump in the crap all stinks

CARB is pure bureaucratic evil. Case in point:

I had a gorgeous BMW 2800cs that ran beautifully. Wanted to sell it but had to get it smogged first. Took the test and it failed. (Should have done a pre-terst, but it ran so well I assumed it would pass.) Had to take it to a "Referee Center" after getting it tuned. Passed all tail pipe tests with flying colors but... the guy then asks when I installed the carbs. I told him I think they had been on the car since it was new, almost 30 years ago. They sure looked it. He says, "No, those are Webers. Stock were Zeniths. You have to go back to stock to pass." D@mn. Do a little research and learn that the original Zeniths were utter crap and that most people swapped them out very early on. So I had to find and buy a used pair and have them rebuilt and installed. Car ran like complete ***** and would not hold a tune for more than a day. Was finally able to pass tailpipe test (barely) but only after several attempts.

End result: Emissions were much worse than with the Webers, the car ran terribly, and I had spent about $1000. Sweet. Luckily I sold it for way more than it was worth and still turned a good profit, but only after a month in CARB Hell. :mad5:

 

Lots more Subie tuning products available, MINI not so much.

 

I'm going to quote myself, but lets say you have a laptop and have 2 tunes in it, a stock tune and a race tune, wonder if that's legal?

 

do you mean platforms? Sure, but the best tuners do them all.

That said, 95% of the market is generally handled by one platform and that company offers the ability to self-reflash with off the shelf maps they offer free, dealers can email tunes for self-flash, end users can DIY tune (StreeTuner) or professional tuners can ProTune on the street or dyno (both preferred).

I think it goes deeper than this....unless one can link the relatively recent tuning drama in the MINI community to the locked down ECU's starting in '05ish when DimSport was the only option for awhile.

The main drama between current MINI tuners isn't because the two main rivals use the same software - they don't (Mynes and RMW). Heck, the drama actually started when RMW decided to go it alone after the main DimSport tuner rebuffed him (John Behe at Lucky Dog). Think about it....take Jan out of the picture for the MINI tuning community and you'd have 99.9% less drama. I'm not saying it's a good move for pushing the limits, but, there'd be less drama.

The other je ne sais quoi - those who think for a minute the drama isn't manufactured, much like professional wrestling, well - they aren't paying attention. Jan vs. Hubie = mutual consent. They both know what they're doing with respect to drumming up publicity (not going to comment on their talent as tuners b/c I got burned by one and never worked with the other)

 

Personally, I think this hits the nail on the head--not just for Mynes/RMW, but MANY MINI vendors in general, where ANY publicity is considered good. Many of the people who have posted on this thread are people who are "In the know," while relatively less knowledgeable folks like myself have to make educated guesses on which way is the best to go, and pray we've picked the right vendor.

It's a major PITA by the way. I've been reading the boards here and at NAM religiously for the past couple of years, and I know less now than I did two years ago...

Ok, just venting, I've found vendors that I've bought from that I think are outstanding, and trust implicitly, and a few others that have earned great reps that I look forward to working with.

Just wish this stuff could be easier for the average consumer with limited mechanical knowledge....

 

Really all this crap does to me is just make me not want to get a tune at all. Lame.

Even the Subaru vendors somewhat get along with each other.

- Andrew

 

It all comes down to we need a diy tune solution! By god the limited tuners is killing me inside. They all do a great job but dang! I am lucky and im in CA and have some of the greatest Mini tuners in the area. But it is a PITA just to go get a tune. How come you guys havnt made a tuning shop package that you can sell to other tuners with a dyno? Unless you all enjoy flying around the country? I know a few years of doing that would have me burnt right out. The performance parts market on the Mini Cooper could get a huge flying kickstart and take us all to the next level if we can show the manufactures that us as a community have the ability to tune our cars and use the parts they manufacture or could manufacture.

 

I've had dealings with the BAR. It seems strange to me that they could threaten to shut this thing down. Their role is to assist the consumer against shops that are either operating illegally or have wronged them and then they act as mediators.

They also only regulate auto repair shops. I don't know about tuning shops however. For instance, they don't regulate detailing shops.

My dealings were when a customer who didn't like the service performed filed a complaint against my partners who were registered with the BAR. The BAR came out to interview us to find out our side of the story. As long as we we paid the yearly fee, they don't regulate what we do.

From the BAR's FAQ
OUR Mission:

To protect and serve California consumers by ensuring a fair and competitive automotive repair marketplace and administering a model motor vehicle emissions reduction program.


Mission/Vision/Values Statements


More HERE

The California Legislature enacted the Automotive Repair Act in 1971 in response to consumer and industry concerns about unacceptable levels of fraud or incompetence in the auto repair market. The Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) was created to spearhead regulation of the auto repair industry, and today BAR is considered to be the foremost auto repair regulatory agency in the nation, if not the world. BAR's enforcement team investigates general auto repair complaints and ensures that shops comply with Smog Check statutes. Last year BAR handled approximately 14,800 complaints relating to auto repair and/or Smog Check inspections. BAR staff checks out every complaint and negotiates with the shop on the consumer's behalf to achieve a mutually agreeable resolution. The bulk of complaints are resolved by complaint resolution. In the past year, BAR returned approximately $6.3 million to California consumers in the form of direct refunds, rework, or adjustments.
http://www.bar.ca.gov/80_BARResources/09_Enforcement/BAR_Enforcement.html



Something just seems fishy.


Richard

 

it's because they know the market is big enough to support them and when they help each other, it only improves their market position.

The MINI community is much smaller and you get people throwing a bunch of elbows fighting for scraps. Consider the average MINI 'modder' vs. the average Subaru 'modder'. MINI owners should buy 3M, Oscal and Avery stock vs stock in Alcoa :lol:

 

Answering my own question, if it's related to CARB, the BAR will enforce any illegal activities (and modifying the ECU is one of them) I guess. I forgot that tuning shops are considered automotive repair shops and are regulated by the BAR as well. Oh well.

 

Hey now, don't leave out plasti-dip!:lol:

 

Hmmm

To operate in any state as a business you first need a business license.
To collect a fee for your service in the automotive business some things are taxed. So you need to collect the state tax you operate in or if your business is in another state than the one you reside in you need a tax permit during that business operation? In all cases you need to give receipts and collect the proper tax and account for the work of your business. A simple run of the California Board of Equalization and /or franchise tax board will show that some people do not have a business license nor a tax id to legally be operating a business in some states like California? Therefore it would be the business that is offering there shop to be responsible for such collection of transaction and payment of the appropriate state taxes. And if that were the case that shop would also be responsible for any mishap that may incur with such operation of an outside party doing business within their business.
Without pointing the finger some may find it interesting that some individual(s?) that work on our MINIs all over the place do not hold the appropriate documents of operation? :lol::lol::lol:

Places in CA for information about what I posted.

Franchise tax Board
Franchise Tax Board Homepage

BBB Better Business Bureau
Better Business Bureau serving Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties of Southern California

California State Board of Equalization
Register for a Permit or License - California State Board of Equalization

The simple thing is to ask for the Business permit before you get work done by anyone doing work in someones elses shop. And always get a receipt!

 

Makes sense now. Know I know what the "Cash only" and "Not only is that pretty strange (that Jan wants cash only)...but very interesting." rumblings were about on that other site.

 

look in the end whoever ran like a coward to the local gestapo of california and told them...be it a rival tuner...some california eco wackjob who thinks anything outside of running their car on hemp or flower power is hurting mother earth ....or if it was a rival dyno shop that didnt get the business this shop was about to.....karma is a ***** and it will come back on them...a coward chicken s**t move like this...and you cant call it anything other than that...it will come back to haunt them...

and as for jan being a "cash only" shop...im not sure y...mebbe he has to for this tuning site...he might not have the ability to run a card..i know when he tuned my car he took my card as payment and when i get stuff from him i use paypal...

some people swear by mynes...thats them...i swear by RMW...some people just cant be pleased no matter what you do or who you are...just remember...these are all not OEM parts...if we had to wait for a government body to approve every single mod for a car the tuning scene would still be in its infancy...unless the government gets a cut of the profits they arent happy and will do what they can to get a cut...through defuct principles like CARB or the fines that come when you run an "illegal" mod...just before i left cali for giggles i went to a check station and had them see if my car passed...i wanted to compare it to before i got the rmw header,cam,tune(to get base stickers for dod installations in socal u have to have a smog check....communist kalifornian government)....and ya know what...my car did better than it did before...they couldnt figure out why....all those mods on my car and i still passed better than before...

but the other reason for the cash only is mebbe cali is starting to tighten the noose on tuning companies...with the budget crisis cali is in right now i wouldnt be the least suprised if they start taking stricter measures and heavier fines to make ends meet

 

Sigh.

 

and many tuners are 99% hype and 1% content. some of us who spend money want less BS and more legit solutions without the threat of no help if the issues are made public.

And :lol: at Rally and the plasti-dip :lol: The couple I sold my Recaro's too....I agreed to install them. We needed a T45 to get the stock bolts out (mine had snapped). I road along in said car to Sears....lowered on springs only riding on bumpstops the whole way. I noticed they painted the entire roof in plasti-dip too as they no longer liked the white roof that was on the car ut: It was rather shocking....how nice my car was and how much of a turd that one was. Hard to believe how much owners can screw up a car. The seats were like lipstick on a pig in that car.

 

^:lol: The lowering springs on bumpstops are another MINI community classic.

People seem to overlook the possibility that CARB or part of the modified-car crack team was monitoring the event discussion. Before getting worked up and saying "That's preposterous", remember that the Cali cops are KNOWN for lurking Touge oriented forum for discussion of canyon runs etc and using that intel to set up busts. There's a reason some Cali based forums have hidden forums to discuss their meets,runs,tunes. It's not unheard of, and I certainly wouldn't put it past them.

 

In the end I guess this why I haven't gotten a tune yet. I don't like either option and certainly don't want to contribute financially to the ridiculousness on either side any more than I already have. It's enough to make you want to swap engines to a platform that has tons of tuning options readily available where all you have to do is wait for the mail.

Does anyone foresee it getting any better for this particular engine? I really have my doubts. The newer minis are totally different, there isn't enough demand for actual performance improvements to really have much of a market.. thoughts?

 

That's a possibility I guess (the CARB monitoring forums) but I wouldn't bet on it, considering that the MINI modding/tuning scene is not big to begin with. The sewing board's prominence on search engines could have contributed, but so many other tuning events have occurred prior to this one that makes me believe that's not what happened.

Jan has stepped on so many toes that this reeks of someone with a grudge against him (and there seems to be many). I'm in no way a fanboi, but he did tune my car. I also used a credit card when he tuned my car, and I got an electronic receipt too, btw.

I can think of several persons that project themselves in a way that makes me think could do something like that?

But I'm not going to go there, since I don't know any of them personally and I've realized that judging people by their internet persona is a big mistake. It's just a shame that it has come down to this. Thankfully I have a local and trusted mechanic and tuner that does not enter in this cr@p.