I recently got my2000 camaro 3.8L engine computer tuned. I got it back and the car runs like crap. In park when I press the pedal to the floor the car gets to 2500rpms and stops. It cuts of now when I try to drive it. The car really doesnt move, I can move it slowly in and out the garage. I know they ajusted the fuel and spark tables. Could the way they adjusted the fuel and spark table cause the car to run like this?

 

automatic or manual?

 

Who tuned it?

 

Its an auto, the service engine light is off. CDP tuning in springfiel, mo. I found them off ebay. There service is great he said he see what program he tuned on the computer and see what could have went wrong.

 

Sounds like that's what you need to do, they messed it up, let them fix it.

 

a place i called once told me they could tune the computer to different spec. one of them was he said it can be tuned to run on 87 octane, that sounded like a real fart to me,never hearing of it. what its sound like to you guys?

 

^^^ The 5th Gens can run on all 3 grades or so I was told so by a guy I work with who has one. So it may be possible to program it for 87 octane but I don't see how an older PCM would be able to make adjustments on the fly for different grades. You have to let the 5 Gens know what your filling up with in it's computer system.

You need to scan it to rule out any coded problems and clean the MAF with that special MAF cleaner.

 

What? A stock 3.8 runs fine on 87. Infact any factory car runs on 87. There is a sensor called a knock sensor the picks up "knocking" cause by low octane fuel. This is nothing new. It was around all the way back on the CCC carburetor cars. The reason they say you need higher octane is to reach the mileage they are tested at. LS1 with 92 octane does not get any spark timing reduction so it’s running fully efficient. It can hit 27 MPG. If you put in 87 octane the motor must retard the timing and now the motor get 24 MPG. Since they advertise 27 MPG (just an example) and they are tested with 92 octane the manual say you must use 92 octane. If they said you can use 87 octane they would have to report the car got 24 MPG. When they tune a car for 92 octane they will program as much timing as they can with out getting a signal from a knock sensor. And they would do the same thing with 87 octane. Of course a car runs best when its programmed for the fuel it is using and it get no spark knock timing reduction but I would be surprised if there was 5% different in fuel mileage in the same car if you have two computers. One tuned for 87 and one tuned for 92. One of the first things a tuner will do is reduce the sensitivity of the knock sensor because they pick spark knock long before there is a risk of damage to the motor. If you are really worried about your motor ask them not to desensitize the knock sensor.

As for what happened to your car it could be anything. I assume it ran ok when you drove it home. Maybe a connector is not in all the way. Or you just have bad luck and your MAF sensor fail the day after a tune. I would think the guy that tuned would want to take a look at it. Rep is everything in the tuning world.

 

I talked to the tuner and he said that since I had the vats system removed from the ecm thats whats the problem. He talked to other tuners and this is a common problem with v6's when the vasts system is removed. He tuned my 1996 impala and that runs fine so it could be a v6 problem.