Gintani glued my ECU shut

[M3GTC]

Well I wanted to switch tunes from the Gintani Burble tune to BPMs Tune. The Gintani tune was just too rough and made the car almost undriveable. I brought my car over to Mike left it with him to take out the ECU and tune my car. When they removed the ECU we came across a major problem. There was a layer of glue over the ECU that was put on by Gintani when i had them remove my ecu to put their tune on my car. The glue essentially made the tune permanent with no chance of tuning over OBD with other tunes. Attached is a picture of the glue of the ECU and one without for comparison.

To solve this issue we spent hours carefully removing the glue without damaging the board to be able to reprogram again and the other alternative was to just order a new ecu.

All in all be aware that the when going with Gintani's tune it may be permanent and your stuck with it.

Just wanted to share incase anyone was thinking about their tune.

[BMW9]

Originally Posted by M3GTC

Well I wanted to switch tunes from the Gintani Burble tune to BPMs Tune. The Gintani tune was just too rough and made the car almost undriveable. I brought my car over to Mike left it with him to take out the ECU and tune my car. When they removed the ECU we came across a major problem. There was a layer of glue over the ECU that was put on by Gintani when i had them remove my ecu to put their tune on my car. The glue essentially made the tune permanent with no chance of tuning over OBD with other tunes. Attached is a picture of the glue of the ECU and one without for comparison.

To solve this issue we spent hours carefully removing the glue without damaging the board to be able to reprogram again and the other alternative was to just order a new ecu.

All in all be aware that the when going with Gintani's tune it may be permanent and your stuck with it.

Just wanted to share incase anyone was thinking about their tune.

Interesting. They say their tune is easily reversible after you get to the ECU. I can see the excess glue.
Can you please elaborate why or how was the car was un drivable?

[erdisaral]

so they do this to every single car!?

[stranger]

wow, thats shocking

[Irishace]

That is downright scary. Wow.

[hwalk]

Originally Posted by stranger

wow, thats shocking

Indeed...what does Gintani say to that crap?...Maybe another good reason for a piggy back solution if they treat your ECU like this...

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

Wow. This isn't needed or necessary at all. I'm actually quite shocked a tuner would do something stupid like this.

[EALm4]

Charles@Gintani.com Raz@Gintani AlexM@Gintani nj@gintani.com

[te37]

Absolutely no right to do this to YOUR ECU! I could see if they were trying to protect the contacts from corrosion or something but they just plain didn't want anyone to tune over them.

[alz0rz]

They probably did not want someone pulling their raw tune file. Looks like a conformal coat so no damage to the board by applying it, although removing it brings other risks, but it's still such a sketchy move.

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

Originally Posted by alz0rz

They probably did not want someone pulling their raw tune file. Looks like a conformal coat so no damage to the board by applying it, although removing it brings other risks, but it's still such a sketchy move.

Obviously this was their intent. But it isn't their DME, it belongs to the customer.

It isn't necessary as this isn't going to keep anybody from retrieving their "tune" and all it does is possibly damage a DME that doesn't belong to them.

[hotrod2448]

What's with all the white shit on those fets? Thermal transfer paste? Is that factory applied?

[te37]

You've got some explaining to do:

[M3GTC]

Originally Posted by BMW9

Interesting. They say their tune is easily reversible after you get to the ECU. I can see the excess glue.
Can you please elaborate why or how was the car was un drivable?

I just didn't like their throttle mapping. it was just too much even in efficient mode. A lot of jerkiness so it was either all or nothing on the throttle.

[M3GTC]

Originally Posted by Mpower6161

so they do this to every single car!?

i would assume so

[M3GTC]

Off their instagram. You can see the glue covering that ECU as well

[BMW M4 PWR]

LOL wow... yet another reason I passed on a flash, and shipping my ECU across the country for a static tune. As I see it the new Protuning BM3 (if it truly lives up to its hype) is the only device WORTH doing that with your DME for...

[EALm4]

lol this ought to be good when they finally respond

[VF-Engineering]

Originally Posted by BMW M4 PWR

LOL wow... yet another reason I passed on a flash, and shipping my ECU across the country for a static tune. As I see it the new Protuning BM3 (if it truly lives up to its hype) is the only device WORTH doing that with your DME for...

Please don't let this reflect poorly on ALL Flash Tuning, as this isn't common practice at all.

[eunosracr]

Gintani just shit the bed. There goes their ECU sales.

[jwzimm]

Honestly, you can see this from both sides of the coin.

Tuner side: They spent a large amount of time developing a tune which was not free. Since they don't (can't?) encrypt the tune it is open to any other tuner to download and steal/resell as their own.

Owners/buyers side: It is their DME and they should be free to do with it as they so choose. Adding this epoxy to the DME board prevents the owner from removing the tune and installing a different tune.

Perhaps a better solution than this would be to have the buyer sign a contract that would hold them liable if the tune is stolen or resold. Then at least the tuner would have some legal recourse to pursue should their tune be downloaded and released.

[SYT_Shadow]

I'm sorry, none of this is surprising. That people give money to Gintani after all the reports on this forum is what surprises me.